Fire Hydrants, Mailboxes, and Public Potties (fulfilling more special requests)

After a few days of careful, on the ground research, I bring you "Fire Hydrants, Mailboxes, and Public Potties- à la française."

Fire Hydrants: These little guys are, in fact, really different from our fire hydrants. I had a hard time figuring out if what I thought was a fire hydrant was actually a fire hydrant.... but I found one and examined it (read the label on the side, it said water, so I assumed, fire hydrant). They kind of look space-age-ish in comparison to ours... but they're still bright red, so there you go.

Mailboxes: The French postal system has conveniently placed bright, sunshine yellow mail drop boxes all over the city. There are 2 sides to these mailboxes, one for mail going in the Lyon region, and one for mail going other places (à l'étranger, or

abroad- the side I use to send you all postcards!). Post offices are also easy to locate because of the bright yellow and blue sign-age. And fun fact, to mail a postcard to the US, it is about 0,87 euros, or almost a dollar!

Public Potties: Are public toilettes available? Do they all cost money? This is a common debate between me and the other English assistants. The fact is, it all depends. In Vieux Lyon, there is one of the only free, public, and nice bathrooms I have ever seen in France. It is actually a part of the metro, which is even more unusual, as the metro almost never has public restrooms. There are also many a public toilette

that self-cleans. I try to stay away from those. They don't cost money, but after you use them, some sort of sensor goes off and sprays the whole port-a-potty type thing down.... making it nice and wet for the next customer. These are usually in more touristy places... or often in places near a big square that has open-air markets. There is actually one in Saint-Priest near the Chateau. Then, there are also the bathrooms that you have to pay for. In many department stores or the train station, you have to pay 50 centimes to use the restroom. These are usually manned by an attendant, but sometimes, there is just a little slot on a door to stick your money in. Hopefully, these types of bathrooms are worth the money... but unfortunately, they aren't always. And, in every restaurant, there is a bathroom, free to use, ONLY by patrons. People get very mad when you run in to use the bathroom without sitting down to eat... or at least to order a coffee. I have only done this once, and got away with it because the restaurant was so crowded, and I walked with such, "I need to pee, now" purpose.

In Paris, the public potty situation is actually much worse and you have to pay more often. But... at least in Lyon I'm starting to figure out where to go, when I need to go, for free.

Any other requests???