water rat

Had them last night with lapin dijonais. They were nice, surprisingly sweet and tender, went well with the mustard sauce. They will be a good source of geen veg during the winter as they're not affected by frost. W Rat

Our broccoli plants have been a bit of a disaster this year,but have a lot of healthy leaves on them. Can they be cooked and eaten like greens/ cabbage? W Rat

We had a french couple stay for 4 nights during the summer and had booked the first nights dinner. They ended up having dinner every night and on the last were taking pictures of the food to show the rest of the family  that the english could cook! They had  been warned they were mad to even stay here. I do feel a mixture of amusement and being insulted and like the other "poster" usually say we do fusion cooking and as it's our own produce ,is seasonal. I suppose we should feel happy that we're changing the minds of a few. W Rat

Birds get desperate this time of year and will eat whatever is available. The wood peckers can't get grubs from trees because there are none or they'll be too deep hibernating. I'don't know if you've seen green woodpeckers ,but they mainly eat from the ground ,ants nest ,termites and the like. It's a bit of a stereotype ,woodpeckers banging on trees. W Rat

Us too, in the Centre 36. They've been heading south for a couple of days . I've never seen it this time of year. W Rat

Has anyone eaten ragondin( coypu) in any form? I don't want any squeemish replies, it's a vegetarian ,after all. It's just that our 2 dogs are experts at catching them,then MOH finishes them off.It seem a waste to just discard them. If they were treated as any other type of game ,they'd cost a fortune! The canadians seem quite keen on it and I've found a few recipes via t'internet,but wanted to see if anyone out there had actually tried it. Bon appétit W Rat

yes, sorry I did get it  and did reply ,but through the wrong channel. I was going to try again, but have been a bit busy preparing for the telethon. Thanks for your suggestions and I will get back to you after the week end. w Rat

We have been trading as a CDH since 2004 and business was building gradually with just word of mouth and the local tourist office,but last summer was a disaster ! Our friends who have a CDH in the Creuse 23, our neighbouring dept  said how easy it had been to join GDF and recommended we at least try. We live in the Indre 36 and I must say ,we seemed to have to jump through many more hoops! But it has been totally worth it. If you want the french to stay, I don't think you have a choice as it's their bible and they seem to like holidaying in their own country.We liive in a lush and green area and were surprised to get many southerners and westerners who were escaping to the country to get away from the tourists. We're also about 4 hours from Paris and they love to take short breaks here. So, I don't think you'd lose anything by trying,but I think it depends on which dept you're in. Perhaps in a popular area they have enough accommodation and it would be harder,but give it a go!! Bon Courage W Rat

If anyone's interested we have just acheived 3 epis with Gde F and we are v happy!! W Rat

according to the info .you need to use 3 balls in hard water areas. I'll pm you with their details. W Rat

"HELLO" is the club some of us set up after the french classes finished at Ste Sévère college a couple of years ago.In the beginning it worked fantastically as we had an equal membership of both nationalities . Now ,we need some english to come . Yes you read me right ! We need more English! The french are still enthusiastic. So all you Anglais out there sitting in front of your Sky tv ,drag yourself out on a tuesday evening and get yourselves over to La Salle Municipale at 8 o'clock. W Rat

Even if they "prefer to take on other nationalities" it is still discriminatory. You can't specify the nationality of owners, for heavens sake!! W Rat

[quote user="cassis"]I'm sure you'll do fine without Alastair Sawday - 99.9% of owners do!  Their tarifs are a rip-off anyway.  The "non-Brit" rule is a new one - they were happy to consider us 3 years ago but we baulked at the price. Good luck with your venture, glad it's going so well.  [B] [/quote] If this is true,surely it's discriminatory and consequently against the law. W Rat

I'm with you, Betoulle.We have tried for 4 years to have no rules and so far it's worked. Nobody has taken advantage and we're quite happy for our wedding guests to lie-in and have a late breakfast. I've been to too many British B&B's as a wedding guest and had to rise at an ungodly hour to get out of the premises on time. We want our guests to come back. W Rat

 Mimchen I've pm'd you with details. W Rat

Could be stag beetle grubs, Chris will know for sure ,leave them be if poss. W Rat

As often as possible ,I try to take the sheets straight off the line and onto the beds sans ironing. They always look  better and smell fresher than those that have been ironed and folded. It saves loads of time and I usually have just the pillowcases to do. Mind you I think this only works in a soft water area.I also use the eco friendly balls with some sort of ionising pellets in them and the towels stay beautifully soft. I just use detergent to spot treat. W Rat

Does anyone offer a baggage transfer service to the next stop for randonneurs? We wondered about doing this ,but were concerned about the insurance aspect and the responsibility once the baggage is dropped off. We decided to offer a pick-up drop-off service to the GR track which is about 4 kms from us after a couple ordered a taxi to us then picked them up the next morning. Our free service is proving quite popular so we sounded out the walkers about baggage transfer. It appears it already exists in more touristy areas of france so I thought I'd try here. W Rat 

I'll echo your thoughts on the french and definitely prefer them as guests to any other nationality. They are always so appreciative and seem pleasantly surprised on arrival.I dread to think what horreurs they have found prviously! Several times french guests have assumed their private en suite bathroom will be used by the other guests even if this means coming into their own room! Although  we do not accept dogs some have arrived with them and we've chosen to see how it goes as we have been mainly worried about our chucks, but so far they've all been well behaved. W Rat

Hallelujah! the first Sept! Can't find the original thread on this subject, but have just had a full house of wedding guests for the weekend. Seem to remember there was lots of wingeing  from B&B'ers about extra arrivals. Well, we had an extra aunt and uncle who wanted just to get spruced up and changed . We decided, as each room has it's own water tank so a limited amount of hot water and I wouldn't put in any extra towels that there wouldn't be any extra expense on our part so treated it as goodwill. As is usual for a nation of soap dodgers hardly any towels were used anyway . They've all just left the place in a very tidy state. In fact last week we had a family of 5 for one night. Grandparents ,parents and one child  and the grand total of 1 small hand towel was used and nobody had a shower. I thought it was a myth,the french being afraid of  soap and water,but after 4 years of doing B&B it seems to be true.The reverse is true of the Brits ,who can't seem to get enough hot water! W Rat  

I'm not sure what that is, but I'm talking about a bog standard ceiling fan with blades,à la aeroplane propellor, normally used to circulate the air in summer ,but has a reverse switch to push the warm air down in winter. A "recuperateur de chaleur" sounds like it would be more than 50 euros! W Rat

We've had full size chickens killed by beech martens which eat as much as they can on the spot because they can't carry it away.The buzzards then move in to clear up the mess and then get the blame. If it's a fox ,they'll just be a pile of feathers. Don't doubt me , I've seen all this happening,not all at one time,though! W Rat

A buzzard on the wing is a most impressive bird and we've had visitors who insist they've seen an eagle! I' m a natural history artist and frequently bring back dead birds to draw and study. The actual body of a buzzard is so small and light it would be hard pressed to lift even a small chicken off the ground. Most of it is made up of wings and tail.  It has taken our chicks often ,but never anything else. I should think a yorkie would put up a bit of a fight anyway! W Rat

One of the best and cheapest ways of circulating the heat that is trapped near the ceiling is to install a ceiling fan with a reverse switch . A friend told us about it and it works  better than one would expect, particularly if you have exposed beams that trap the warm air and even better you can pick them up at the brico for less than 50 euros! W Rat

But this section of the forum is for B&B owners. It seems the 3 seperate forums , Gite owners, b&b owners and hotel/ restaurant owners are merging into one ,then it becomes people talking at cross purposes. Mind you, I don't know what can be done about it? W Rat