Earlier this year we took the kids to a play called, “Urinetown, The Musical” at SOU. The play was pretty good–very original and well executed by the SOU students. We thought the play was satirical, but after a few days in Paris we realized it wasn’t.

You see, in Urinetown people have to pay to pee. And in Paris, assuming you can even find a toilet, you frequently have to pay to pee. Sometimes the price can be ridiculous too. One place wanted 2 Euro per person. Imagine paying over US$3 just to pee!?!

At the previously mentioned Luxembourg Park we paid to pee. Then we paid to have our kids get into the playground area. Only then did we find out that you can pee for “free” in the playground area after paying to get in. They really stick it to the tourist who doesn’t know the peeing particulars in Paris.

Paris as a vacation destination is overrated. People who have yet to visit the place imagine a clean, classy town with lots of charm and beauty. Perhaps, by looking only at the photos I have shared so far, you have been thinking the same. The reality is that Paris is very crowded, not very clean, and the occasional charms are not around every corner. In fact, thanks to the lack of public toilets and people trying to avoid having to pay to pee, public urination can be smelled as you walk the streets. Not pleasant. There were other strange odors in Paris as well, but what can you expect in Urinetown?

Related posts:

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3. Sacre-Coeur (part 2 of 2) We walked through the interior of Sacre-Coeur. Photography was not allowed, but it looked pretty similar to the other churches we’d been through in Paris with very high ceilings. Walking...
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Posted on August 25th, 2008 under Paris • Tags: Paris, urine town. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback