An Embarrassing Encounter

So, I was 21 years old traveling throughout Europe on my own in the 1970’s. I used my student loan monies to travel from New York to England initially to visit relatives. I then impulsively took a ferry crossing the English Channel onto the continent of Europe. travelling solo was exciting initially but when I arrived in Paris I recall feeling lonely and depressed.

I was in Paris at the time of this story and was all alone and feeling lonely. I just couldn’t eat another fine meal by myself nor enter another art museum alone, it began to feel overwhelming and I became homesick. Paris is a romantic city but not if you’re traveling alone.

I met a young man in the Pension lobby, who was from nearby where I was from in America, and we struck up a conversation. Since we hit it off so well, we decided to share a Pension for several days to save money and share companionship. We had a lot in common and it felt like a good idea to room together and to have a roommate.

He seemed safe and respected my boundaries of this being a friendly agreement and a cost saving plan to share a room.

We would go downstairs to the shops to get baguettes, cheeses, meats and wine, and eat meals in our Pension room. The bed became our table and we enjoyed romantic picnics in our room. We had great conversations and enjoyed the camaraderie we shared.

We took train rides to nearby cultural and artistic events and went folk dancing and enjoyed the time that we spent together. One night, we ate at a cafe in Avignon, France, and when I needed a toilet, the waiter led me through the cafe kitchen, to a back alley with a sunken toilet in a stall, with no running water to wash my hands. Oh well, if only this would have been the worst of my problems to come regarding using a toilet.

We returned to our Pension and it seemed that we were going to become intimate. My friend napped upon return and as he napped I used the “toilet” in our room that resembled a low sink, to go to the bathroom! To my horror, I realized that debris didn't flush but sprayed upwards! I realized that I had toileted in the bidet! Not the toilet which was down the hall. Without waking my friend I found an implement to scoop up the matter, run it down the hall, and flush it in the proper toilet! I scrubbed my hands clean afterwards. I was humiliated by the mess I made and prayed that my friend didn’t awaken in the middle of this fiasco, and after all of this I lost my libido. When my friend awoke I told him what had happened and we enjoyed a good laugh and nothing more. In the morning we parted ways and wished one another au revoir.