Peeing Problems in Paris

The problems of peeing in Paris is an old one I would say, dating back no doubt to the very first inhabitants of Ile de La Cité; the Parisii tribe.  Before the installation of underground sewers, I can hardly imagine what people had to put up with; the open sewage flowing through the streets as a way of life, however disagreeable.

At least streets back then were built concave like with the lower center serving as a drain.   The higher levels, next to houses , were called a “haut pavé” and provided a place for people to walk on to avoid the flux.

There was a hierarchy though on who had the right of way on these upper levels, in that the poorer classes had to yield to the elite, (usually obvious by their dress).   The name stuck  to designate those from a higher social class, who had this privilege, as “le haut du pavé”

Even when the king decreed that was against the law to pee in the streets, apparently few bothered to comply.  Finally someone thought up the fine ideal of distributing barrels on practically every corner of the city, which I am sure helped.

In 1834 Paris constructed 478 vespasiennes, named after the Roman emperor Vespasien, who placed urinals in Rome. They were green half-moon shaped stalls with walls to hide male torsos , exposing only their heads and legs.  Parisian men took to them like a duck to water, so by  1930 there were over 1200 of them throughout Paris.

Not only did they serve to relieve full male bladders, but were even secret meeting places for the resistants during World War II, and often for male prostitutes too.  I would say today there exists some sort of nostalgia for these old green pissoirs, that were phased out in the 1980’s.

When I was a student here many moons ago, Paris was dotted with the ubiquitous green pissoires seen all over the city as in the photo, which is the very last one left on Blvd Arago in the 14th arrondissement.    My initial impression of them was rather mildly shocking , given I was from the very prudent country of America, where urinating was always done in obscure privacy for both sexes.

In 2016, Paris installed some eco urinoirs, which are the red ones, with flowers on top!  The urine is absorbed by the hay underneath and then can be turned into fertilizer!

They never got much buzz till just lately when some residents on Ile Saint Louis complained about them.(latest update 2018)

After living in Paris and Europe for all these years, I can now embrace any sort of pissoires with the utmost of thanksgiving.  By doing away with those old standard green pissoires, which were everywhere, Paris  ended up paying the price.  One is still stung with pungent orders of urine here and there, in the metros, and especially today in some of the more disadvantaged  quartiers.

The city within the last several years has provided free toilettes for males and females  and even inaugurated a fine of 35 euros if caught urinating in public, but I guess in the end, it  hasn’t had that much impact.

Frankly it is not a problem with the tourists, as after all Paris is the most visited city in the entire globe, but seems to continue to plague the poorer neighborhoods, primarily made up of immigrants from North Africa, where perhaps relieving oneself in public is more acceptable.

Even the residents and the shop owners in these areas were  complaining and rightfully so.  Some blamed the selling of beer, rather than the out right lack of decency of the perpetrators, who openly urinated on the sidewalks.

French and other European males are not excluded from blame either, though they seem to be in general somewhat more discreet and less apt to relieve themselves in large urban areas, seen more often tending to nature off  highway in rural areas.

This obviously does not always hold true when there is an intense gathering of folks, as when I encountered the rather cute sign, seen in the photo, explicitly reminding males not to pee on the streets, but in WC’s in the village.

It was the fete de Saint Vincent, the patron saint of vintners on a sunny but bitterly cold day in  February, in the tiny village of Chablis.  Merriment reigned high with Chablis flowing everywhere, filling up everyone’s bladders as wine is prone to do.

I remember remarking to one of the vintners, how cute the sign was,  saying that would never be seen in America.  Although he begrudgingly agreed with the message, I later spied him  relieving himself in the parking lot later on!

Maybe you just can’t teach old dogs new tricks!  Hoping to prove that wrong, the city of Paris just recently unveiled her latest pissoirs or street urinals, trying them out in the aforementioned urine zones.   These gray arched units offer hardly any discretion at all, but at least they are functional.

I think their phallic like structure wasn’t done by hazard, maybe as an attempt to get the point across to even the most dense of males.  I don’t mind seeing backsides as long as they are peeing in an appropriate receptacle, so I hope the streets in Paris will now take on a more pleasant smell, rather than l’eau de urine!