Squiggy

Two weeks ago, I asked a travel agent friend to book a room for me at the Hotel Richmond in Rome for the last two days of our trip (we are starting off in Sorrento of which I have booked that portion of our trip myself). She promised to have the confirmation for the Rome hotel sent to me.

I have not been able to reach her, so I finally emailed the hotel myself. They emailed back stating they have no such reservation, but that they have one small room left with a French bed. At this point, I don't know if I will be able to book another hotel, I am so overwhelmed by the different areas of Rome and my boyfriend is absoletely no help in this regard.

Can anyone tell me what a French bed is? If it's a twin my boyfriend is getting the floor...

Thanks in advance for any help!

Squiggy

Dukey

I believe this may also be the same as the so-called "French Double" and as I recall that is two twins pushed together.

Travelnut

I have an idea it is like a "full" - that is, wider than a twin but narrower than a double. It's really best to ask the hotel to give you the measurements.

Travelnut

Since you're talking about Italy, read this:
http://www.vbella.com/essays/bed.asp

&quot;..The “one-and-a-half” bed. Also sometimes referred to as a <b>“French bed”</b>. In Italian, this is called a “piazza e mezza”. It’s what the French call a “grand lit”. It’s about 48 inches wide. It’s going the way of the dodo, but it’s still common enough to comment on. Some old-fashioned Italian owners consider this to be a suitable sleeping surface for 2 persons. We don’t, no matter how much in love we are at any particular moment. This is a bed we encourage all of our owners to avoid. But sometimes it’s there already. In this case, we describe it as a single bed. In fact, it’s great as a single bed...&quot;

Neopolitan

Travelnut is correct in that a French bed is basically less than a twin and a half in width. To put into perspective that French bed is about 6 inches in width LESS than a US double sized bed -- or a foot less than a queen bed.

Squiggy

Thanks everyone for the info! I just got an email response from the hotel. This is what they described it as:

&quot;It's smaller than king size, 20 cm less than the king size.&quot;

After reading all your responses, I'm now skeptical about how the hotel describes it, particularly their definition of bed sizes in Europe.

Boyfriend is a big guy and I don't think this is gonna work.

Off the find another hotel...

Thanks again for your quick responses.

Neopolitan

When they say it is 20 cms (7 - 8 inches) narrower than a king bed -- they are NOT talking about what we in the US call a king bed. It is about 28 inches narrower than a US king, and even narrower than that compared to a California King.

I think your idea to keep looking is wise.

BTilke

They seem to be waffling on the issue, not really giving you a concrete answer. If you are ready for one more email go round, ask if that means the bed is 160 cm wide (180 cm wide is usually considered a European king). And if that's one 160 cm wide mattress or 2 80 cm wide mattresses side by side in one frame. If it's less than 160 cm wide, then pass.
However, 160 cm wide is pretty comfortable. We had a bed that size for three years in Brussels and slept fine on it, even though neither my husband nor I are string beans.

stardust

In Flemish this bed is called a &quot;twijfelaar&quot;, which means a &quot;doubter&quot;. Quite a good name I think

Carlux

I live in France, and have bought a number of beds for my house and for those I manage - the sizes are

90 cm.wide by 190 long- twin
140 cm by 190- double
160 cm. by 200 queen - almost unavailable here until a few years ago, and so you don't always find them.
180 cm wide. Length can depend on where you buy them (normally 2 beds of 90 cm. each put together) king size. Very rare, given the size of most hotel rooms.

You could ask your hotel which size they mean.

Christina

This question has come up regularly, and it has nothing to do with France (re above guy). It's some weird term Germans came up with originally, I think, and it has been copied in Italy and some other countries around Germany. It because popular around the 1960s or so, when Germany started copying the French idea of having a real double bed rather than two twins. I have a friend who is German and lived there during that and she verified that it does not mean any particular size at all, it solely refers to a bed with a single mattress rather than two separate mattresses (which they often have next to each other, even in the same frame, but they are still two separate mattesses). She said Germans thought this was chic or sexy in the 1960s when they started going to France a lot for travel, and it just became trendy as a name fot ath kind of bed.

So, it does not refer to a particular size, although she said in Germany, it usually is about the size of a queen bed, but doesn't have to be. Now maybe Italy uses that term to generally mean one size, but I have no reason to doubt what that hotel said. But the only way to know for sure is just ask them exactly the size of the bed in cm, without all these terms (so much smaller than a king, etc). Surely they can tell you.