Louise

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2011/08/exideuil.html Totally (well almost) off topic but I was just searching the history of the village and I came along this blog..... The pictures of the roses and the little doors are on my house. I was reading all the comments and all the people were intrigued by the little doors..... I tried to reply but I dont have an account. I wanted to shout.... They are my doors [:D] and p.s if you want to see them for yourself, please feel free to come and stay at my B&B [:D] [:)]

Mmmmm...maybe not then... sounds nice in french but not sure it sounds so good in english !! Can anyone think of any other words that sound "nice" ?    

[quote user="Loiseau"]Maison Chouette (going back slightly to the owl theme - so you could have a hanging sign, or a painted emblem or something - but also meaning pretty) Maison Fleurie (commits you to having flowers outside all year though) Maison Carree (wish I could do accents!) Maison de Reve (ditto) Maison Douillette Looks a lovely place! Angela [/quote] Thanks Angela [:)] I am going to look up some of the meanings but like the sound of some of them. I'm going to print these pages off and have a proper read of all of the posts and try to narrow it down a little. By the way - does anyone know what Allouette means - the song popper in to my head earlier [:)]

Thanks Quillan for your hints, tips and advice. I shall definitly take what you have said on board. Thanks Kitty - where did you get yours from ? or do you have a link to a picture of one. That would be great if you have. [:)]

Evening all. Thanks Frenchie... I would like the name in French. I will look up the meaning of those you suggested and look at all the other suggestions and see if I can narrow it down, or at least to the type of name.... will look in the "yellow pages" too and see if anything there grabs me..... I never thought it would be so hard... !!! I do appreciate all of your help [:)]

Im not sure what is under there.... think its stone but not straight ones... but we are not going to strip it back - There arent any other house near by with bare stone so think it would stick out... Is clos view of ? We can see the graveyard but dont think that would go down too well.  [:)] We have a square pavillion type structure opposite which apparantly used to be the old bank. Is Beaux Reves - sweet dreams ? Just being too lazy to look it up in the dictionary.... Its difficult to describe the style of our house... Its very square and symetrical. I think it was built about 1850  

Thanks Quillan and I take on board what you have said....You have some very valid points. I have loads of ideas... I just havent finalised them in my head yet Cycling is a big thing near us and our village is on one of the identified cycle routes. There is also canoeing on the river. We do have some nice man made beaches very close (10 mins away) so in the summer it could be a popular destination with familes..... We are not sure about the pool yet... that will be dependent on whether the house sticks to budget !! Its on the wish list but not the need list. We were thinking of tidying out the barn to provide facilities for cyclists. Fishing is another popular activity near us and you can actually fish on the river by us (although it is highly recommended for night carp fishing so that wouldnt work for us I guess unless we did breakfast and bed !!! [:D]) Will take a look again at the B&Bs nearest to us and see what kind of set up they have - twins / doubles / family rooms etc. When I say family room I dont necessarily mean it has to be for families it could be for groups. It just seems to big a room for a double... Unless we market it as a suite ???? Anyone tried that ? Just a thought We popped to the tourist board last time we were there and they offered to come and have a look and have a chat with us so might take them up on that... when you say "bed tax" do you mean the holiday tax ? They told us we would need the declaration signed by the mairie before they would let us advertise. On the positive side they had already had 2 people in that day looking for places to stay that night so will definitly be a place for us to advertise. Talking about sound proofing.... can anyone recommend anything - the proper acoustic stuff is really expensive and I am sure there must be cheaper options. We need to soundproof the attic floor and then also the party wall between two bedrooms. [:)]

[quote user="sweet 17"] Sorry, Louise, I am mindful of a name for your place.  Perhaps you can call it something with the name Sweet in it?[:D] [/quote] No worries....[:)] Keep thinking though.....[:)]  Sweet Dreams..???? Bit corny perhaps... whats that in french, does anyone know ? Quatre Saisons is a good one... yes we do plan on opening all year round. I have seen that somewhere before so would just need to check it is not in the department... I really am so rubbish at this - I know it once I see it.... Still liking the La Charanta but from the rest of the conversation not sure if thats a no no due to the language not being used ?????    

I like the idea of those... do you think they will be classed as "acceptable" if you were wanting to register for etoiles etc ? Are they the ones that go side by side when they are up - or those that are totally separate ? Do you get many enquiries for people wanting more than a double room ? I heard (and apologise it wasnt me) that french guests will all stay in the same room....and will fit as many as they can it. If this is true - do they have more than one child in a bed ? I was thinking of having a travel cot too that cold be used in any of the rooms - is that an idea or should it be a proper cot ?    

[:D]Yeah...... I fixed it...... I went in to the forum tech help and someone had had the same problem before and it was to do with incompatabilty. I went in to tools and added it to the comaptability list and its worked......[:D][:D][:)]

[quote user="cooperlola"]It's under the heading "Message" and "Subject" (both in blue). There you'll find the boxes with text size, colour, font and then "Insert Smiley" then Bold italic and underline all come next. Got it now?[I][/quote] Nope.... dont have any of that ??? I know what you mean as have those options on other forums ???? Very strange I literally just have subject, message and post icon ???

[quote user="idun"][quote user="idun"]So Chez Loulou, after yourself?[/quote] Already suggested by 'me'[Www] Norman[:D] [/quote] Someone had suggested that to me before but wasnt too keen on it (sorry to anyone who has a similar name)....Not sure why... Really am hopeless with all this naming thing... I uses to breed bengals and could never think of names for the kittens so they just got called little one, big one or it !!!!

Am being really dumb here but I dont have an insert smilie option. Above the message box where I am typing I have a box that says the subject and then above that two buttons saying post or preview ???? Below the message box is a list of smilies which say Post Icon above them but that only puts it next to the title and not in the message ????

The bar in the village is called chez toi.... You must all be fed up with me saying... can't have this because of..... guess it shows I have done my research in to whats about !! Norman - what were the translations of your previous suggestions?

[quote user="NormanH"]Au vert Bocage? La Charanta (Occitan name) La Vinhana[/quote] Thanks Norman What are the translations in English ?

Evening.... The house is near the River Vienne, in Dept 16 - Charente. There is a bar nearby call La Vienne :-( I saw a restaurant called les charentaise and thought that sounded nice until I looked it up and it was a type of slipper !!! I have seen another called Rendezvous but think that is more of a meeting place than sleeping place. The wisteria, bay tree etc are possible options.. I think there is one close by called the olive tree though so maybe a bit similar. GG - hope your headache has gone :-) The name is so important to attract people... For those who have seen the pictures - is that type of house called anything in particular. The house was in the same family for a very long time. Spookily though his initials were BT and he had them put in the shutters to the cellar. My surname begins with T and my boyfriends begins with B... we didnt notice till the day we got the keys !!! Cant really call it BT's though :-)

????? i thought when i pressed the icon button it would come up at the end of the conversation ??? How do I put a smilie in the context ?

Its ok I am under no illusion how much hard work it will be but I am prepared for it... Luckily for me too I like skiing so should be able to squeeze some time in over the winter. As for the OH... I might let him stay at home and help me but just send him out part time to bring some extra pennies in...!!! lol I must say though he is a much better cook than me so if we do table d'hote then he will be on cooking duty !!

[quote user="gardengirl "]plus a set of single beds, one of which slides away under the other? We have one of those in a spare room in UK and they are very useful. P>[/quote] Yes I have thought about those as you can get them that look like day beds but have another underneath so when there are only 2 people they can use it as a sofa. What are the best mattresses to get do you think ? Do you think it is worth bringing them over from the UK ?

[quote user="Quillan"]A CDH is quite a different proposition from running an 80 bed hotel and before you start ripping things apart (building wise) you really need to sit down and think about your market, how your going to market and what you need to do. Once you have done that then take some outside photo's and get a website up and running in the next month. Why, because it will take a while to get ranked (in the search engines) etc and it will also drive you to get the work finished because hopefully you will have reservations for the rooms you are working on, if you get my drift. We did exactly this but only advertised half our rooms to start with and it worked well. With just two, tastefully decorated rooms you should be able to earn about 8,000 Euros per year (including some evening meals) per room. With evening meals you should be able to make a profit of between 40 and 60 percent depending how much you want to put in to each meal work wise instead of buying things like deserts and growing your own salad and veg. Research is everything in this game. I know this is something we discussed in your other thread but talking about profit the only negative thing about the BIC tax system is you don't have to keep accounts but it is important to keep a 'day book' because there is a temptation to spend money on this and that for your guests, not cost meals etc and a lot of people do not have a clue of how much it is really costing them to run their CDH. [/quote] When saying about running the nursing home - I meant that I have experience at the business side - customer care, marketing, budgeting etc so have a bit of knowledge in that area.... I know running a B&B is very different in other respects. I just need to think of a name (as you will see from the other thread) and then I can set up the website. Also need to sort out hosting etc. We too are planning to open a couple of rooms for next year and then be carrying on with the others while the business gets up and running. We will havethe infrastructure in for the plumbing etc so that all of the messy jobs are done by the time the first guests arrive. We are quite lucky that the house lends itself to a good set up - 5 beds on first floor - all with either room for ensuite or bathrooms so not much building work to do. Thanks for your tips though - I am sure I will have many more questions as we go through the various stages. Louise :-)

Afternoon Gemonimo - regarding the frey - again we are governed by the church and think we will only be allowed a certain shade of grey... The mairies house has the same and that looks nice so think it will be ok. Chancer - good idea - if I cant think of any name soon I might ask the Mairie. I want to thik of the name soon so that I can get on woth the website etc.

[quote user="EuroTrash"]Hi Louise. Just to throw one more thing into the mix so that you don't overlook it. You say 'you and your boyfriend'. The status of the relationship might have a bearing on your choice of business regime. For instance I think (could be wrong) that if one of you was to set up as AE, the other could only be a 'conjoint' if you were married or PACS'd (civil partnership). Of course your notaire will probably have flagged this up already if it's a joint property purchase.[/quote] Am covered on this one... the house is in my name and the business will be in my name. He is coming to help set i up and then I am going to send him out to work !!!!

Thanks everyone. It was going to be in the one room that I was thiking of as an option instead of two singles, i.e a double and bunks rather than a double and two singles. The guidelines for 1 etoile are 12sq m for 2 people plus 3 sqm per extra person (I think thats right anyway) so for 4 people it os 18sqm so with 25sqm we should be ok. My other thought was a sofa bed so that if the room was used as a double they would just have the soaf but it could be used for extra accommodation. I need to decide really ready for when I declare to the mairie how many people can stay there.

Hi Catalpa, We think the shutters are going to have to be grey...to fit in with the rules of the church. did you open the link to the pictures ? Impressionists is a thought :-) As for the legal side... I have that covered (I think) as the house is in my name only... might look at a PAC at a later date.

Me again... sorry for the many posts :-) Just wondered what your thought are on Bunk Beds in a family room ? I am a bit of a health and safety consious person and think that we might be asking for trouble if someone fell out but my boyfriend thinks they are a good idea because it frees up more floor space. Whats your thoughts ? Also does anyone have a family room and how many people does it sleep. Do you find you get enquiries for it very often. We have a fairly big (25sqm) room but dont want to "cram the beds in " if there are not that many enquiries Louise :-)