These are luxury toilets that have reopened under the church of La Madeleine in Paris. Mahogany, stained glass and art nouveau ceramics, dating from 1905, have been restored.
Use amenities in a Belle Époque setting, for the sum of two euros: the Lavatory de La Madeleine, pioneering public toilets when they were installed in 1905 in Paris, reopens its doors on Monday February 20 after twelve years of closure.
The most beautiful cabinets in the capital? On one side of the church of La Madeleine, a flight of steps surrounded by a period mosaic offers a small journey through time. In the basement, varnished mahogany, stained glass, ceramic with soft green patterns bring together “the beautiful, the luxury and the useful”, according to heritage assistant Karen Taïeb.
The preserved period furniture
So much so that Eric Salles, the founder of Point WC, the high-end brand of the Dutch company 2theloo, wants to make the place “a destination”. This company, which manages five other “lavatories”, these luxury toilets, in the capital, had obtained in 2015 a ten-year concession for that of La Madeleine, classified as a Historic Monument in March 2011 and closed the same year.
But the Art Nouveau work of the Porcher establishments, on the London model of the time, was “prey to infiltration, which forced the concessionaire to postpone the work”, explained the mayor of the 8th arrondissement Jeanne d’Hauteserre, one of the three elected Parisians to speak for the reopening of the site. On the ceiling, i.e. at street level, natural light filters through the historic glass pavement now reinforced by a “triple sealing”while the period furniture has been preserved, explains Karen Taïeb.
A mosaic still to be restored
If the City still needs to restore the staircase mosaic, “everything is in its own juice”, she summarizes. On the other hand, the concessionaire did not manage to find a shoe shiner, who officiated at the time at the foot of a raised chair on a platform still in place.
According to the town hall, Paris offers 750 public toilets and urinals. Sanisettes were made free there in 2006, with the exception of a few lavatories entrusted to dealers in very touristic sites (Notre-Dame, the Louvre, Champs-Elysées, etc.).
After the disappearance of the one located near the Mirabeau metro station, in the 16th arrondissement, there remains only one example of a vespasienne, these famous urinals (reserved for men, therefore) dating from the beginning of the 20th century. It is located on Boulevard Arago (XIV).