Muerrisch Posted 7 January , 2016 Share Posted 7 January , 2016 Another thread made me wonder ......... we all have a mental list of "where to go", "the good bogs guide", "lovely latrines" ............ At the risk of finding GWF members going in front of us, what is your list? In particular, facilities for the fair sex, please? If you want to help, please arrange them in the order Flanders, Somme, other. For starters: Hotel Ariane ......... buy a drink while you are there Tyne Cot Memorial Thiepval Delville Wood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fattyowls Posted 8 January , 2016 Share Posted 8 January , 2016 Grumpy, this could be the most practical and useful thread on the forum while I've been a member. Great idea. When I have been in the area the Museum at Fromelles has been a welcome port of call. Teddy and Phoebe's at the Ulster Tower has also been a welcome stop off for several reasons including calls of nature. Pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 8 January , 2016 Admin Share Posted 8 January , 2016 If you use the route Nationale from Calais, the Cafe Des Sports at Nordausques provides a welcome stop for coffee, a huge baguette sandwich and has a good clean lavatory. I think that my preference for finding a bush or tree to nip behind stems from the memory that when I first started visiting the battlefields over 30 years ago, good clean lavatories were a rarity, I am sure some of us have very bad memories of being shown into an appalling cubicle! Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 8 January , 2016 Share Posted 8 January , 2016 I once had a couple from the USA on a tour who complained bitterly that there were no public toilets in the forests of the Argonne. What I was supposed to do about it I have no idea, and why neither of them could go behind a tree is a mystery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassenach Posted 8 January , 2016 Share Posted 8 January , 2016 Remember you'll need a coin (50 cents, I think) at Tyne Cot. And a degree in physics to work out how to get in through the barriers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 8 January , 2016 Share Posted 8 January , 2016 Do the newish "visitor centres" at Ploegsteert Memorial and Lijssenthoek cemetery have bogs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShirlD Posted 8 January , 2016 Share Posted 8 January , 2016 yes to Lijssenthoek, that was a treat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelcave Posted 8 January , 2016 Share Posted 8 January , 2016 John, certainly the one at Ploegsteert does; I am not so sure about Lijssenthoek as I think it is 'unmanned' (unpersoned?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 8 January , 2016 Share Posted 8 January , 2016 why neither of them could go behind a tree is a mystery. Perhaps it is not insignificant that, seemingly, many Americans refer to toilets as the "bathroom". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheldrake Posted 8 January , 2016 Share Posted 8 January , 2016 Ieper Hill 60 museum - buy a coffee Passcendaele Museum Zonnebeke (loos by the public library) Somme Ulster Tower - buy a tea Delville Wood (if open) Newfoundland Park Argonne:(or anywhere ion france) Use a cafe. Good for Americans in particular to visit a proper tabac cafe especially where the ladies is accessed through le pissoir. I can recommend "chez Nicole(?)" at Choques, though i haventl had a cause to cvisit for a few years. A proper Estaminet. Bar in the front room with ironing and washing as well as an fishnet stockined crone drinking strong lager at 10.30 am . A lavatory , no, a BOG in the yard with a bucket of water to flush. Ooo la la Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 8 January , 2016 Share Posted 8 January , 2016 Anywhere recommended in the Festubert area, please Bogs - important. Bogs and coffee - preferable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burlington Posted 8 January , 2016 Share Posted 8 January , 2016 To add to the list Ocean Villas Teamoom in Auchonvillers on the Somme, but you should buy something of course. As indeed you should where the toilet is part of a commercial establishment. A rule valid not just for France but anywhere else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burlington Posted 8 January , 2016 Share Posted 8 January , 2016 Good for Americans in particular to visit a proper tabac cafe especially where the ladies is accessed through le pissoir. Not quite sure why this would be 'good' for our transatlantic friends though perhaps a touch of real life may not be a bad idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muerrisch Posted 8 January , 2016 Author Share Posted 8 January , 2016 I believe the Albert war museum has a reasonable khazi, but once upon a time there was only a very nasty set of fly-infested holes in the ground out the back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheldrake Posted 8 January , 2016 Share Posted 8 January , 2016 Anywhere recommended in the Festubert area, please Bogs - important. Bogs and coffee - preferable. How about the visitor centre at Frommelles? I haven't checked out the cemeteries in the la Basee festubert area, but many of the larger German war cemeteries seem to have a lavatory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannyboy1807 Posted 13 January , 2016 Share Posted 13 January , 2016 John, certainly the one at Ploegsteert does; I am not so sure about Lijssenthoek as I think it is 'unmanned' (unpersoned?). yeah Lijssentheok has a lovely toilet, always our first stop from the ferry on our way to Ypres. we go to the toilet get a print out of the died on this day go find him/her and go on our way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Scorer Posted 13 January , 2016 Share Posted 13 January , 2016 "1917 Passchendaele Museum, Zonnebeke (loos by the public library)" - there are toilets inside the main building ... I've used them! Some others that I know about (in no particular order): Hooge Crater Museum Messines Historical Museum St Nicholas Church, Messines * St Honore Church, Bouzincourt * The "Trenches of Death", Dixmuide Fort de Liezele, near Antwerp ** Talbot House In Flanders Fields, Museum, Ypres * as far as I can remember, anyway - they may not be open to everyone. ** as it also has a bar, it's very necessary! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Filsell Posted 13 January , 2016 Share Posted 13 January , 2016 So Its France and Flanders for the continent and the incontinent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Carter Posted 13 January , 2016 Share Posted 13 January , 2016 Could this be a bucket list Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartH Posted 13 January , 2016 Share Posted 13 January , 2016 Langemarck toilets in the cemetery are now closed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burlington Posted 13 January , 2016 Share Posted 13 January , 2016 At the very considerable risk of opprobrium, I just wonder if this problem is being overplayed. Logically, and I know that there are departures from logic(!), only one bodily function really requires a WC, As for t'other, well there is a nice hedge over these, a brick wall on your right, and how about that piece of woodland, or ploughed field over there? I write as one who has been around many WW1/2 sites, in mixed groups, where the sexes automatically split to appropriate places. Nowadays, I always go solo for long days on end, and (touch wood!) have never been 'inconvenienced', if you see what I mean After all, many places still have a cafe, and they have toilets. What is wrong with those? OK, I know that you should buy a drink, and have an emergency portion of toilet paper on your person but the latter is surely a pre-requisite of a traveller to foreign climes. Oops, back in a sec........... Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muerrisch Posted 13 January , 2016 Author Share Posted 13 January , 2016 There is such a thing as solo ladies .......... would you have them crouch on their own behind a hedge in daylight? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 13 January , 2016 Share Posted 13 January , 2016 Not to mention those of us who need wheelchairs to get any distance ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muerrisch Posted 13 January , 2016 Author Share Posted 13 January , 2016 Quite so. I call to mind a Monty Python-type sight on a Battlefields trip to the Somme, minibus, four couples. The men carted off to a clump of trees, whistled a few bars, did what they had to do and went back to the bus. No ladies to see. All was silent and serene. And then, from the cornfield [corn? wheat? oats?] behind the bus, first one head rose, then another, some 10 yards distance, then another and then the last. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD66 Posted 7 February , 2023 Share Posted 7 February , 2023 On 13/01/2016 at 10:13, The Scorer said: "1917 Passchendaele Museum, Zonnebeke (loos by the public library)" - there are toilets inside the main building ... I've used them! Some others that I know about (in no particular order): Hooge Crater Museum Messines Historical Museum St Nicholas Church, Messines * St Honore Church, Bouzincourt * The "Trenches of Death", Dixmuide Fort de Liezele, near Antwerp ** Talbot House In Flanders Fields, Museum, Ypres * as far as I can remember, anyway - they may not be open to everyone. ** as it also has a bar, it's very necessary! Off to The Salient for the first time in a long time in June. Will be visiting Mesen/Messines late on a Tuesday morning. Does anyone (@The Scorer?) know if the Café du Centre will be open then (website says not)? If not does anyone know whether the loos in the Museum or St Nicholas are still open/available Asking for fellow visitors whose baldders are not as strong as they used to be! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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