French Aire toilets

Large part of the world actually use these daily as there is nothing else and that is all they have grown up with - they actually can't use a western toilet without standing on it with their feet. Squatting is actually the best position to be doing what you need to do for your body. Helps to prevent a lot of constipation. My problem is always that when I'm in position to do No 1 I'm in wrong position for No 2's. Not sure I'd be able to use one these days or get up once if I managed to get down to do what I need to do.

Went to India a few years ago and the toilets in the hotels were fine. We did a trip on a narrow gauge railway up into the mountains and I used the train loo. Not only was it the hole in the floor type but you could see the railway track rushing by underneath which was just a bit disconcerting.

Found these in sardinia. Awful..

Loo paper had to go in the appropriately placed waste paper basket on one of the Greek islands we stayed on. Could have done with some Vick under my nostrils.

We stopped to visit BIL on the way home. No children immaculate house. Half way home I couldn’t remember if I had flushed or binned!

When my girls were younger we were traveling across France , we stop for a wee stop and I told the girls to go ahead and have a wee . They came back and said there's no toilet only showers . So I went back with them to be met by the hole in the floor . After explaining to them what it was , they refused to use it . So it was legs crossed until the next stop .

Tenerife had an official notice up saying that Brits will be welcome whatever the outcome so head there if you are worried.

Just come back from holiday booked by OH vast majority were Spanish with the usual mix of other nationalities. No one seemed remotely bothered by us apart from the man on the grill who insisted on serving the Spanish first ahead of everyone else.

Just smile and most people smile back.

all this reminds me of travels in the past - think it was in South America (but might have been China or both) when you were not supposed to put the (used) loo paper down the loo - plumbing couldn't take it. You had to put it in a bucket next to the loo - for some reason I always managed with the first bit but the second bit of loo paper always ended up down the loo....I wonder how many loos I blocked whilst I was travelling?!

These are/were the norm in the Middle East. When we had one in our house my daughter used to take her knickers off outside and very rarely put them back on! Luckily we moved when she was about 4. I vividly remember using one on a moving train! As you sway against the movement of the train the results are not pleasant.
The bucket/ hose is for washing your nether regions after performing. A nice idea in theory but I never mastered it in reality.

Oh I remember in Asia ,most of the public toilets are the same, disgusting really, supposed to be very hygienic with a little shower to use instead of åaper and flushing. My Husband wondered what had happened to em when I came out with water all over my back, and feet soaking.After that episode we always tried to use toilets in stores,much more my style

Silverlining the buckets and hoses are for people who prefer to wash rather than use loo paper. Thats the way they tend to do it over there.

yep- stop at service stations and not aires.

Davidhs

what do you mean by a crone? Do mean someone else's gran?

Several airports have toilets like that - also include a hand held shower attachment.
I noticed that many Arabic women go into the cubicles in twos - so maybe one hold the clothing out of the way ?

This thread has had me in hysterics for the wonderful and detailed descriptions of technique. I have used those loos in Italy in the last century but for the most part have avoided them in favour of a quick trip behind a tree. More hygienic and not smelly. And yes, *maw’, “they” probably won’t welcome us to their holes-in-the-ground any more.

Haven't had the pleasure! We only ever stop at the big aires, with food as well as proper facilities.

I'm reminded of my very first trip abroad, French exchange trip at 14, when we were all petrified of ending up in a house with 'bucket and chuck it' loos, or 'Turkish toilets'.

Thank goodness no such thing with my family - but no lock on the bathroom door! And Monsieur once barging in on me in his saggy Y fronts. Luckily I was not in deshabille.....

When I was 15, I was one of a group of Scottish teenagers visiting France for the first time (it was 1956). We were housed in a boys' Lycée where the only lavatories were holes in the floor. Although we were somewhat non-plussed, in no time, necessity forced us to get used to it. And we did. Were we tougher than our gently raised grandchildren?

Waves at Maw Broon - yep, this could be a pro brexit thread couldn't it. Of course, our own British toilets are always immaculate, clean and available (not)

I recall the loos in a cafe in Mantua, Lombardy, which had one cubicle with a ‘toilet’ and one cubicle with a ‘hole’.
There was a queue for the ‘toilet’ (with other English women alongside me) and no queue for the ‘hole’.

A woman I judged to be Italian, came into the cloakroom and went into the ‘hole’ cubicle, without hesitation and (presumably) used the facilities.

Afterwards, sitting in the cafe, I noticed she was also there, having a coffee with a companion. I was mesmerised, she was wearing a smartly tailored trouser suit and high heels. I have no idea how she used the ‘hole in the floor’ with such efficiency and aplomb ?

I`ve only ever used one of these toilets once. Travelling by coach through France to Spain, in 1984, the toilet on the coach was faulty, so we stopped at a rest area at the side of the motorway. There was a queue a mile long, and everyone returning was chuckling, but wouldn`t tell us why. We soon found out! To be fair, it was reasonably clean and not too smelly, but I wouldn`t like to make a habit of it.
The nicest public toilet I`ve ever used was at Ephesus in Turkey. They were partly underground, spotlessly clean, and smelt of lemons, with the most delicious smelling lemon soap.

After many years of travelling through France I have it off to a fine art, I wear a fullish skirt and remove my pants in the car and take paper and wet wipes in my pocket. Stand with legs apart over the hole and use wet wipes to remove splashes from ankles.
They are probably cleaner than conventional toilets because some cultures insist on standing on the pot with the obvious awful outcome.

We stopped at an Aire this summer where the loo in the parking area was of the hole-in-the-ground variety. Luckily there was also a gas station/shop so while DD stayed put and joined the hole queue, I went on a route march & found a clean, queue less loo with a seat! After camping on a beach in Greece back in the late 60’s in my hippy days, where the hole was overseen by an old woman armed with a small tree trunk which she pounded down the hole after use, I refuse ever to use a hole again. (I used to go in equipped with 2 cigarettes as defence against the flies & stench ?)

We travel in France a lot and the best way to avoid these disgusting toilets is to stick to large toll motorways and avoid the smaller non toll roads. Another tip is most small towns do have a public toilet and they are always located next to the church. Also take your own toilet roll/wet wipes as many French toilets do not have any.

I don't think I'd be able to manage to use one.
My balance is a awful, and my squatting has never been good.

Good heavens-nasty foreign toilets ?
Come Brexit we can stick with British toilets ??????????because we won be able to afford to travel abroad (and nobody will want to have us anyway)

Bluesapphire takes me back to Indonesia and the necessity to visit such loo with no such thing as toilet paper and after rustling round in my bag all I could find was a paper money note Dearest whoopsie I ever had
The toilets in Russia were very strange whilst normal toilets they had a very very stern woman ushering you in you had to give her a tip and you got back one tiny square of loo paper