TOILETS of PARIS
4 Comments Published by Cedric Benetti on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 10/13/2009 07:00:00 PM.
Welcome to the Paris of 1876. We are in the gardens of the Bourse, and are looking at a 'vespasienne', a public urinal, a 'Toilet of Paris' in the historic sense.Since 1961, these stench-makers have gradually disapeared from the Paris streetscape, after having been present since 1834. Reasons for the dismanteling are numerous: the stench, the fact that women couldn't manage to use them, and also more importantly the fact that they were becoming gay meeting places very fast.
Their name is derived from the Roman emperor Vespasian, who at one point started putting up a tax on urine collecting for the teinturiers (professional dyers, who obviously used urine for dying clothes...what a delicious idea). After being laughed at for this measure, he claimed "pecunia non olet", "money doesn't smell".
Too bad he never knew the devices bearing his name in the future were anything else but scentless.
Too bad he never knew the devices bearing his name in the future were anything else but scentless.
Oh, talking about scentless, these public toilets above got installed in the 1870s and claimed to be scentless. You also had to pay five cents for using them...Labels: paris history, TOILETS of PARIS
I've always hated public toilets outside in the street they're ugly.
I think urine is useful in dyeing because it breaks down into ammonia, and that can be used to bleach things like leather. Could be wrong, but I think that's the purpose.
Bonjour! Cedric,
Merci de Partager!
DeeDee ;-D
Quite refreshing post in this series;)