I just received an email from an apartment manager in Paris. He says that a French king sized bed is 160 centimeters wide.

If my conversion is correct, that is 63 inches or 5 feet, 3 inches. A US king bed is about 6 feet, or 9 inches wider. So the French king is about equal to our queen bed in width, which is 60 inches wide.

A US king is 76 inches according to this source:
http://www.craftmatic.com/pages/quee...ress-size.html

The owner is wrong. A French king is 180cm wide, a queen 160 and a double 140. Of course the idea of double, queen and king comes from the US (or UK?). In France most people refer to the bedding as 140, 160 or 180.

If you are used to a King then 160 is small - I have two beds together making it 180 and that is still smaller than the King that we are accustomed to. I usually try to get a twin room which is normally two beds together which will be 180.
We are so spoiled condsidering years ago a double was sufficient
Pat

A king equivalent is the 180cm by 200 (sometimes 210) bed. We slept for several years on a 160cm wide bed and it was perfectly comfortable, the extra few inches did make it better than an American queen.
However, he may have been referring to a UK king size, which is smaller than an American king. The UK equivalent of an American king is a "super king", or so we've seen while bedshopping in Berkshire.

Maybe the apartment manager is wrong, but if he is calling a 160 cm bed a French king, then that's what you can expect from his apartments.

Does it come with one of those nasty 1.60cm-long cylindrical pillows?

I live in London, and we have an American Queen size bed which is considered King size here in Europe. And we know that from buying sheets over the years, both in the UK and in France. I haven't actually measured our bed, but as we originally bought it in the US, I would imagine it is a standard US size.

Naming bed sizes in Europe is a crapshoot at best. My favorites are those that say things like "a large Queen size bed" -- well, is it Queeen sized or not?
And about the idea of putting two twins together to make a king (that is often done in the US as well) -- in Europe sometimes they put two "singles" together which are about 30 inches wide, not the 36 - 38 of a regular twin bed. In fact I think that's where the original mixup occurs in bob brown's post. If they put two beds together they call that a king -- but if those two beds were only 30 inches wide to start with, then you end up with the equivalent of a queen, not a king. So they're really "cheating" to call 63 inches a king, but probably do so because it's like putting two "singles" together. Most Americans would call a "single" bed rather than a twin bed -- a cot!

I didn't think the French still HAD Kings ... I thought they were a parliamentary democracy. And if you were King wouldn't you think the size of your bed was your own busines????

Well, they may not still have Kings, but anyone who's been to Paris can attest to the fact that there are a lot of Queens running run.

Sorry.

Yes, 140, 160 or 180 centimeters it is - unless the mattress is custom made (one can still have a mattress made to order here). Convert to inches and check that against your actual, or dream, bed.

I see, bob, that we're both looking for the same thing as this is exactly my predicament. I am currently in the process of looking for a Paris apartment, and I have found beds places that say they have a double, queen, king, and American king. I had to laugh at an email I got today from one that listed it as a king. I could tell from the photo that it wasn't what I think of as an American King. Sure enough, it was only 160 cm wide. Another place had a queen, and thru emails found out it was 160. I can't figure it out.

I even had one reply that said something like, "It's a French King," with no measurement. Well, I crossed them off my list.

And FYI, the one listed with the American King came back with a 200x200 measurement. Now, that's what I call a bed!

And don't forget to look at what the bedframes look like. If they've got a massive footboard and you're tall, there's no place for your feet to hang off the end.

Only way to satisfy yourself is to get the measurements ahead of time.

These are the measurements I use:

Queen 60x84 (1.6 x 2.15 cm)
Eastern King 76x86 (2. x 2.05)
CA King 72x84 (1.85 x 2.15)

My bed in TX is 72x78 (183x198 cm)