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Sunday, June 26, 2011

What is Middle-Class Anyway? Bathroom Edition

If you have not already, head over to Passage des Perles and read the post and comments on this vexed issue. I have been thinking about all this since we got to Europe. Here we are in a town near Nantes, thanks to the generosity of one of Frugal Son's teachers. She and her husband are spending 5 weeks in Sri Lanka. They spent 5 weeks in China last year. Middle-class? Higher?

I have, as readers may know, been whining about my tiny, tiny bathrooms. Here we are, in a small house with four bedrooms. Upstairs, through one of the bedrooms, is a tiny bathroom. It contains a tiny shower and a tiny sink. No toilet.

Where is the toilet? Downstairs, in a tiny cubicle with no sink. That's the bathroom situation.

Mr FS and I have been amusing ourselves, imagining the responses of our middle-class parents to the bathroom situation. They--and most other middle-class Americans--would find the bathroom components ludicrous, unacceptable.

All I know is that I am re-thinking my renovation plans. A definite downsizing of what I thought of as frugal plans!

3 comments:

Duchesse said...

Yes, it is relative. That's a great reason to travel. And somehow, everything that needs to be done in both rooms gets done.

Hope you are having a wonderful time!

Kay said...

I suppose after using the toilet you could just use hand-sanitizer.

Shelley said...

Water closets are less and less common here in the UK, but they still exist. Some have a small sink installed for post toilet hygiene, but many, perhaps most, do not. This is the first I've heard of the 'bathroom components' being on separate floors, but in Europe I'd hardly be very surprised at just about anything I found. And I generally find it quite charming because it is so unusual. I've just returned from 3 weeks in the US (I'll be blogging about that soon) and more than anything I was reminded of how spoiled we Americans are. Hope you're having a great time in France!