s'eteindre
glaner

lit

Bunk Beds (c) Kristin Espinasse
"Bunk beds". Smokey (upper bunk) and Braise demonstrate one of today's vocabulary words: les lits superposés. (P.S. Thanks to 14-year-old Jackie for her helpful photo styling. She managed to get our dogs to bunk together. Not an easy task!) Thanks to The Dirt Divas, Doreen and Malou, for all of the beautiful flowers that are currently thriving in my garden!


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le lit (leuh lee)

    1. bed
    2. layer (of earth, ash, potatoes...)
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Audio File: Today, listen to Jean-Marc read the French words in the next two columns! Enjoy! Download MP3 or Audio File

le lit pliant = folding bed
le lit d'ami = spare bed
le lit conjugal = marriage bed
les lits superposés = bunk beds
les lits jumeaux = twin beds
le lit à baldaquin = four-poster bed with canopy 

Expressions: 

faire lit à part = to sleep in separate beds
faire le lit = to make the bed
au lit! = time for bed!
clouer au lit = to be stuck in bed or bed-ridden
mourir dans son lit = to die of natural causes

Reverse Dictionary

bed head (hair)= les cheveux chiffonnés
bed linen = la literie
bed wetter = un pissenlit (Note! This term is pejorative--except when using its original meaning: "daisy")
water bed = le matelas à eau
to go to bed = se coucher
to go to sleep (child) = faire dodo
to get up on the wrong side of the bed = se lever du pied gauche 

BOOK UPDATEFor our Red-Penners or voluntary editors... here is the next chapter in the Vignettes book I am working on. Let me know if the four paragraph story "Tourterelle" is something to keep... or something to delete! Click here.

A Day in a French Life... by Kristin Espinasse
Bed Talk 

Things that come to mind when I think of French beds.

LA TAILLE/SIZE

French beds are narrower than the beds in California King-size America—though bigger beds are catching on, and you can now find draps measuring 180 x 200 cm.

LES ACCESSOIRES/ACCESSORIES

What about bed skirts? The translation exists (le cache sommier) but where are these clever hide-its? Are they the exception (like shower curtains?) in France?

And now's the time to talk about pillows, which are square or tubular and not often rectangular. The tubular pillows even have a name: le traversin (does the name come from the pillow's way of traversing the head of the bed?)

Note: the traversin may also be known as le polochon (bolster), from which we get the term "pillow fight": le combat or la bataille de polochons! (But you can still say bataille d'oreiller, if you prefer!)

LA HAUTEUR/HEIGHT

Apart from mezzanines, French beds tend to be lower to the ground. I know a few French women who put blocks beneath the foot end of the bed. The elevation seems to soothe their jambes lourdes.

LA TERMINOLOGIE/TERMINOLOGY

Funny bed-associated words like le sommier (box spring), le drap (sheet), la couette (duvet), le pot de chambre (chamber pot), la bouillotte (hot water bottle), la moustiquaire (mosquito net)....

LES CHEVEUX/HAIR

Back home we call those plastered morning locks "bed head". Here, the French call this condition les cheveux chiffonnées. (Update, thanks, Millie, for writing in with these French synonyms: cheveux ébouriffés, cheveux indisciplinés, cheveux fous)

 

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Smokey offers a popular solution to bed head, or les cheveux chiffonnées: le chapeau!

DSC_0020
Smokey says, "Dad and Mom get bed head too! The condition is embarrasing to Dad (just look at that expression on his face!). Mom could care less about messy hair--give her a cookie and all vanity goes out the window!" (Sam, pictured left, and Mama Braise).

Le Coin Commentaires

What are your minimum requirements for a good night's sleep? Have you ever slept in a French bed? Do you keep something to drink on the table de nuit, or nightstand? Windows and curtains open or closed? Ear plugs or background noise? Click here to join in the discussion.

French Vocabulary

le traversin = bolster (pillow)

les jambes lourdes = legs that feel heavy

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We end this lit edition with a makeshift bed and a question: where is your favorite, coziest place to sleep? Leave your answer here, in the comments box.

Thanks for forwarding this edition to a marmot. (une marmotte = someone who loves to sleep)

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Comments

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Julie F in St. Louis, MO

What a coincidence that you posted all of these bed facts. Since I'm dealing with yet another French bed on my stay here I was thinking of writing my own post on the subject. One of my complaints is that they seem to like everything too soft - mattress, pillow, etc. They just always seem to remind me of the bad beds we had in college, something we found on the sidewalk and dragged back to our apartment. But then they go overboard dressing it up with pillow shams, bolsters, duvet covers that attach in complicated ways. Does France even sell firm pillows that support the neck? But I endure because at least the uncomfortable bed is located in France.

C. De Coincy

http://frenchmorning.com/ny/2012/06/19/les-americains-dorment-plus-et-mieux-que-les-francais/

Here's an article that showed up this morning about French vs American sleeping habits. I always find French beds mushy, but on the other hand, because older French buildings are often designed around courtyards, bedrooms are quieter.

J. Viescas

You forgot canapé lit - sofa bed.

As for finding "firm" mattresses in France, the best source is IKEA.

Debra

Amusing, open, and upbeat...all the things I think of when I think of you and your lovely family. Thank you for you.

Comfy place? hmmmm....my sofa. The sofa is my favorite place to just nap, read or rest. It has the right balance of firm yet soft feel to it. It is almost 12 years old so who knows many naps it has left?


p.s. I love the format of this 'bed'/lit edition. Well done!

Many hugs,
Debra

Della near finally cloudy, cool, breezy (for the day) Denver

Wow! Who knew! So, I looked up pictures and now have a question about those 'le traversin'.

Does one go all the way across the bed or does each person have their own?

JULES GREER - PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO

DARLING KRISTI,

Of course you know where my favorite bed is -

Over the years I have experienced many beds in France, all of them delightful in their own French way. I am pausing right now as my mind flips back through my memory bank - I guess I had better leave out a few of these details. Yes - I did spend a week at the Ritz in Paris in 1979 - Kristi you should post that photo one of these days.

My favorite bed in the world is the little mattress Kristi had laid on the floor at the base of her giant window in her office - we had decorated it with a burgundy colored spread topped off with barrel like Chinese pillow we had found in some brocant (sp?). Kristi had parked me in the guest room but each night I would sneak into her office and lie with my face against the window and gaze out over the vineyard watching the stars and mountains all night long. Kristi's office is on the second floor so the view was breathtaking. Almost nightly Max and Jackie would sneak into Kristi's office dragging little yard mattresses that they would place close to my bed and spend the night with me. Needless to say Kristi felt invaded and over the years they have tried to locate me in different rooms of their home. Last year they finally fixed up a little apartment (the original kitchen/living-room of the old house before they added on the new section of their home. It wasn't the same for my heart.

Kristi doesn't know this - one night Jean-Marc whispered to me, "One day I could maybe make a door from Kristi's office into the guest room and turn that into a little kitchen for you, then you could have Kristi's office for your bed." How precious of Jean-Marc to plant the seed of a lovely dream for my old age.

Needless to say Kristi has moved that little mattress totally out of her office, she must have sensed the coming invasion of MOM.

XOXO

JULES

David

whoops - Kristi, the caption on the picture of Smokey wearing the hat so as not to show off his "bed hair" says "la chapeau" -- surely it must ber "le chapeau"??

keep up the good work, and keep us on our toes...

Judi Miller, Lake Balboa, CA

Sine I have now been visiting my daughter in MS I can really relate to Jules' story! I love sleeping on her couch in her office. There's a hanging birdhouse outside the window next to the bed. Nicole's two cat jump up on the back of the sofa to watch the birds - a couple of cardinals this morning! But, the best 'bird' this morning is my daughter wh just came in to work on her dissertation!!

Kristin - maybe not so romantic or dreamlike but I have a book idea for you! You could right a book with vocabulary chockfull of words needed to set up a French home. Just doing the 'lit' thing today shows how much there is to know that would be so helpful. And, you could weave wonderful stories around each room and all it's accouterments. What a help and what a vocabulary lesson immersed in your wonderful vignettes!!

Herm Meyer

Salut Kristin,

Before I got my “new” knee and during the rehab, it was very painful to bend my knee. That made it difficult to get under the covers, so I just slept on top of the covers and a electric blanket. I still do 3 + years later.

Judi Miller, Lake Balboa, CA

I knew I should have checked my writing. I hate autofill sometimes my 'right' should have been 'write' of course. ( but I probably missed the 'w' and it ended up 'right'. Wrong! Haha. Oh my, I just saw some other misspelled word, etc. Letting those go -I always have problems using the tiny keyboard on my iPod but I just wasn't quite ready to leave my 'lit' to get up and turn on my computer. Your stories are like 'le petit dejeuner en lit!!' thus iPod responses!

Gigi Richard

and a futon is a canapé clic-clac! Have you noticed how the pillowcases for the tube pillows (les traversins) aren't necessarily sewn on one end...they're just a tube? I have really enjoyed discovering all of these wonderful differences and am sad that our 6-month stay in france is coming to an end.

Ex-Expat

I love how a good foam mattress is standard and sold at the market! Not given the name "Temperpedic" and then extremely overpriced.... :)

Julie S.

So, what was in Jean-Marc's sacoche that was so surprising?

diana

What Smokey needed was some cushions!
diana

G G

I love to nap on the sofa with my two cats. The tabby MUST sleep under the blanket--it doesn't matter how hot it is. The other curls up at my feet. If I can't sleep,too bad, I'm trapped, but feel loved. Aaaahh.

Cynthia Lewis in Salisbury, Eastern Shore of Maryland

Jackie, you did a fantastic job with the photo of Braise and Smokey demonstrating bunkbeds! It is a photo to be framed and hung where it can be admired every day. Mille mercis.

I, too, enjoyed today's format with the many words concerning beds and the differences between French and American...so many new words and expressions to remember. (Isn't a "pissenlit" also a dandelion...so called because the dandelion has diuretic properties?)

We have a long comfortable couch which has "traveled" with us over the last fifty years. Great grandmothers, grandmothers, aunts,uncles,brothers, our children and friends have all slept on it...lots of memories there. It has been recovered and still welcomes those in need of a nap or an entire night's rest. Best wishes, Cynthia

Kristin Espinasse

Della, those traversins go across the head of the bed and can be shared or used as a body pillow

Julie F., will look forward to you post. PS Hope to see you in July

David, thanks for the helpful edit--I need to fix it at the next chance.

Mom, you can sleep wherever you want --just please keep sharing your stories!

Julie S, Aha, you didnt forget! I need to write that story... First JM needs to give me the items I found in his bag. Ha! How is that for suspence?

Judi, no worries about typos and thanks for the encouragement!

Millie

Wow, a lot of words to memorize today. Kristin, tu as fait une faute de frappe... par étouderie... CHEVEUX et pas LES CHEVEAUX/HAIR. et c'est LA hauteur et pas L'hauteur...
It's the first time I heard of bed head and "cheveux chiffonnés" (cheveux, masculin pluriel). You're probably right since I've forgotten a lot of my French. However, I remember vêtements chiffonnés mais... cheveux ébouriffés, cheveux indisciplinés, cheveux fous... before.
For your list of vocabulary, may I add few terms I know...
lit à la duchesse = lit à baldaquin
lit simple = single bed
lit double = double bed
couvre-lit, dessus-de-lit = bedspread
saut-de-lit = robe
enfants du même lit = siblings
énurésie = bed wetting

Odile

and never forget: "Comme on fait son lit on se couche!" Odile ,in Eagle-Rock, CA

Natalia

Hi dear Kristin,
What a wonderful post today!
Loved all the vocabulary!
ESPECIALLY enjoyed those beautiful pictures!!
Love, Natalia XO

Aixcentric

Some really good useful vocabulary today and lovely photos- thank you.
On pillows and cushions - what is it with hotels these days? It seems the norm is to layer about 8 on the bed so you have to bundle them all up and find a place for them before you can get in!!

Kristin Espinasse

THanks, Millie, for the corrections and synonyms for *cheveux chiffonnées* -- and merci beaucoup for the extra expressions for *lit* :-)

Jan  Hersh

Me voici
Sur mon lit
A Californie
Mes reveries
Restent a Paris
Mon coeur aussi
Tant pis tantrum pis

Jan  Hersh

I should have pressed edit...the iPad likes to take over my spelling. The last line should read - Tant pis tant pis!

Suzie Jennings

Well, I want to talk about the round, bolster pillows I saw for the first time in the trip we just took to a gite, French Country Cottage, near Nevers. The 1,000 year old farm of Madame and Monsieur Toytot was our dreamy location for 4 chilly, charming days in May. The delightful couple is in their 80's and don't speak a word of English, so I had great fun, understanding them, AND their little dog Bob of the big personality. I wish I could attach photos. Without being invasive, they treated us like family, fed us dessert and took us with their friends to a nearby castle of a friend of his....

Again, Kristen, hated missing your tasting, but will be back!
Suzie Jennings

Janine Cortell

Bonsoir Kristin:
Here's one to make you laugh. How about a pissenlit? I really enjoyed this newsletter.
When I was on sabbatical in France many years ago I had the hardest time finding comfy pillows. But I am sure that has changed.
I never used the traversin because it bothered my head. I have never understood how the French sleep with them.

Helen Kannegiesser

Hi Kristin,
I live in Windhoek, Namibia, and have been thoroughly enjoying your French Word a Day, since a friend forwarded the address to me. We have a very active French breakfast group, which meets every Thursday morning to have breakfast together and chat in French. In this way, we try to keep up and also improve our French,
Well done on a very readable blog and gorgeous photos!

Eileen deCamp

I love this one.....les cheveux chiffonnés!

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