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 wait until the green light on the control panel is glowing, then you just press the little button above it (see my close-up of the control panel). 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 over it. A hot-air dryer operates after the faucet, again automatically. A mirror is provided so that you can fix your hair and anything else, 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 (with a pushbutton on the inside, like an elevator) and exit. The door closes again, the light on the control panel changes from green to yellow, and the sanisette begins a cleaning cycle that lasts for about 60 seconds: inside, 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 were much larger), the idea was dropped. Ironically, the latest version of the sanisette, shown here, is fully accessible to users in wheelchairs—it's very roomy inside (see my photo of the inside).

The sanisette pictured here is the latest generation, installed in Paris in 2009. A previous generation didn't have the computerized controls, the accommodations for wheelchair users (they had to use special sanisettes that were quite rare), the outside water fountain, the environmental features, or the interior spaciousness.

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 the status of the toilet: ready, in use, self-cleaning, or out of order. Notice that the instructions are printed in several languages … including braille.

This sanisette is near the Forum des Halles. 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.

Photographed on June 26, 2009.