Wow - Anna Kay - I never realized that you took my room. I lived in the little garret room first until whoever was in the street-floor room vacated. I remember having to kill a huge black spider up there. Mme and Monsieur always sat in the kitchen, and I had to go through the kitchen to get to the bathroom - a bit uncomfortable to say the least... always had to stop and chit chat a bit - in and out.
Re: dorm showers. Where I moved to had minimal bathing facilities, so I would go occasionally to the dorms to take my shower - with a little bag for toiletries. Once when I had (luckily) just finished rinsing my hair, the caretaker turned the water off on me. I had to quickly dress and drop my bag out the window, down four floors and hightail it out of there.