American vs European bathrooms: a comparison study

[barbarienne]

It has become clear to me that Europeans must prefer baths to showers. No person who showers on a regular basis would have designed any of the four hotel showers I´ve used here. First, what is with the showerheads all being pointed straight down? I have to stand on the drain to get any water on me

Comments

[frigg]

*lol*
Straight down showers limits water-splashing and resembles rain (we have both in Denmark, and I actually have one of each in my home). It is said that the Scandinavians shower daily, because we are are big on water-conservation, whereas the Brits are more tub people.

And yeah...bathmaths are for children, the elderly or the infirm. ;)

[frigg]

Can't help you with the bidets, though. I see them, but I don't know how to use them correctly. :p

[quarkwiz]

A bidet's for getting your private bits nice and clean. You wouldn't be wearing clothes when using one (or not ones around your lower half, at least). If you look at the plumbing, you'll see it's arranged so the water should spurt upwards, not bowlwards. No paper involved, just a towel.

My parents, who lived in France twelve years and have now been living in London fourteen years, had a bidet installed in their upstairs bathroom in Connecticut. Now that they're vaguely thinking of selling the house sometime in the future, they've realized it'll probably have to be de-installed because so few people over here understand them.

(hi!)

[barbarienne]

I know what they're for, I just don't understand how you use them. I should note that the ones I saw had a faucet thingy on the back, not the squirt-up thing.

I just...what, you do your business on the toilet, and then how do you transfer to the bidet? My pants are around my ankles and I have poop on my butt. Shuffling three feet to the left seems like a recipe for hilarious disaster!

[drlaurac]

I have one here and have no idea what to do with it.

[purdypiedad]

This post left me pleasantly giggling and pondering for quite some time. Thank you for sharing your bathroom woes. :-D

[wuwt]

My experience is that the French and some of their Euro Friends on occasion have assault toilets for women (I'm talking about the ones that just have a hole in the floor.) Sorry, but trying to straddle these things and using them while both pulling your pants down and up from your ankle (so your pants don't sag down into the splash zone) is just horrific. They had these at the UNIVERSITY in France and also at a rest stop in Italy (in this case they had brought in temporary units for construction that was going on at the gas station -they were in a container building and NEW). What woman says no thanks, I don't need a seat, save the enamel for extra urinals so men don't have to wait in line?

[kouaidou]

I had some horrible experience with these in Japan. I really think they're meant to be used by skinny women with short legs and a low center of gravity (ideally, wearing skirts).

[barbarienne]

Skirts and no underwear. I had to use those in Japan and India while wearing jeans. I just leaned forward against the wall. I was lucky I didn't have to defecate when I was in those. I don't know how that would have been possible.