


It was so important to him that he even passed it down to his son in his last will and testament. The silver acted as a natural anti-microbial and kept the piece of furniture clean and sanitary no matter where he was. One of the most well-known bidets in recent history was Napoleon Bonaparte’s silver bidet which he took with him in all of his travels.

The affluent members of French society weren’t “going to wash their bums in a bowl,” they were instead going to “visit Le Bidet.” Sounds a lot nicer doesn’t it? Napoleon’s Bidet “Bidet” is actually the French word for “pony.” Likely this term was created as a euphemism to describe the way that one would straddle the fancy bowl to clean themselves. Up until then, even the wealthiest kings and queens of the world still had to use a traditional stone or wood-carved latrine and were lucky if they had some extra water for plumbing purposes. This was one of the first times in recorded history that toilets were designed to be nice. Bidet crafting became an ornate art form, and it turned the act of using the bathroom into a stylish and classy experience.Īfter handling their business, the wealthy French aristocrats could clean themselves in a porcelain bowl with beautiful inlay and painting work laid into an ornate mahogany chair. Once they came into style they weren’t going out. Most give credit to the French furniture maker Christopher Des Rosiers for creating one of the world’s first bidets. According to the World Toilet Organization (yes there is such a thing), the term was first coined in 1710 in a French publication, so historians tend to lean more towards the French side. The word “bidet” has a very European ring to it doesn’t it? Among toiletologists, the debate is that either the Italians or the French created the first widely-used fancy bidet system. However, the bidet itself isn’t just a means of cleaning yourself with water, but rather an artistic or technologically-oriented design meant to make the user feel clean and comfortable about what they were doing. After all, it doesn’t take a lot of ingenuity to wash yourself with water after you use the toilet. It’s almost impossible to pinpoint the first-ever use of a bidet. Well, today we’re going to take a dive into the history of this interesting toilet technology and do our best to answer some of these pressing questions. Regardless of your stance, however, wouldn’t you be interested to know where they came from and who was the first to use them? At their most advanced, they are fully robotic toilet seat attachments with self-cleaning anti-microbial technology and laser-sharp aim. At their most primitive, they are small containers of water with a special pouring cup. One of the strangest things for many tourists to get used to are the different toilet habits practiced in different countries.ĭepending on where you are, you may come into contact with quite a few different styles of bidets. They come in all shapes and sizes and in some places they completely take the place of toilet paper. If you’ve spent any amount of time traveling the world, then you’ve no doubt come across a few bidets in your lifetime.

Ever wanted to know the history of how the modern bidet came to be? From primitive buckets to Napoleon’s silver bidet, here’s everything you need to know about the history of the bidet.
