The word I've always heard for "night-light" (or night light or nightlight) in French is une veilleuse. The French verb veiller [vay-yay] means to sit up (with someone who's sick, for example) or to stay up late into the night with company. In other words, it means to choose not to go to bed and sleep. I guess a veilleuse [vay-yeuz], a night-light, is a lamp that stays awake, in its own way, to protect you. Protect you from bumping into walls or furniture, or falling down the stairs, when you're up and moving around in the dark.
Here are a couple of photos of the stairs that lead up to our loft space from the main living area (kitchen, living/dining room, bathroom, etc.). They show the new veilleuses we bought and installed a few days ago. They are light- and motion-sensitive.
By the way, I don't know how we would live out here in the French countryside without on-line or mail-order shopping services like Amazon.fr and others. To find and buy items like these night-lights in a store, we'd have to spend hours in Tours or Blois, the two closest cities, walking or driving from place to place searching for them. It would be a two-hour round trip to go shopping, and much of that time would be wasted if we didn't happen to find the items we were looking for. Amazon.fr also has a very good return policy, in case the items purchased don't fit the bill.
This second picture might give you an idea how steep these stairs are. They are also slippery, and maybe we need to do something about that. Anyway, the night-lights help a lot. They come on when the house is dark and when something moves within range of their motion detectors. When there's plenty of ambient light, whether from other lamps or just from daylight, the night-lights don't switch on when they detect motion. I think they stay on for about 30 seconds, which gives me plenty of time to get down the stairs without breaking my neck.I've been surprised to see the term lampe de nuit for night-light on Amazon.fr. I guess it's just a word for word translation of the English-language term. Veilleuse is also the French word for the "parking lights" ("sidelights" in the British Isles) on your car, and for the "pilot light" on your gas stove, furnace, or water heater, for example.
The night lights are attractive. With that view looking down the stairs and the turn, I can see why you'd want them. Maybe you can find a nice stairway runner at a local brocante/Marche aux Puces. Oriental carpets sell for almost nothing these days.
ReplyDeleteGood ideas.
DeletePerhaps Amazon has some attractive non-slip strips for your steps.
ReplyDeleteI have started looking there for solutions.
DeleteThat is one nice-looking staircase. I remember when you were picking it out, and when it was put in. I'm sure I would have slipped before now, if I were walking down those in socks everyday -- you must be a more careful walker than I :)
ReplyDeleteWe never wear shoes upstairs or on the stairs. That keeps the floors better-looking. But it comes with its dangers.
DeleteBetter safe than sorry. Very smart, too.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if, years ago, local shops would not only have been more plentiful but also stocked more choice and more goods. Our local ironmonger in the UK would undoubtedly have stocked some kind of night lights but it has been seen off by Amazon and is now a nail bar.
Oh the good old days... they were terrible, actually. It's hard to imagine some "iron monger" — not sure what that means — having in stock all that you can order from Amazon, Darty, or La Redoute. We do have to remember to move with the times.
DeleteThe nightlights look very good and your stairway is very attractive but I can certainly see it looks challenging, especially if one is not quite awake and sock-footed. Good luck finding more solutions to make this even safer.
ReplyDeleteOne solution would be to move back downstairs for sleeping as well as eating and bathing. But then what would we have finished off the attic space for? A dilemma.
DeleteThe investment you've made upstairs is never lost - it only adds to the value of the house. And moving downstairs to sleep always remains an option, but, if I were you, there's no real reason for that just yet, is there? The nightlights are a great solution, you have the toilet upstairs now, all you need is something to make the stairs less slippery - that shouldn't be too difficult. A few optios have been mentioned up here already, but I think the most important thing for now is to find out what other options there are and then decide what exactly you want. My 2 cents. ;)
DeleteThose lights look very nice. And thank you for the vocabulary lesson.
ReplyDeleteWe have the exact same problem: we're two seniors, with a bedroom upstairs, slippery steep stairs, socked feet. Knowing the danger (and having slipped a few times), we walk carefully and hang on to the banister. I also wove Christmas lights around the base of the banister -- we keep them there year round. What I worry about is that guests and grandkids don't understand the danger -- it's there even in daytime. You HAVE to step carefully! And our one bathroom is upstairs... I've now posted a sign warning everyone to watch those steps. I dont think carpeting would help at all. Possibly skid strips and it may come to that, but they are... well, ugly. :)
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of getting supplies "years ago," at least in the U.S., people used the Sears and Montgomery Wards catalogs. Actually, there were catalogs for all sorts of things (remember the wonderful Whole Earth catalog?). Even though we've always lived in well-supplied metropolitan areas, we still used catalogs for specialty items.
ReplyDeleteWhat you say is true! I remember the Spiegel catalog very well, and also Sears, since I grew up in a small, remote town.
DeleteIn the two houses my former husband and I had built, we were encouraged NOT to have just wooden steps - TOO DANGEROUS. One friend related how she had fallen down an entire staircase because of her socks and the slippery t0tally wooden steps. We chose carpeting and in my little tri-level I have continued to keep the carpeting - no matter whether the looks of wood I might prefer. Also - make sure your bannisters are tightly and securely attached. Oh - and I have tried to find nightlights battery operated and motion sensitive online - but to no avail. Anyone find any in the U.S.?
ReplyDeleteUh-oh ... I just noticed there are no bannisters for you to grab hold of when you go up or down.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mary, for your comments. I'm sure you are right. But there is a banister on one side of our wooden staircase. You can see it better here, from the loft down to the ground floor.
DeleteMary, I see these on Amazon.com. They look exactly like the ones we bought from Amazon.fr, except they seem to have a mounting plate that you can screw onto the wall. And then there are these too.
DeleteGreat Ken! I just found them. I was hoping they would be in the USA and available! I really hate to waste electricity!
DeleteMerci!!!
ReplyDelete