No Place Like Home

What’s trending & what we think

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I remember the first time I encountered French plumbing. It had been my first trip to Europe and I stayed in a friend’s apartment. I was young, bright-eyed, and dazzled by the beauty of Paris in summer – and blissfully unaware of the not-so-pretty side of the French bathroom.

Perhaps it was because it was an old building or because it was student housing, but the toilet was a tiny room, dimly lit by a single naked bulb and located at the end of the hallway. To lock it, I had to fiddle with a broken latch attached to its splintery door.