The designer TOTO appliance virtually steals the show it has a heated seat, bidet and wall-mounted control panel.

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Or is the bidet's demise a sign of falling standards of hygiene never something for which the French have been especially praised?

ECONOMIST: France��s bathroom blues

Forty years ago, barely a quarter of French houses had a bath or shower, let alone the luxury of a bidet.

ECONOMIST: France��s bathroom blues | The

The Plumbing Fixtures Business segment covers the sanitary ware, bidet-equipped shower toilets, water faucets, washstands, bathtubs, unit bathrooms, kitchen systems, washstand fixtures, and washstand cabinet units.

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She was "frantic, " Ms. Chaplin says, and expressed concern that "it would be bordering on unhealthy and unsafe" if a bidet wasn't installed immediately.

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Ms. Chaplin from BCCG recalls getting daily phone calls from the Saudi Arabian mother of one Suffolk freshman because her son's off-campus apartment lacked a bidet.

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So did Mr. Carey, though one man explaining to another what a bidet is and isn't, and does and doesn't do, is a rather awkward-making experience.

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Japan's ANA, for instance, is outfitting its new 787 fleet with gender-segregated bathrooms that have windows and bidet-toilets ("Washlets") that offer warm, pressurized water jets for a fresher clean than one-ply paper.

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Notwithstanding their attachment to the bidet (derived from the French word for pony, being similarly bestridden), the otherwise sophisticated French have long had a reputation for a certain blithe disregard for personal cleanliness.

ECONOMIST: France��s bathroom blues | The