Just wondering if this is a lausanne thing? Only country i've ever seen this happen!

The odd thing is, the bedclothes are arranged so neatly i half expect the owner to jump up onto his window ledge and have a nap!

Well seen it in other countries but certainly is very persistent here.

The thing that surprises me is that they are not worried to get their bedding dirty from the outside of the window frame or the wall etc; but as they clearly are not worried about this, it presupposes that they clean the outside window frames/shutters/walls etc on a rather frequent basis

My bedding gets an airing, once in a blue moon, out on the washing line, so ensuring no contact with any doubtful masonary.

I suppose it's better to see their bedclothes hanging out the window than their underclothes!

Mattress hanging out of windows? Nope haven't seen that.
Bedding, yes. Quite common across Switzerland especially in apartment blocks. Seen it also in the South of Germany and North of Italy.

It's definitely a long standing household technique; my grandma used to do it every day - air the duvet and the house whilst tidying the bedroom and going about general household duties...

This is something which has always amused me - the differing meaning of the verb 'to air' in English and 'lüften' in German.
In Switzerland bedding is hung out over the windowsill in the damp of the morning to 'lüften'.
In England, in my youth before the days of 'universal' central heating, clothes were sometimes put into a closed 'airing cupboard' with slatted shelves to 'air' before being put away in the chest of drawers. A bed which had long been unused in an unheated bedroom (and I mean really unheated, not just the radiator turned low) would be 'aired' by having a hot-water bottle put into it.

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Longbyt

Exposing mattresses and the like to sunlight is said to reduce the dust mite population. I don't know if that is scientifically bullet-proof, but it is recommended by many sources that professionally deal with such matters.

Better than hanging out your dirty laundry in EF though, isn't it?

This old couple do it every morning on the ground floor next the entrance to our flats. You could easily jump up and be in their 'bedoir'! Bizarre! Apologies for ample alliteration.

I remember the airing cupboard

I seem to suffer from dustmites a lot more here, and from what I understand airing bedclothes half out the window would help to kill the little buggers (especially in Winter), so I now do this now, must mention to other half.

It's done all the time in Geneva, tends to be older people who do it. I thought then that there were few things more disgusting that walking my kids to school and have someone shake their bedding out the window above our heads. Especially as (yet again) it's something covered by by-laws; if I remember correctly you're not supposed to hang washing or bedding in public view after 10am on weekdays. Not at all on Sundays.
Now I live in France and my neighbour leaves her stuff out there all day; I need to paint the balcony railings and I'm tempted to wait until the wind's in the 'right' direction to get the sander out....

I do it, and a lot of fellow Dutch with me:-)

In the street where my Dutch house it is like a compentition, like saying look I am airing my bedding daily so I am the cleanest

Well, I remember the Irish and English airing bedding when I was a child, but out at the bottom the garden on the washing line; not over peoples heads!

It's considered to be established etiquette for lovers to leave the bedroom via knotted bed linen or duvets in certain areas so as not to wake the spouses still sleeping in the guest room. Swiss marriages are so fragile and short term you understand.

I often wonder if my Swiss neighbors are horrified by the dirty state of my exterior window sills! But, yeah, it seems that many windows even have special bars that serve no other purpose than to air your linens.

On other bedding news, am I the only one a little grossed out by the fact that almost no one in this country uses a top sheet (I smuggle them in, personally)? I mean, how often do these comforters get washed anyway?

I know you're joking, but the image of someone trying to tie a knot in a duvet is priceless!

Just to cause further furore, I've just seem an 'expert' on the BBC claim that Terence Conran introduced the french to the duvet in the early 70s. Steps back and waits for the screams.....

I don't think comforters are very common here. I think duvets are the norm and people wash the covers. I would have really liked to have used top sheets as swaddling cloths for my Summer-born babies but instead, I bought big pillow case covers and snipped them in half.

I love top sheets and really miss them. Your post has reminded me that I really should order some.

And to keep you from falling out of the windows. These are common if the windows are lower than x cm from the floor.

We use duvets covers, they get washed weekly!!!

One side of my house has these bars on the windows (bedrooms), and they are ground floor....