Laundry, Paris-Style

French washers are very different from US models.  In our limited space, we have one unit that both washes and dries the clothes.  You can wash, dry or wash and dry.  You can also rinse or spin the clothes.  There are many different cycles, many of them take a very long time (more than three hours) but there is also an ECO cycle. 

We are already on our second washer/dryer combo.  They seem to be quite expensive and they break down quickly, probably due to the violent activity that takes place with each wash cycle. 

They also hold very little.  I can do 2.5 kg of wash/dry and it takes more than three hours.  On the "good" side of the equation, it uses very little water unlike a US model.  A small amount of water is heated, goes into the tank, the laundry is spun, rinsed and the water leaves.  This is also good if there's some kind of breakdown.  My US washer had a problem about a year ago and it flooded the entire floor with many, many gallons of water.  If this happened in France, it would flood our neighbor's apartments and cause a lot of damage.

So, with guests coming from the US soon, I've had to warn everyone that doing laundry is time-consuming and noisy.   For large loads I often go to the Laudromat down the street and do it all at once.  It isn't bad at all and it's done in one hour.