Le Traversin
The only pillow that's made for not sleeping...
One of the oddest things you’ll find in France is the traversin, a round pillow that’s specifically designed to not make you sleep. I’ve never understood the square pillows in France since most people move their heads from side to side when they sleep, as you do on rectangular pillows, whereas with square pillows, you can only move up and down. I’ve not slept with a lot of people so can’t say for sure, but I think most people move side to side. (I could ask Romain for permission to do more research, but I’m not that kind of guy.) When I brought up the square pillow conundrum, a number of people mentioned they were for decoration:
Speaking from (previous) experience(s), that’s not true: 90% of the beds I’ve slept in here have square pillows. But when you’re traveling in la France profonde, deep France, often you’ll arrive at your gîte (rental place) pull back the covers, and find—instead of some comfy pillows (hopefully rectangular)—a thick, hard bolster that’s at least 10-to 12-inches (25-30cm) round, and impossible to sleep on…unless you don’t mind sleeping with your neck at a 90º angle, perpendicular to the bed.
I once read that in the old days, people thought if you slept on your back, you’d die in your sleep. Like the belief that air-conditioning will give you pneumonia—which is why in the summer, across the U.S., and in other countries, emergency rooms are packed with people suffering from pneumonia—I don’t know if anyone believes sleeping on your back, or your side, is lethal. But I do know that it’s impossible to sleep in any position on a traversan.
I’ve taken to traveling with my own pillow, just in case I pull back and sheets and find one of these insomnia-boosting bolsters lurking under there, and use the traversin as a body pillow, a concept that (as far as I know, since I don’t sleep around) hasn’t taken off in France. But as a friend of mine once said, “The pillow game in America is strong.” And I certainly agree. We have all kinds of pillows, from soft pillows and buckwheat pillows to pregnancy pillows, feather pillows, pillow for planes and trains, pillows made of polyester, pillows that remember you, duck feather pillows, goose feather pillows, sexy pillows (which I’m not linking to), bamboo pillows, pillows with speakers and even political pillows. But we don’t have traversins.
So far, no one I’ve asked can tell me how (or why) one sleeps on a traversin, especially in 2024 with sleep innovations continuing to move forward, not back. But if you’ve got the answer, let me know…because I’m losing sleep thinking about it.
Agreed…..But they are pretty good as draft stoppers at the bottom of a loose fitting door!
I honestly believe that the traversin is one of the most effective tools of torture ever invented and could quite effectiely be used by the CIA or some such, because as you say, it makes sleep impossible. And if you insist on finding your way into the arms of Morpheus by having a big snifter of Cognac or something to put yourself out, you'll wake up in the morning with a seriously stiff neck. Happily, they're becoming extinct, since most of France buys its pillows at IKEA these days, and I've never seen one there. On the other hand, I miss those big round lemon-sized wall-mounted bars of soap you used to see in France (and can still by at the wonderful Maison Empereur, a brilliant retro quincaillerie, in Marseille.