There isn’t any single clean public restroom in my arrondissement… What a shame… Plus it’s wrong, i know some places…

Boy oh boy, I’m share your sentiments about public toilets. I wait until I’m bursting and then I have to really think about entering the restroom. I remember our last trip abroad, my husband and I pulled into this rest area. I was shocked to see a hole in the ground with a seat covering it. I couldn’t imagine straddling it.

I don’t like public toilets…blah!

I have to admit that public toilets in France are rare and disgusting. It’s such a pleasure here in Washington to be able to find bathrooms everywhere : I mean even in shops or supermarkets, and they’re all clean. I don’t understand why we’re not able to do the same in France…

Public bathrooms are not particularly clean in California either. Guess it depends on the public? The only place I ever found clean public bathrooms was in Switzerland. I mean, there everything is (was?) squeaky clean, you could practically eat off the floor in there. (Don’t try)

i think this website has potential if only more people would contribute and keep it updated. some toilets’ standards might have changed since their original rating.

of course, like you, i try to avoid them as much as possible.

The only clean public toilets in France are those where you have to pay and there is an attendant who constantly cleans them. I was once extremely surprised by the cleanliness of the toilet located behind Notre-Dame in Paris.

I hate public toilets and, like you, I try to avoid them at all cost. Only once, while in Turkey, did I come across one of those “Turkish toilets” – the legendary hole in the ground. It was a nightmare.

I am trying to make a good loo guide for France. Can you help?
Having lived in France for nearly five years and having driven a great deal through France and into Holland, italy and on to the UK it is more than apparent that the cleanliness of service station toilets is appalling here. So much so that this is in direct contrast to the rest of modern Europe. I know that public toilets in general here are just so bad as to leave well alone – something akin to the 50′s/ 60′s in the UK and Holland.

But it is so bad in service stations – with a few distinct exceptions – that I have given up relying on them and have long since stopped taking meals there, and am planning to purchase a chemical toilet to carry in the car for emergencies! My recent journey back from Holland through France to Brittany has finally drawn a line under my trying to use any of the service stations – particularly on the N12 where there are plenty of “Total” franchises – my last try there a few days’ ago has finally made me decide to give up trying. Which means that there is about five to six hours to drive through France to here where I have to make sure that requiring a toilet is not going to happen!

There must be some way, however, of finding out out those good service stations that can be relied upon and would AngloInfo give us a page for this so that we can elect those service stations in France that are clean and worthy to be used? I know that this is probably a highly sensitive area in relation to the French and public hygiene standards but it is a given. In the Uk we speak of dirty streets, dirty hospitals and we are very open about these shortcomings and here in France things are nice and clean on the streets – but would delving into this area of public life here be just too unacceptable to speak of? It is a fact of life here that public toilets are appalling even in restaurants – the standards are well below modern European norms and this is something that presents problems and has always embarrassed me when having visitors here from England and Holland and elsewhere.

Or will this subject be too sensitive to be allowed to run on Anglo Info? I am not looking to cause offence, I am trying to find practical ways around the problem and it would be nice to have a section on Anglo Info where we could rate the toilets in service stations throughout France and on Restaurants toilet facilities – it would be a very helpful source to consult.