Belle epoque paris lavatory is restored as tourist attraction

France’s first public lavatory has re-opened in Paris after more than a decade of restoration work. Lavatory Madeleine is a Belle Epoque treasure, dating from 1905, and tells a more intimate

history of the city and its inhabitants than many of the usual museums and monuments. Its significance to French heritage has seen it listed as a monument historique and, since February,

transformed into a tourist ‘must-see’ for a €2 entrance fee. ANTIQUE SHOESHINE CHAIR AND ART NOUVEAU MEMORABILIA Located in Place de la Madeleine with its imposing church, it is accessed by

descending a mosaic stairway and is open between 10:00 and 18:00. It was built by French sanitaryware firm Porcher as a veritable ‘palace for hygiene’, says Julien Damon, associate professor

at Sciences Po and the author of a book on public toilets. The doors are made from mahogany and embellished with stained glass, while decorative tiling adorns the floor. The cubicles are

spacious and fitted with individual washbasins. Adding to its splendour is an antique shoeshine chair, preserved on the site along with its golden footrests – a throwback to a time when

using the public conveniences was as much about freshening up appearances as relieving oneself. Also playing to the tourist crowd is a small display of Art Nouveau memorabilia, including

19th century Paris postcards. READ MORE: FIND PARIS’S SECRET VILLAGE HIDDEN IN THE BUSTLING MARAIS DISTRICT FRENCH PHRASES FOR PUBLIC LAVATORIES The site is run by a Dutch firm called

2theloo, which also manages Covent Garden’s public toilets in London. However, Mr Damon says the British facilities are more focused on providing a public service rather than playing a

tourism role. Where it has borrowed from the English, though, is its name – a ‘lavatory’. The French have navigated a range of terms for public toilets through history, from polite allusions

such as _petit coin_ to words drawing on the idea of ‘comfort’ (_aisance_). The latter includes _lieu d’aisance_, _baril d’aisance_ (the equivalent of a urinal), or, for women, _chalet

d’aisance_. More crude terms focus on the verb _pisser_ (to urinate), such as _pissotière_ or _pissoir_ for street urinals. _Le trône_ (the throne) is also used – originating as shorthand

for the rather more long-winded phrase_ là où le roi va seul_ (where the king goes alone). READ MORE: LAVOIRS: HOW THESE COMMUNAL WASH HOUSES CHANGED FRENCH CULTURE POEM DESCRIBES PARIS AS

‘IMMENSE SEWER’ Indeed, French monarchs have left their mark, so to speak, on other areas of lavatorial history too, mainly through various edicts outlawing defecation and urination on the

streets, which were largely ignored. The so-called City of Light was not immune from the problem. French writer Alfred de Musset (1810-57) memorably referred to “this immense sewer called

Paris” in one of his poems. A solution – a form of public urinal – was introduced on street corners in Paris by the lieutenant general of the police, Antoine de Sartine, in around 1770.

_Photo: The capital’s last colonne Rambuteau or vespasienne; Credit: Art Collection / Alamy stock photo_ These were replaced by cylindrical stonework columns – more than 400 of them – by the

prefect of the Seine department, Count Claude-Philibert de Rambuteau, in the 1830s and 40s. Open on one side and ornately decorated on the other, they became known as _colonnes Rambuteau_

(Rambuteau columns) in his honour. ORNATELY DECORATED VESPASIENNES LACKED PRIVACY For his part, and for obvious reasons, Rambuteau much preferred the moniker_ vespasiennes_ – a word derived

from the 1st century Roman emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus who, legend has it, placed a tax on urine collected from public toilets for use in tanning. A shortcoming of the design was lack

of privacy. Manufacturers found a solution by introducing a metal sheet on one side, only to see it colonised by advertisements and, as people huddled close to read the posters, privacy was

threatened once again. 1,200 PUBLIC URINALS IN THE 1930S Enter Georges Eugène Haussmann who, along with his whirlwind building policy along Paris’s busiest streets, introduced a second

generation of vespasienne made from cast iron and accommodating two to eight stalls each. These were coloured green to complement the natural world and typically only the central part of the

user was screened from public view, with the head and feet still visible. Paris boasted some 1,200 of these public urinals in the 1930s, at the time city officials were increasing the

number of underground lavatories, such as the one in Place de la Madeleine, as part of a drive to make public conveniences more discreet. While 567 of these urinals still existed by the late

1950s, they slowly became outdated. The last_ vespasienne_ is located on boulevard Arago in the 14th_ arrondissement_. GAY MEN FLIRTED AROUND THE VESPASIENNES _Vespasiennes_ played another,

unforeseen, role in Paris’s social history when the gay community started using them for hook-ups. In slang of the 1900s, vespasiennes were referred to as_ tasses_ (cups). The term _faire

les tasses _was used to mean ‘to flirt in and around _vespasiennes_’. Countless writers have conjectured at great length about what happened behind _vespasiennes_. Sébastien Rutés’ recent

book _La Vespasienne_, for example, set during World War Two, makes the _vespasienne_ an allegory of the political and moral struggles of the era. Their ‘misuse’ was taken very seriously by

the city’s vice squad. Even though their dismantling, post-war, was justified by the proliferation of private toilets within flats, the suppression of homosexual activity also played a part,

said Mr Damon. WOMEN HAD TO WAIT As for women, it took until the late 19th century before they had their own dedicated public toilets, called_ chalets de nécessité_. Writer Alphonse Allais

noted that France had become a ‘little Switzerland’ because of the adopted architectural style used for them. Paris counted around a hundred of them by 1914. PARIS CLAIMS MOST PUBLIC TOILETS

IN THE WORLD These days, the _vespasienne_ is better known as a _sanisette_. There are 435 of these self-cleaning cubicles all over Paris – on busy streets, near monuments, and in public

parks. They were used by 15 million people in 2019, say the city’s mairie. Combined with public urinals, Paris now boasts around 750 public toilets. This gives the capital the claim to the

most public toilets per square kilometre in the world, according to the guidebook series Lonely Planet. Most are free to use, with the exception of a handful of sites such as Lavatory

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