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betoulle

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Everything posted by betoulle

  1. Look on eBay - we found the headlights for both a Volvo & Mazda on eBay in Germany - at half the price of the dealerships in France
  2. have pm'd you with details of place in Angouleme
  3. Good recipe for confit - 4 duck/goose legs Make a mixture of approx 100gm sea salt crystals, the herbs & 4 cloves of garlic - crushed.  Rub this mix into the duck legs & place in a large bowl overnight with all the remaining salt mix - Hugh F-W says leave for 48 hrs, Rick Stein says 6 hrs - I find that between 12 & 18 is best for flavour, otherwise they are too salty. Next day, in a large pan melt approx 1kg of duck fat & when it starts to bubble place the duck legs in the fat - check that the legs are completely covered.  Cover & place in oven Gas Mk 1/140'C & cook slowly for at least an hour an half but no more than 3hrs. Turn off oven & leave legs in the fat for 24hrs. To serve:  Heat oven to Mk7/220'C.  Remove the legs from the fat, wiping off any surplus fat.  Place skin side down on a roasting tray & cook in the hot oven for 5mins, then drain off any surplus fat, turn legs over & cook a further 10mins skin side up until the skin is crisp & golden brown.  Some people prefer to cook them on a rack, but I find that makes them too dry - a question of personal taste........ I serve mine with a combination of any of the following: Roast spuds cooked in the fat, celeriac puree, jerusalem artichokes, braised red cabbage &/ watercress & orange salad. I buy lots when they are going cheap & place them in sterilised Kilner jars completely covered in more rendered duck fat - they will keep for a good 6months in the bottom of the fridge - ideally prepare them Jan/Feb to eat in Oct/Nov - good cheap & quick option for all of you doing table d'hote in SW France.   NO NOT THROW AWAY THE FAT - it makes the best roast potatoes, parsnips, jerusalem artichokes............. Enjoy...........  
  4. [quote user="beryl"] Pretty much the same. We have had a number friends who have visited but a surprising number of aquaintances wanted to visit too. The latter being such a pain in the proverbial that the door is firmly shut to them now. [/quote] Our first year here we had six months of non-stop 'friends' & ex work colleagues to stay, the true friends were very helpful & worked their socks off.  They continue to visit us several times a year, but the vast majority came to be nosey & haven't been seen since & as quoted would probably not be invited..............when running a B&B the friends I find are 10 times more work than the guests who at least are paying for the service...... NB definition of the 'grass is greener' : The grass is always greener on the other side of the hedge 'cos there's more c**p on that field.........  
  5. Has anyone been successful in booking cheap parking at CDG on-line????  All our Parisian friends suggest we just turn up & park in the long-term, but this is still quite pricey.........  Does anything like Pink Elephant exist here yet????     
  6. Have heard a rumour that there is now an Asian hypermarket in Bordeaux - anyone know if this is the case & if so where is it - ? near Ikea & Auchan?????????
  7. We are with GdF & have stayed in the past in other GdF chambres d'hotes in the region - all of which supplied the toiletries - maybe it depends on your region & your local inspector......ours certainly encourages it & demands that we offer a selection of homemade jams & cake for breakfast as well.  A French aquaintance (another GdF member who offered us a lot of advice when we started up) adviced us on what the French are looking for now in this area in a B&B - there are too many rustic places on offer - everyone wants something different & to feel pampered.........maybe we are more like a hotel but we have a large number of regular French guests who love all the extras & I do find that many wedding parties arrive without luggage if staying for one night only - so the toiletries are a very welcome necessity........maybe as a rule of thumb we should offer what we would offer a friend coming to stay for a few nights
  8. yes, we provide individual soaps, shower gel, shampoo, hand cream, shower caps, tissues & more importantly sanitary bags & cotton wool balls - the bags for obvious reasons, the balls to try to deter ladies from removing their makeup with white towels....not always successful.  We also provide (on request) hairdryers, alarm clocks, the occasional night light & universal adaptors.......& WiFi internet access.  The upper end of the market (both French & English) expect this level of service these days - its the little extras which make you memorable - we provide the same toiletries in our gites as part of the welcome pack.  We brought a good supply with us from the UK when we started up 3 years ago, but they are all easily found in Metro - the Bordeaux branch has a good range at different prices.
  9. We have never accepted pets in the B&B as we have experience of staying in rooms where dogs have been the night before..........fleas, dog hair, smells, stains etc etc....We both love dogs & have cats of our own, but our pets do not have access to the public part of the house as there are people who do not like or are allergic to animals indoors & if there are 'accidents' it just adds to the workload & would possibly lead to complaints from the following guests. If you allow dogs I think it would be impossible to restrict their movements - wedding parties in particular are notorious for bringing 'extra' people so I am sure a much loved dog would be smuggled in in the small hours............We recently restricted access to dogs in our 2 gites following a 2 year poll among our guests (see recent thread on the gite owners forum) who virtually to a man said that they preferred to holiday in pet-free gites.......various reasons being allergies, dislike of pets, smells & hair, past experience of badly behaved dogs (owners &/other guests) Many of these guests have left their pets at home as they dont want to be restricted in their activities on holiday - we have had 2 occasions in the past when dogs were locked up in gites for several hours on end resulting in damage to property.  When we did accept dogs we charged a flat fee of £30/dog/week - impossible to charge according to size I would have thought - could lead to some interesting discussions..  Quite reasonable for large dogs to stay in stables as again it depends on your other guests attitude & reaction to dogs & you should charge something as no doubt you are providing some sort of bedding & shelter, water bowls etc........ This was our first dog-free year & our gites have been fully booked for 5 months & we already have 14 weeks of repeat bookings for next year as our gites are clean & tidy dog & smoker-free zones......may be a coincidence of course.....
  10. We had a similar incident last weekend with a wedding party which had been booked in since late last year for the Friday & Saturday nights only - paid usual deposit etc & understood Ts&Cs... When such parties book all our rooms we do offer an extention for breakfast till 12pm with check out straight after & until last week it has worked well - also gives us a welcome lie-in...... Any other guests we have booked in to arrive on the Sunday we ask to arrive after 4pm & state the reason why.  This party however broke all the rules from the start - arrived at midnight with an 'extra' child - why do they do that? so I stated the usual policy that we would be charging extra for the additional bed - unfortunately said child slept with parents on last night & wet the double bed which has no waterproof mattress protector - something I did not discover until after departure............ On Saturday they did make breakfast 'just' by 11am (15yr old & girlfriend arrived at 11.30 when others were still there.....so they exceeded our normal hours, but they had booked all the rooms, so went along with it )They then proceeded to 'bank' their sleep during the day until the wedding at 5pm, so unable to clean rooms till the evening - convenient as it turned out it was also a double gite changeover day, so we just abandoned them all to their beds.  Needless to say no-one was back before 4pm - what do they find to do all that time?????? Sunday morning they eventually started to appear just before midday, & I thought 'great - they will eat & go'.  However, & this is the 1st time it has happened, they all returned to their rooms.......eventually at 2pm when someone emerged to ask for tennis racquets we knocked at Mum & Dad's door to find they had gone back to bed......so OH had to be his diplomatic self & ask them to leave PDQ.........they stated that 'normallement' they are allowed to stay all day to 'recover' for the journey back.............I have never heard of this, unless arrangement is made to pay for an extra night - something they were not willing to do......so guess what? our T&Cs have just been added to - again...........at least the wedding season is over for another year - already have 2 booked for next though.......
  11. Basically as St Amour said there is no money left once all the outgoings have been paid, & forget the idea of a salary.........so yes I suppose it boils down to being a hobby.............we took early retirement from our stressful salaried jobs to come & do this till the age of 60 in the hope of having a better lifestyle, live in a warmer climate, not spend 4 hrs a day sitting in traffic, & actually to see each other during the working day - all of which have been achieved.  We still have a fair amount of stress & after working 12 hour days in the health service for 33 yrs my life is no different in that respect, but we live in a beautiful place & for some of the time (pre & post season) we actually do live what our friends think is a wonderful life, but during the season we are working  long hours just to pay the bills....... Anyone who thinks they can come & make money (ie take a salary) out of either gites or B&B is living in cloud cuckoo land..........like most jobs it is very hard work to cover your outgoings & anything extra is a bonus.....the bottom line is the more customers you get, the more money comes in but your expenditure goes up.......
  12. We have 2 gites & 4 B&B rooms in our house - the supposedly ideal & manageable formula, but during the summer months doing them both almost kills us on a Saturday....  However, to answer your question if its one or the other then the gites we feel are probably a slightly easier option as it is only 'hard work' on changeover day - once the clients are in then there is little to do, but you need to be on hand 24/7 to deal with problems (light bulbs, gas cylinders, snake &/spider catching, washing machine, fridge, microwave breakdown etc) as well as constant outdoor maintenance, pool cleaning etc  The marketing is hard work & expensive, but usually done 'off season' & every winter is spent redecorating, changing furnishings etc............. The secret is to aim as high as you can in the quality & service you offer to your gite guests & they will reward you by returning year after year & spread the word. It definitely brings in more money than the B&B, but only between Easter & October if you are lucky.  We enjoy the B&B as it is year round so you are not limited to a 5 month 'busy' period, but we tend to get very few guests between Nov & Easter - Murphy's Law they will always want to come during your busiest time......we also get a mix of nationalities in the B&B - approx 50% are French who do return year after year, but the majority of Brit B&B guests come once & never again, no matter how high the standard is.  The washing & ironing & cleaning not to mention the breakfast & any cooking is a killer - especially the one nighters - we had 2 weekends recently when we had 23 & 28 people checking in & out over the 2 weekends - the last w/end I did 18 loads of washing in 3 days & ironed for hours.........In our situation the Gites are the core of our business, the B&B is back-up.  We will never make a profit, but so long as we approach breaking even we will continue, but as Miki says probably not for more than 7 yrs.  I would definitely do gites again, so long as we can find another place to this standard, but we both agree that we would think twice about doing B&B with table d'hote as it is such hard work for the money earned. We will be over 60 in 7 yrs so some form of retirement beckons.......  We certainly would not recommend anyone to do both unless young & fit as it is an exceptionally hard life for the income gained - currently am counting the weeks till the last gite guests leave - mid October........then we have our 'holiday'.........
  13. Agree with all the above - have found that leaving cotton wall balls in bathroom freebies basket does help keep the make up removal on towels to a minimum (famous last words - have a wedding party in this w/end inc bride & groom.....) However, this mornings bugbear is LATE BREAKFASTERS.......being Saturday I have a double gite changeover to do - the 1st gite guests have gone early & I'd like to get the 1st one done & dusted ASAP, but am sitting waiting for signs of life from the B&B guests...now 9.10 & I just know they wont appear till late this morning of all mornings...however, if I go over & help hubby with cleaning you just know they will appear.........grrrrrrrrrr
  14. I inwardly groan when I see a new guest get out of the car with long messy hair, loads of lipstick & a fake tan........where's the Vanish???
  15. We have several bikes available for our guests & every year we enter into long discussions with prospective clients about what there is for the kids to do here & everyone booking during the school holiday season insists that they want to hire the bikes - well our 3rd season is almost over & yet again this year only one family (the same family every year incidentally...)has hired the bikes....so I guess the answer is that yes, its a good idea to attract business but the chances are that they will rarely be rented out as no-one has the energy or inclination to do anything but sit by the pool, play tennis/chess on site - Dad usually ends up driving down the village to pick up the bread every day while the kids have a lie-in.  What energy they do have is used up by going out to the Adventure Park, Velo Rail, horse riding & canoeing/kayaking etc......Otherwise most kids this year have come equipped with Playstations & i-Pods - a sign of the times...............
  16. yes quite agree we have found that problem with all the dogs who have stayed in our gites as guests often cannot/will not  take them to museums, shops & even some of the tourist sites have brought in restrictions, so the dogs get locked up in a strange house for hours on end while the owners go out for the day - no wonder our 'problem dog' went ballistic & almost destroyed the place locked in a south facing gite for 13 hrs when the outside temp was 42'C...............it was a beautiful dog & I also felt sorry it - up to a point. The barking did disturb our other guests who complained to us about it every day for the duration of the dog's stay.
  17. Apologies - yes I did read the thread on B&B owners not accepting dogs & I do agree with not accepting dogs into our own house especially as we do not allow our cats to wander around the 'public' rooms - allergies, cat hair on beds etc.  I have stayed in B&Bs where the cats sleep on guests beds & though I am a cat lover can quite understand that guests could object.  However, the gites being 'separate' holiday homes we thought ( all innocence at the beginning) that our guests would treat like their own homes & not allow dogs in bedrooms etc, which was the case with our favourite dogs........but as already stated on that previous thread some have no control over their pets & I dread to think of the state of some peoples homes.  My question really was 'is there a genuine demand for gites that accept dogs' or are we actually increasing business by making it 'No dogs'
  18. Question for you all - what are your views & experiences on the accepting of dogs on holiday????  We started out accepting dogs & the 1st year had very low bookings & only 1 lot of dogs who were delightful & rebooked to return the next year.  Year 2 we had 2 other 'doggie' holidaymakers who were both bad experiences in addition to the usual well behaved ones but as a whole our bookings increased.  After 1st bad dog experience (long story - we had to boot them out in order to give us time to redecorate semi-destroyed gite...) we did a poll among our guests & found not exactly an anti-dog feeling, but most would prefer the estate to be a dog-free zone (we have cats - usually well tolerated by guests), so this year our 3rd season we advertised as strictly 'No Dogs' in gites & B&B & have been fully booked for 5 months with so far, 10 weeks of repeat bookings for 2007.  Have continued my poll & virtually everyone has said 'One reason we booked is because you don't allow dogs in the gites - much as we love our pets we would prefer to leave them in kennels & do not want to either share our holiday with other people's dogs or enter a gite that has just been vacated by either a smelly/hairy dog.......'  sadly, this means that we have had to say goodbye to our favourite dogs (& owners) who have now gone elsewhere - they have brought us a lot of custom with their friends & family lthe ast 2 years & am left with the feeling that I might have just shot myself in the foot.  So, what is the general feeling amongst my fellow gite owners as we prepare our ads for the new season????
  19. Thanks for that - admit to only bringing in a friend once to help with a 15 hour ironing backlog, so yes did not pay the social charges in that instance - we are putting our security deposit up by 100%  to cover us - as the 12 man hours we spent earlier in the year would equal more than the current security deposit not taking into account breakages, repair costs etc...........question is how much does everyone else charge as a security deposit???????
  20. We had guests this year who hired both gites for their extended family & I only charged a £100 security deposit between them as the parents were repeat guests.  On their departure we had to replace various items, repair curtain rods & clean the upholstery in the gite which was taken by their daughter's family in addition to 6 hours cleaning across the 2 gites........... & after several hours washing in Vanish I had to throw away the 2yr olds bedding as the food stains just would not shift.  When we wrote a very polite email detailing the costs & that we were keeping the deposit they were not at all happy & thought we were being unreasonable so we ended up 'doing a deal' whereby we refunded 50%........we have increased the security deposit for next year & have written into our terms & conditions that a cleaning charge will be made......... we don't expect the gites to be as spotless as on arrival, but if there is no evidence of any cleaning being done or it is left 'grubby' then we feel we are justified in making a cleaning charge.  We allow ourselves (just the 2 of us) approx 3-4 hours across the 2 gites to clean & restock + make up beds etc.  No mean feat when we also have a 4 bed B&B to run........ We never charge for things like broken glasses & tables & parasols do go AWOL in storms, but when they leave a gite in such a state we felt justified in charging for cleaning in this instance.  So far all our other guests in 3 years have left the place in a good condition - fingers crossed as we still have 7 weeks left of the season.......Have only ever had to keep the deposit on 1 previous occasion when a dog went berserk in a gite in which it had been confined for 13 hours while its owners went out for the day.....on that occasion we booted them out on day 5 of their 2 week booking after the curtains, carpets & cushions were ripped to shreds & we had to spend a week redecorating the gite before the next guests were due - then we kept all the money including deposit & never heard from them again.  15euros/head/hour for cleaning does seem a little steep - if I brought someone in we would expect to pay between 7 & 10 euros/hour. My worry now is that I have stated that a cleaning charge will be made some people will take advantage of that as an excuse not to do any cleaning..........currently our guests clean up on departure as a thank you gesture + a lot of them want to return.
  21. Well, no .....because I haven't switched the WEP encryption on so users pick up the wireless network straight away when they boot up (Windows XP). I switch the network on and off by enabling MAC address checking (hardware address) which is secure as long as I remember to do it, otherwise the network is wide open to everyone!! I think WEP encryption is probably best and hand out the codes when user need access....... There should be an SSID - the network name you have chosen and the encryption key...........the users will detect the SSID automatically with Windows XP but they will still need the key.............suggest you get your supplier to reset it .....
  22. Hi Adriana, I'm no Wi-Fi expert but I think your system is asking for the encryption key - a 10 or 26 character string depending whether you have 64 or 128 bit encrytion.........you(or the supplier) must have have entered this when you switched encryption on...............try to get into the Access Point set-up and check it or reset it.....Bon Chance.....  
  23. Thanks all - I went out and bought an Aquacheck 7 kit which includes a test for cyanuric acid but it's not very accurate - just measures it in intervals of 50........I see that Lovibond do a specific test kit for this using the "Turbidity" method......I managed to buy some stuff from their UK office last year but it was a bit of a performance and freight charges were HIGH! Does anybody sell their products in France??
  24. We do have a restricted access for guests which is what she used..........but in future if no laptop its the Internet cafe for everyone...........have changed the password today.........
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