French bedding mystery

Does anyone know if it is totally unfamiliar to the French to sleep with a down duvet instead of the (rather frustrating !) bedding of blanket-and-sheet ?

I always bring my own light summer duvet and stove away the blanket in the hotelroom closet.

I find the blanket-sheet thing to be unhygienic. Even though the sheet is totally clean, the blanket is not (I guess) washed between guests. To me at least it is practically impossible not to get entangled in the blanket when you move in your sleep at night - I find that rather unappetizing.

So I just wondered if maybe you in the more upscale hotels get down duvets ?

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Gitte - as I know you Danes have been into the use of quilts longer than the rest of us in Europe, but I guess the answer to your question is to do with economics and the ease of laundering.

Having stayed in various hotels in Paris we have got into the habit of checking the bed on arrival.

Our last trip last week the sheets were changed every day, whereas in the same hotel it used to be every other day or more.

As for the blankets I suppose this comes under one of those things you just have to not think about!

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I have never had a hotel with a duvet before always with blankets and sheets, this was in hotels rated between 3 and 5 stars in various US cities, Paris, Amsterdam, London and Madrid amongst others! I think it is quite unusual to have a duvet in a hotel, although it would certainly be very nice! Perhaps we should start lobbying for it!!

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Come to Scandinavia and you will never leave your bed with its soft, warm, fluffy goose-down duvets...

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In nicer hotels in the US you would have a third sheet on top of the blanket-so you would have contact only with the sheets. BTW where I live in San Diego even a summer weight duvet would be overkill about three-quarters of the year!

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The Sofitel MyBed features a down duvet as well as a feather bed. One of the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in!

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You raise an interesting point about the cleanliness of hotel blankets which leads one to ponder the same about the room carpets, the towels, even the bed mattresses themselves (and let%26#39;s not resurrect any of the bed bug threads). Does anyone think those neatly folded blankets found subsequently wrapped snuggly around an airline passenger were cleaned after use by the numerous, previous passengers, or the pillows?

Microscopic distastefulness lurks everywhere and if there weren’t enough reasons to drink just to forget, here’s another one. Ultimately we have no choice, (other than locking ourselves in our homes and wearing a filtered breathing apparatus while we vacuum the rugs), than to just accept our condition and hope for the best.

I agree that the duvet concept is arguably the best sleeping system but I have only found it consistently available at hotels in colder, mountainous regions, i.e. Savoie, Haute Savoie, perhaps Auvergne.

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Hello Gittek,

How do you use feather beds with duvet covers?

May I ask how often you have to launder the duvet cover? Had one in a monthly rental and seemed the manager thought we were nuts washing it regularily...There was no top sheets. Did we do something wrong?.....A real pain to get the cover off and back on too.

If a duvet is supplied by a hotel, do they wash the cover regularily? Isn%26#39;t it pretty similiar to sheets and a blanket then?

I have a couple which I use on the bottom, covered with a mattress pad and fited sheet and one used as a spread on the top.

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Hi Bea

I don%26#39;t know what a feather bed is (?) but as to the use of duvets (fat ones in the winter, light ones in the summer):

At home I change and wash our bed linen every week (or week-and-a-half if I%26#39;m really lazy) - that is the sheet that you lie on, the cover for the pillow and the duvet cover.

If the weather is fine and dry I put the duvets out to freshen up on the clothes-lines in the garden (also in frosty weather, as frost kills all the germs, dust-mites and other sorts of creep....).

You think that it is hard work to take off/put on the duvets covers - well, you get used to it. I find the blanket+sheet thing equally as tricky to handle.

i find the duvet thing more appealing (also in hotels) because even though the duvet has been used by other guests, the cover %26quot;on both sides%26quot; secures that you don%26#39;t roll around directly in a blanket housing other peoples dried up sweat and farts (If you%26#39;ll pardon my French).

Duvets can either be washed in a large washing machine or sent to the laundry for professional washing (once a year is enough, I%26#39;d say).

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Bea: and in hotels they naturally put on clean duvet covers, the same way as they change the bed sheet in France - thats is clean bed linen every time there%26#39;s a new guest coming to the room.

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Gittek,

To answer your question, a lot of French people sleep in duvets at home. But in hotels, it is another story. I have never seen duvets in hotels, anywhere in the world.