In 2006, the city of Paris installed 400 sanisettes — freestanding, free-of-charge public toilettes — around the city’s 20 arrondissements. That was something à aimer.

Now, however, there is a new trend in “public” lavatories, which I call “fleecing tourists par sanisette.”

“Point WC” is the culprit of this shady new business. I first encountered Point WC last winter, during the biannual soldes. I was shopping at Le Printemps department store on Boulevard Haussmann, where I had just dropped a considerable sum on a luxury handbag. Before leaving the store, I decided to stop at the women’s restroom. At first I was delighted to see that Le Printemps had revamped their worn, ugly and funky not-in-a-good-way restrooms for their customers. I noted that the new, brightly painted men’s and women’s toilettes even had a name: Point WC. Wow, I thought. Customer appreciation. Now that’s progress. And then I walked in, and was immediately ordered by an attendant to pay up: €1, to be exact.
>more