In my lifetime the French petrol station toilets went from horrible squat toilets where you needed to bring your own paper to pretty well maintained, mostly really clean experiences.
There are still some stops without petrol stations that have unmanned toilets. Those can be a bit rough, but generally it’s really good.
Yeah these days the standard on the toilets have gone way up (and stayed free, looking at you Belgium/NL), TBH for me even the unmanned ones are okay in case of emergency, it’s more that these stops lack a simple row of vending machines imo so I only use them if I really just need a quick bio break, they could be so much better as a more nature/calm alternative to the ones with shops.
The big stations along “autoroute du soleil” have been huge for a while though, at least since my childhood over 30 years ago. Beaune, Montélimar, etc.
In my lifetime the French petrol station toilets went from horrible squat toilets where you needed to bring your own paper to pretty well maintained, mostly really clean experiences.
There are still some stops without petrol stations that have unmanned toilets. Those can be a bit rough, but generally it’s really good.
Yeah these days the standard on the toilets have gone way up (and stayed free, looking at you Belgium/NL), TBH for me even the unmanned ones are okay in case of emergency, it’s more that these stops lack a simple row of vending machines imo so I only use them if I really just need a quick bio break, they could be so much better as a more nature/calm alternative to the ones with shops.
The big stations along “autoroute du soleil” have been huge for a while though, at least since my childhood over 30 years ago. Beaune, Montélimar, etc.