communal toilet paper, and other tales from french public restrooms

This is probably the "bloggiest" thing I've ever done -- writing an entry in between classes. Just thought I'd finally write about the most stressful parts of my day at the fac: finding a bathroom. Turns out that restrooms here at the university are unisex (which was certainly a shock the first time I walked in). They also seem to be cleaned about once a year, which makes the situation especially bad on rainy days like today. We're talking muddy floors and no hooks on the doors to hang your coat or bag. Oh, and there's also that odor that I can't even compare to anything you might recognize because it's worse than anything else I can think of. And did I mention that there are no toilet seats? Well, there are no toilet seats! But luckily for the guys, that isn't a problem (I can tell because there's no door separating the urinals from the toilet stalls.

So my daily quest is to find a bathroom where the word "sanitaire" (the word on the doors of bathrooms here, ironically) actually means something. Thanks to an exchange student from New Zealand, I've discovered the wonders of the library restrooms, where you can get toilet paper in your own individual stall rather than from the one dispenser outside (which begs the question, what if you need more than you anticipated before going to the stall? what then, I ask, what then?), but the floors still have a wetness problem. My favorite one so far is all the way on the top floor of the southernmost building, because it seems like I might be the only one who knows about it -- which means cleanliness and no odor. But also no mirrors. Well, you've got to take what you can get.