Curtain hanging question

[Ulysees]

I just moved house and am going to get curtains for my bay window. I need 90 drop and probaby 90 wide? Anyway, the quandry I have is the curtain pole is 3 parts, so how do I hang my curtains? it follows the window iykwim? Do I get 2 pairs of curtains? Or will that look silly? Can't see how 1 pair will work though?
Excuse me if I sound dumb but never had to dress a bay window before.
TIA

In bay windows, I have seen, there are normally two pairs.

One curtain for each side, then a pair for the middle, sticky outy bit.

Expensive, but nice.

Although, I have never had a bay window (always wanted one, but never had one) So my observations of other people's may be a bit skew-wiff

Oh right thanks Cadbury, this makes sense I suppose. Shows how observant I am

I am v.v.v. sad person and nosey at people's curtains. It comes from having boooooorinnnnnnng windows myself!

My house with exdh has boring windows so was pleasantly surprised in this old house. Only thing is the double glazing must've been fitted by a one armed man I don't know why they bothered? Non of them shut properly. Should be ok as weather gets warmer though.

Our bay window pole has a bracket in the middle. The pole then bends out of the bay into the room. There is a bracket at each end of the bay window and after the pole has bent out into the room there's another bracket. Our (one pair of) curtains span the two brackets (so are fixed) and then meet in the centre. Took a while to figure out how to do the pole to get away with this configuration. Two pairs of curtains would have blocked out too much light during the day. Our bay is .6m wide on each side and 1.2m in the middle with .2m (45 degree angled) posts at the corners - so not very big.

Ulysees, I spent years researching this very topic! Tragic, I know. When we moved into our house we had a three-part curtain rail like that - ours was a hideous pine affair. I put up with it for years, trying to get away with just having the three drops of curtain (I confess to a certain cheapskate streak). Also, two drops in the middle window is too much if the bay, like ours, is quite narrow. I looked for better options but they were all either hideously expensive or no good for our window. It was a joy when I found an excellent one from John Lewis which bends to the shape of the window (but unlike other, cheap ones I had looked at is very solid). You can then just have two wide drops - it even has a pull-cord to open and close them. About £40-ish, if I recall.

cheers coffecrazedmama, I'll see if they still do that pole

We got our curtain pole off the net. Is black metal with spirals at the ends and 4 bends. Was £80. John Lewis told me they didn't do such a pole unless I ordered one bespoke - at a cost of about £350! Do a search on froogle.

We had one custom made, but the hooks get caught on the corners so I wouldn't recommend it!

The plastic sort don't look nice, but they do curve round the corners and do draw nicely!

cheers for advice. I think I'll have to stick to 2 sets of curtains. I've seen some lovely ones in Boyes that'll go great and they should be no more than £60 for 2 pairs. It's only a rented house so I could buy expensive pole and he decides to sell the place?
Thanks for your help though everyone