Winter has arrived without a doubt in the Northwest of England so we have changed over to the winter weight duvet.
Perhaps there are still a few people like me who can remember a time before duvets in English bedrooms, although there is a popular song in these parts called "when I was a lad" which refers to greatcoats on the bed!
The first duvet I encountered was shortly after completing my National Service in the Military Police and spending most of that in the Suez Canal zone I decided to take a hitchhiking holiday in France.
I set off from the ferry at Calais and headed for P\aris and got some lifts on the way, and spend a couple of nights in the little bivouac tent I carried astride my haversack. I spoke no french. Although I had learned some French at school, whatever I knew at 16 had disappeared by the time I was 21 so I relied on a French/English phrasebook, much to the amusement of any french person I tried to speak to. I was able to speak the french phrases quite fluently which gave the impression that |I knew what I was saying but unfortuna\gtely I could not understand any replies. Still, I got by although for the most part I lived on bread and cheese which I could buy just by pointing.
Obviously, I did not use the main routes and did a fair amount of walking on the quiet country roads. One day I had not got any lifts so was quite tired by the end of the day and I knew that I was still some way from the Amiens, the nearest town. Seeing a sign on the gatepost of a farm I went in and asked for a room for the night.
No English was spoken at this house but I was welcomed being both young and English. I was given a good meal of soup and some homegrown ham and bread and then shown to the bedroom. Anyone familiar with "Allo Allo" would recognize the room, a sloping ceiling and a large iron bedstead with an enormous feather-filled duvet which I assumed was an eiderdown.
I was a little nonplussed at first as there was no sheet under the duvet, not knowing that this was not regarded as necessary, and getting in the bed the weight of the cover took some getting used to. But I was tired and soon adjusted and slept like a log until close to midday the following day much to the amusement of my hosts. Still, I had breakfast and was on my way after paying a very trifling amount which I am sure was much below the going rate even for then.
