Toilettes in Paris

Not the greatest picture, but you get an idea of the space-ship bathroom, its fancy automatic door (on the left) and the large groups of people constantly passing by.  

Every day I tell myself I should write about our trip to Paris last weekend, but then I start looking through pictures and it is overwhelming, so I go do something else.  But I will write about a funny thing that happened on our first night because there's only 1 picture to go along with it.

After arriving in Paris, we went to the Eiffel Tower.  Although we went to the top long before the sun went down, we wanted to see it all lit up at night, so we waited around in the cold for hours.  I thought it would be around 7:30, but it didn't get dark till 9.  While we were waiting, Hyrum decided to find a bathroom.  On our way to the closest Metro station we found this portable bathroom on the street corner.

First, you can just imagine the kind of traffic this street corner gets-- right in between the most visited monument in the world, and the closest Metro station.

Instead of looking like a Porta Potty, it was more like a spaceship bathroom.  Metal, round, everything automatic.  The guy in front of us in line stepped inside, and couldn't figure out how to close the door. He was pressing buttons on the wall, and just staring out at all the people walking by.  After about 60 seconds filled with button-pressing, awkward stares at people outside like we could magically help him close the door, and tourists laughing at the man in the bathroom with the door open, the door finally glided closed.

We waited, still chuckling over his embarrassment.  And then whoosh.  The door slid open again:

The man was in the middle of the 'room' with the lights off and his wet hands up in the air.  Just looking at us with shock on his face.  The toilet was folded up into the wall.  Then he took off running.  And the door closed behind him.

Things like that don't happen every day.  And we had a good laugh.  We noticed a light outside indicating that the contraption had gone into cleaning mode, and afterwards it (fortunately) functioned properly so Hyrum didn't embarrass himself.  Actually, come to think of it, I think he almost used it with the door open, too.  Only with none of the embarrassment of the previous occupant. Men...