“The most beautiful public toilets” in Paris have reopened

Twelve years after being closed and since Monday the public baths of Madeleinepublic toilets Belle Epoque in Parispioneers when they were inaugurated in 1905.

Next to the Church of the Madeleine, stairs decorated with period mosaics offer a little trip back in time and for only two euros you can relieve yourself in an atmosphere Art Nouveau.

In the basement, varnished mahogany walls, stained glass, ceramic with matching soft green patterns “the beautiful, the luxury and the useful”according to the heritage assistant to the mayor of Paris, Karen Taïeb.

Until Eric Hallsthe founder of luxury public toilets Point WC, he wants to make the place an obligatory “destination”.

This company, which manages five other luxury bathrooms in the capital, obtained in 2015 a ten-year concession for La Madeleine, classified in the category of Monument in March 2011 and closed the same year.

But the Art Nouveau work of the establishments piggerybased on the London model of the time, was “affected by infiltration, which forced the concessionaire to postpone the work“, declared the mayor of the VIII arrondissement of Paris, Jeanne d’Hauteserre, present at the reopening of the site.

From the roof of the place, that is to say at street level, natural light penetrates filtered by a historic glass floor which for this occasion has been reinforced with “a triple waterproof layer”, while the furniture of era has been preserved, specifies Karen Taïeb. .

Although the city has yet to restore the staircase mosaic, “everything is in its element”points out.

However, the concessionaire was unable to find a shoe shiner for the site, who at the time worked next to a platform still on site.

With 750 public toilets and urinals, Paris claims to be the first city in the world “in terms of toilets in public spaces”.

Free public toilets were decided in 2006with the exception of a few places entrusted to concessionaires in highly touristic sites (Notre-Dame, Louvre, Champs-Élysées, etc.).

According to the mayor’s office, there is only one remaining example of a vespasiana, another type of public toilet from the early 20th century, located on Boulevard Arago.

(With information from AFP)

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