The French have invented many things: taxis, the hot air balloon, internal combustion engine, inflatable tyres, sewing machine, bikini (arguable), cafetière, Braille, camera phone, hairdryer, parachute and that great public utility, the urinoir, or, to give it its more familiar and descriptive name, the pissoir. Although, to be fair, the French simply embraced Roman enterprise.
Throughout their long history, French of all ranks and station, have urinated in the streets, a predisposition untrammelled by feelings of embarrassment not even when the target of their emissions was a palace wall or even the statue of a king. *
Unlikely as it may seem, in 1809 Napoleon was heading for Spain with his wife Josephine, when she experienced ‘un besoin très pressant’, just as they were passing a vineyard called Congaillard.
Ever since, a Gironde wine bears the name La Pissotière de l'Impératrice (The urinal of the Empress) , produced by Les Vignobles Soum in Marsas. I can't say I've ever seen it on the wine list of any restaurants I've visited, but, if it was there, you’d order it, just for the hell of it, surely?