WC séparés

real estate selling point. – separate toilet or water closet
Most of the apartments we’ve looked at have the toilet separated from the bathroom itself. While I understand the principal of this – keeping the toilet away from the area in which you bathe and clean yourself – I prefer to have everything together. This is especially true if the toilet is located all by itself in a room without even a sink since that defeats the whole purpose of cleanliness. After all, you have to touch the door to get out and touch another door to get in to the bathroom before you can wash your hands.

There’s something very isolating to me about having the toilet in a separate room. It’s as if I was being sent there as a punishment. The name WC or water closet is quite fitting because in most cases, it does feel like being locked in a small closet. At best, it feels more commercial than residential since most public restrooms have stalls and no access to the sink or the mirror until you’ve unlocked yourself out of them.

As for public restrooms here, I have just one question – where have all the toilet seats gone? While I’ve mentioned previously that I’m not paranoid about toilet seat germs and am perhaps too lazy to attempt to hover rather than sit, even that’s not possible when there is no actual seat. I suppose in a way, this is the reason for eliminating them altogether. No seats – no germs.

So the bathroom is a place where one often has to make compromises. While home toilets will come with seats, there’s still the question of where they’ll be located and what will accompany them. At the very least, perhaps a sink or at most a shower, tub and maybe even bidet. I suppose that would be the bathroom equivalent of the cuisine Américaine.