Toilets on French Intercities train

Yes there are.

Yup... Some older trains, one per carriage. Some modern trains, one or two per three or four carriages.

All trains except commuter trains and métro have toilets. I.e. all those you will be on for more than about 20-30 minutes.
There will be one or two at the end of each coach. There is often an green/red "engaged" light you can see from your seat. Modern trains have a larger disabled toilet, though only one or two per train, not in every coach

Are French trains modernized with holding tanks or do some of the older trains still use drop chute toilets?

I was last on a drop toilet train a year or two ago, but I haven't checked since.

In France, Nigel? I haven’t seen one in years.

My memory gets old.

I think it was going south from Luxembourg towards Metz. But I may be wrong. Could have been Luxembourg towards Brussels in which case it would have been a Belgian train. Oh I hate it when I have a memory bubble. I certainly remember the wind flowing about.... I thought it was the Metz bit. Oh well...

I am so glad I found this forum. ;-)

Haven't been on a French train recently but within the last two years encountered drop shutes on Italian and German trains. Just be careful with your cell phone. You will not get it back.

I have been on regional trains that have toilets but they are all locked and the train stations often have no facilities either. I would not get on a train in Paris unless it were a TGV without hitting the head at the train station before boarding. Learned this the hard way.

Very clean on the TGV

Thank you everyone!

Mom was right - '"go before you go!"

Railroads do not want passengers to use the drop chute toilets at train station stops.

I don't know if they still have those toilets on European trains, but the locked toilets on regional trains are not just in stations.

Denise,

Just make sure you always carry some tissue in your purse because sometimes the train toilets don’t have any.

Have a wonderful trip!

A song to the tune of Humoresque:

Passengers will please refrain
From flushing toilets while the train
Is standing in the station, I love you.

We encourage constipation
While the train is in the station
Moonlight always makes me think of you.....