Toilet Paper

One of the nice things about having people to stay is that we get soft toilet paper. The first time I went abroad I was 21, I went to France rock climbing in my new Triumph spitfire (like the one I have now but blue). Befotre then I hadn't had any exposure to other cultures since we always went on holiday in Wales, the Welsh are just like the English except a bit shorter, that's because they used to earn there living going down mines (survival of the fittest etc.). I had studied French for about 8 years but still couldn't put together a single sentence however I had learnt that French people have different toilets to the English. I spent the week with a French family who I'd met in a climbing shop in Coventry, it was with great trepidation that I made my first trip to the toilet, what would I find in there? Surprisingly it was just like the toilet we had at home so I sat down relieved that everything was normal. After some minutes I reached for the toilet roll holder but was horrified by what I found. Attached to the wall was a square container which upon closer inspection contained 10 or 20 squares of cardboard, so that's the difference, they use cardboard not paper, but how? A scraper perhaps? I decided that the scraping option was out of the question for my English bottom so set about separating the layers of cardboard then scrunching it up so it was soft enough to use. About half an hour later, finished with the business I stood up and turned around to flush the chain. On a shelf above the toilet were stacked several square packages of toilet paper, each with a sheet of cardboard at the top and bottom. So thats when I discovered, not even the French use cardboard to wipe their bottoms.