Tuesday, February 15, 2011

No Bidets!

For those of you that have followed my blog in the past, you know that I always begin my travel blog with a comment about the bathrooms. For those of you that have not seen my blogs before, consider yourself warned. I have to deliver what is expected of me!

I fully expected my French bathroom blog to feature different styles of bidets and maybe even offer a few historical facts about these French fixtures. The truth...I have not seen one! I have been to multiple hotels and restaurants, but have yet to see the iconic bidet in these French establishments. Maybe the bidet is reserved for the home. But I have to say, France, I am a little disappointed...I saw more bidets in Argentina!

France did, however, pull through in presenting me with my first "squatty-potty"...an experience I won't soon forget. (Actually, through my wiki research, I found that they are more formally called squat toilets other possible names include: Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Iranian, Indian, Pakistani, Turkish or Natural-Position toilet.) Now this particular squatty-potty was in a bar. This made the experience even more special. It was the only toilet in the bar and I'm pretty sure the design of these toilets do not encourage better aim by the drunk patrons. I giggled thinking about how the inebriated girls were planning on keeping their balance. Now my only hiccup in the first use of a squatty-potty was not being able to find a lock on the stall door. I had to try to balance and hold the door closed at the same time...even I was laughing thinking about how ridiculous I looked! I couldn't believe that they wouldn't put a lock on a door like that. Once I stood up, I saw the lock and felt really stupid.

Here is a picture of the toilet. I begged one of Nathanael's coworkers to take a picture with his iPhone for me. (Some things I probably shouldn't admit on here!)

What are we doing in Europe?



Once again, Nathanael's job has allowed us to travel! (We are so blessed to have such amazing opportunities!) He is taking a class on EC225's (pictured above) that will last for 5 weeks in Marseille, France. We are staying in Aix-en-Provence during the week and taking side-trips on the weekends. At the end of the 5 weeks, we will be taking a quick trip through Italy for a week before returning home.

Here is a map of France for reference.

Now, I have to be honest. We have actually been in France for 4 weeks now, so my blog is just a little behind! My lack of blogging is due in part to the slow internet, but mostly due to just plain laziness! Sorry! I will try to catch everyone up to speed, but there may be some posts that will not show up on the blog until after we have returned to the US. So, without further ado...a taste of Europe.