Parisian Outdoor Toilet

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This is a sanisette /sanizɛt/, also known as a “superloo” to the British. Sanisette is the trademarked name of an enclosed, outdoor, automated individual toilet that automatically scrubs, washes, and disinfects itself after each use, although the trademark has been diluted enough that it is no longer capitalized in France. The device was invented and popularized by the French firm of Jean-Claude Decaux, a company that has become famous for its “urban furniture,” including sanisettes, computerized street displays, the Abribus (a modular bus stop shelter), and other structures. It has pretty much replaced the disgusting, men-only vespasiennes that used to litter the city.

To operate this sanisette, you just press the big button on the control panel control panel in the photo). The door opens, and you enter, with the door closing automatically behind you. Inside is a normal-looking toilet, and a small sink that automatically dispenses soap and water when you place your hands beneath the faucet. A hot-air dryer operates after the faucet, again automatically. A mirror is provided so that you can fix your hair, if need be. There is a toilet-paper dispenser as well. I have a photo of the interior, if you’d like to see what it looks like.

When you finish using the toilet and washing your hands, you open the door (there is a handle on the inside) and exit. The door closes again and the sanisette begins a cleaning cycle that lasts for about 60 seconds: the wall behind the toilet opens and brushes and sprayers scrub down the toilet and disinfect it. After the cycle completes, the toilet is ready for its next user.

When a sanisette is working properly, it is spotlessly clean and pleasant-smelling inside. Unfortunately, they are often vandalized or mistreated, causing them to malfunction or simply fail to operate until someone can fix them. Despite this, they are a welcome and handy sight on Parisian streets.

Some other cities have adopted these automated toilets, also. They are present in London and San Francisco, from what I understand and have seen. New York has considered them, but I understand that the wheelchair lobby insisted that they all be accessible to wheelchairs, and since making them so would invite their use by drug dealers and other undesirables (since the wheelchair versions are much larger), the idea was dropped. I have a picture of the sanisette version for wheelchair users, if you are interested.

The sanisette pictured here is the latest generation. A previous generation lacked soap and an automatic dryer, and had a more primitive toilet seat design; I have a picture of one, if you’d like to see.

At one time, sanisettes played music when you entered, but they no longer do. I suspect that royalty disputes may have been responsible for the end of the music. You originally had to pay €0.40 to use them, as well, but a few years ago the Paris city council decided that they would be converted into free toilets, so as to be more accessible to the poor and homeless.

The indicator on the control panel in the photo shows when the toilet is available. It changes to orange when the toilet is in use (as it is here), and to red when the toilet is out of order or turned off. An illuminated indicator on the sign over the toilet enclosure partially duplicates this indication, allowing the availability of the toilet to be seen from a distance.

This sanisette is in Pigalle. There are hundreds of other identical Sanisettes throughout the city. Since the city made them free, it has paid about seven million euro a year to the manufacturer to keep them regularly serviced, including supplies of soap and toilet paper, etc.

Click directly on the photo to see a smaller version (half this size). Photographed on July 13, 2008.