{"id":95102,"date":"2021-05-13T06:23:39","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T11:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=95102"},"modified":"2021-05-13T06:23:39","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T11:23:39","slug":"months-of-lockdown-raise-a-pressing-question-where-to-pee-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2021\/05\/13\/months-of-lockdown-raise-a-pressing-question-where-to-pee-in-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"Months of Lockdown Raise a Pressing Question: Where to Pee in Paris?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"VOA \u2014 PARIS – Paris begins reopening next week, bringing relief to residents missing its long-shuttered shops, museums, theaters and cafes that make France\u2019s iconic capital so special. Not to mention something more basic\u2014easily accessible toilets.<\/p>\n

Cecile Briand ducks into a small cement building, tucked inside a northern Paris square. The toilet she\u2019s inspecting is a bit dirty, but no nasty surprises\u2014nothing a little tissue can\u2019t fix. Number one advice walking this city: always bring toilet paper.<\/p>\n

Briand is a writer and artist.\u00a0Also\u00a0possibly this capital\u2019s\u00a0best resource\u00a0on restrooms. Her guidebook\u00a0Ou Faire Pipi a Paris?\u00a0\u2014 or\u00a0Where\u00a0to Pee in Paris \u2014\u00a0is now in its second edition.<\/p>\n

She earned her expertise firsthand\u2014 spending hours on the streets researching a separate Lonely Planet guide on Paris walks. Discovering its hidden and not-so-hidden toilets, she says, is another way of discovering the city.<\/p>\n

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\"Briand<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
Briand checks out a restroom in a small square and pronounces it “correct.” (VOA\/Lisa Bryant)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of Briand\u2019s top picks include the 5th-floor restrooms at the\u00a0Galeries\u00a0Lafayette department store \u2014over a terrace with a stunning view of the capital. There\u2019s also the red-carpeted\u00a0Drouot\u00a0auction house, and Josephine Baker swimming pool on the Seine River.<\/p>\n

Lockdown has shuttered these and many other places \u2014 like this public library we pass by.<\/p>\n

For the desperate \u2014 and less choosy \u2014 there are always the city\u2019s 435\u00a0sanisettes, elegant-looking steel structures that\u2014despite their automatic cleaning\u2014 aren\u2019t always so elegant inside.<\/p>\n

Peeing in Paris has been problematic long before coronavirus. The city hall has long been at war against what it calls \u2018wild pipi\u2019 \u2014 mostly by men \u2014 in public spaces. Residents and tourists mocked the environmentally friendly urinals it set up a few years ago\u2014 and this public service announcement featuring actors singing through toilet seats. Meanwhile, critics recently launched an online campaign\u00a0hash\u00a0tagged\u00a0#saccageaparis, or \u201ctrashed Paris,\u201d blaming the municipal government, fairly or unfairly, for unkempt streets.<\/p>\n

Pere Lachaise cemetery, the next stop on Briand\u2019s tour, offers a respite from the controversy. It\u2019s here Frederic Chopin, Honore de Balzac, Jim Morrison and many other famous people are buried. Equally important is its restroom in a little chalet. Visitors Elena and Rosa Marie, from the northern city of Reims, are hunting for the entrance.<\/p>\n

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\"One<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
One of the restrooms at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris. (VOA\/Lisa Bryant)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elena says it\u2019s very complicated spending time outside in big cities these days. Either you hold off peeing, or you stay at home.<\/p>\n

The lockdown has brought Briand\u2019s guide more media attention. She\u2019s now waiting to assess its impact on the city\u2019s toilet landscape \u2014 before working on the third edition of\u00a0Where to\u00a0to\u00a0Pee in Paris.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 PARIS – Paris begins reopening next week, bringing relief to residents missing its long-shuttered shops, museums, theaters and cafes that make France\u2019s iconic capital so special. Not to mention something more basic\u2014easily accessible toilets. Cecile Briand ducks into a small cement building, tucked inside a northern Paris square. The toilet she\u2019s inspecting is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recposts"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95102"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95105,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95102\/revisions\/95105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}