One of the sites we visit most years has more recently upgraded its 3 sanitary blocks. There are separate toilet rooms for ladies and gents, each with several wash basins, liquid hand soap, a very efficient hand dryer and a toilet roll dispenser adjacent to the door.
Then next door is a huge room with shower or basin cubicles down each side, designated ladies and gents, with a divider wall down the middle that supports vanity basins and mirrors, hand dryer and wall mounted hair dryer. Very luxurious for a campsite.
However on this visit we found a number of notices pinned up.
Outside each toilet block a notice stating Hommes and Femmes, with a helpful picture of each for those who can't read.
Inside the toilet block, a notice in 4 languages saying that it is forbidden to shave or brush teeth in the basins, and to use the shower room. Also a notice next to the toilet roll dispenser saying don't use toilet paper to dry your hands, use the dryer.
I don't know why people choose to use basins in toilets to brush their teeth rather than a basin in a cubicle.
Another site has swish new separate sex toilets including a hand basin and a huge room next door full of different types of cubicle. One day when I was in a ladies toilet cubicle I heard clunking in the basin. As I came out I expected to see a lady putting on make up, but instead there was a man having a wet shave.
At another site there was a sign above the hand dryer in the mixed facility saying not to throw paper into the dryer, every single cubicle of any type at that site has a small covered bin. Needless to say on one of my visits there was a used wet wipe in the dryer.
And don't get me started on recycling bins!
These are not Brits by the way, these are retired Dutch, German, French etc.
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So which sites are you referring to? And what do you mean by your last sentence? "These are not Brits by the way, these are retired Dutch, German, French etc."
How can you tell that they're not Brits, but other nationalities?
We're in France now, but haven't seen any notices like that anywhere. A bit confused about "it is forbidden to shave or brush teeth in the basins, and to use the shower room". What's wrong with using a washbasin for brushing teeth?? Or for shaving (I'm female, but would not expect to be banned from shaving in a washbasin if I was male). Besides, using a shower room to brush teeth?? Never heard of that and would've thought that inappropriate.
Perhaps something lost (or gained) in translation?
I think the idea was to keep the basins in the toilet rooms available so folk could wash their hands after using the toilet. (We find that this particular facility is sometimes missing.) There were plenty of basins both in and out of cubicles in the rooms with the showers.
If I were to build a new facilities block now, I would make all cubicles fully enclosed with shower, toilet and sink; so that they can be used by anyone.
Just like the accessible ones but smaller.
DK
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DK, Good idea, and they already exist like that at many sites - sometimes as individual private cubicles beside the pitches. And there are already some individual private facilities like that at sites in the UK
Anyone having a wash/shave/brushing teeth etc at a small hand basin so obviously designed and positioned specifically and solely for a post-toilet hand wash deserves to be pushed out of the way whilst waving your hands about shouting "Merde, merde"!
And get this... facilities block with individual shower cubicles one side, and wash cubicles the other.
Nice weather down south, so not even an outer door... large open doorway.
Immediately outside of that is a row of laundry hand washing sinks, and a row of pot washing sinks.
... and a bloke stood cleaning his teeth... spit an' all... in the pot wash sink!
Quote: Originally posted by dk168 on 27/9/2025
If I were to build a new facilities block now, I would make all cubicles fully enclosed with shower, toilet and sink; so that they can be used by anyone.
Just like the accessible ones but smaller.
DK
In an ideal world, I'd agree.
But that ideal world would need to pay strong attention to the numbers.
Nobody wants to be hopping around on one leg waiting for someone to shower and/or brush their teeth, whilst simultaneously rendering the loo as inaccessible.
We've all been there!
Seem to recall a thread a while ago about the shortcomings of 'all in one' shower/loo/basin 'bathroom' facilities (IIRC a UK small site, may have been a CS/CL), whereby the (possibly only loo) was inaccessible to those that needed it because some other part of the bathroom was being used! The view was that the facilities were nice, but ill conceived for the comfort and benefit of site users!
Not generally a problem for me, I have my 'all in one' private bathroom in the caravan, so not bothered by site facilities, but I can see it's not good for others using communal facilities.
TBH, I've often found French camp site facilities to be rather wanting, not the best hygiene set ups, and strangely less than ideal layouts! That's been when tent camping, so in need of site facilities. And yes Mucker1884, I too have found people brushing teeth AND doing hand washed laundry in dish washing sinks! - not inclined to wash my dishes in the residue of someone else's spittle, knickers and socks! Think we ended up collecting hot water from tap, then washing up in a re-purposed tote box back on the pitch!
I didn't mention the inappropriate use of dish wash sinks, but we have found many sites where there is no hand wash sink near the toilet so folk use the dish sinks instead. And for the aforementioned teeth brushing.
I do always smile when I see the huge laundry tubs on sites, I seldom see anyone using them, except maybe for the odd swimwear rinse. However I suppose they were used by itinerant workers in the days before washing machines became popular.
We've been doing our pot washing back on the pitch for some while now.
We even bought a washing up stand back during covid, although we've since resorted to leaving that in the shed, and plonking our washing up bowl and draining mat on the table.
Can't remember the last time we actually used a camp-site washing up sink.
Even the nicest sites can be light on handwashing sinks if the showers and washbasins are elsewhere. Or there’s no soap or dryer. One of my first tasks after getting set up is a ‘loo recce’ and I tend to take a bit of loo roll and a mini hand sanitiser with me just in case! I was hugely amused that Camping de Trologot at St Pol de Leon had the traditional wall mounted soap bar that is the colour and shape of a banana - made my day !
As with many Mohos our kitchen sink is tiny and we only use it off grid, if it’s too wet to wash up outside. So I use site facilities a lot. But unless they are spotless ( another recce) I put our folding washing up bowl inside. Good sites also label laundry and dishwashing sinks if they are in the same room.
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Quote: Originally posted by Ironned on 05/10/2025
Even the nicest sites can be light on handwashing sinks if the showers and washbasins are elsewhere. Or there’s no soap or dryer. One of my first tasks after getting set up is a ‘loo recce’ and I tend to take a bit of loo roll and a mini hand sanitiser with me just in case! I was hugely amused that Camping de Trologot at St Pol de Leon had the traditional wall mounted soap bar that is the colour and shape of a banana - made my day !
As with many Mohos our kitchen sink is tiny and we only use it off grid, if it’s too wet to wash up outside. So I use site facilities a lot. But unless they are spotless ( another recce) I put our folding washing up bowl inside. Good sites also label laundry and dishwashing sinks if they are in the same room.
A wise Tibetan monk (coincidently holidaying on the same French campsite as us) once said:
"Putting laminated signs up clearly differentiating between la vaisselle et le linge is only as good as the camper ignoring them!"
If you use a collapsible bowl or your biggest saucepan, you can wash dishes or clothes (smalls, at least) in any sink, in my experience. Pour the water away directly down the plug: no one would know the sink had been used. Much less wasteful of hot water too.
Quote: Originally posted by Fiona W on 07/10/2025
If you use a collapsible bowl or your biggest saucepan, you can wash dishes or clothes (smalls, at least) in any sink, in my experience. Pour the water away directly down the plug: no one would know the sink had been used. Much less wasteful of hot water too.
That's what I do. I've never used any sink for dishwashing or clothes washing, always use my own bowl or bucket.
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Topic: Seen on a French campsite
via mobile 27/9/2025 at 8:25pm
