Its not our fault! or...the silly season has arrived!!

[Cassis]

On topic: latest daft request.

"We are thinking of having trip to Lower Normandy and we are interested to visit brocantes.  Are you brocante as well as guest house?"

Phil

[Wendy]

Thanks for that input Miki, Im going to check out the frozen/unbaked croissants/pain chocolat at the Metro for pretty much the same reasons. They come in large boxes. Our baker is a great guy, delivers to us whenever we need, but I ve noticed for a while now that his pastry is getting decidedly darker and drier. The Pain Chocolats are too big as well plus they are full of air and contain barely any chocolat. I thought I was the only one who found the bakery bread a bit hard on the gums, Ive a back tooth missing and chewing the crusty ficelles and compagnes is an eyewatering experience.

Cerise, just for the laugh, stand on your head and sing the Marsellaise anyway, but have someone hold the hat out as well:))

[Will]

Miki, I thoroughly agree with what you say. I expect though that if I am paying 120€ per night I would get a croissant (or something other than a bit of baguette plus yesterday's bread lightly toasted and/or left over apricot flan from the last table d'hote effort). It all comes down to value for money. I don't give a toss where the croissants come from - I had very good friends in England who ran a pub with a reputation for food and most of their stuff came from Brake Bros, so I know it's good. It wouldn't be worth our while as the baker 3km from us does what are reckoned by the French from miles way to be the best pastries in the region, so it suits us to offer those. Being used to them, most other croissants taste dry and boring to me. I'd say your prices are on the top side of average, but it sounds as if you offer good value, so I would happily pay what you charge. Much rather be comfortable with your type of establishment than pinching the pennies at some other places, and there are plenty of those around, French run as well as British, and not all of them charge much less than you either.

[Cassis]

[quote user="Miki"]

Yes Cassis, Brake France is a delivery system, take a look at their site at http://www.brake.co.uk/brake-france/introuk.htm

[/quote]

Thanks for the info Miki - from the website it looks like the nearest depot is probably too far from us for it to be worth their while delivering, but I'll give them a call and see what they say.

Sounds like Wen's baker has the same formula for pains au chocolat as ours - weird, because the rest of their stuff is fine.

I'm not a great fan of traditional French baguettes - tasteless and airy.  And I've tried a lot of them in B&Bs, bakers, hotels.  Can't see what people see in them.  A nice light crust is well and good (if you're lucky enough to have a baker who doesn't make the crust hard enough to pull your teeth out) but it's still pap.  Pain de campagne, toutes graines, champion etc. can be a bit better but not much.  That's why I'm interested in trying Brake's frozen stuff to bake ourselves. 

[Cassis]

[quote user="Will "]Miki, I thoroughly agree with what you say. I expect though that if I am paying 120€ per night I would get a croissant (or something other than a bit of baguette plus yesterday's bread lightly toasted and/or left over apricot flan from the last table d'hote effort). [/quote]

Crikey, Will - where was that?  That's chateau rates round our parts, never mind a guest house!

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Fair enough - Brake make a passable croissant. I've never knowingly

eaten one, though given the number I have got through in my life I am

sure that I must have done so at some point.

I've stayed in quite a few B&Bs / CdHs over the years, yet I can

only remember the breakfast at one as being exceptional. It was in

Normandy and owned by a pair of gay Belgians. The smaller one was the

spitting image of Tintin and the larger one, to my utter delight, bore

a more-than-passing resemblence to Captain Haddock.

Their breakfasts were super. Cold collation, kedgeree (only time I've

ever seen it in France) and mountains of croissant, pain au chocolat,

etc, all baked in a bakers accross the road. I know that he made them

because we could see him through the window in his broiling bakery,

forming bread, croissants and so on, clattering the trays in and out of

the ovens. Every now and again, one of the Belgians would nip over the

way with a basket for fresh supplies. The quantity and quality of food

they served for breakfast was staggering and people could bearly walk

afterwards. This was a top end joint (300 FF in 1988) and as poor

just-graduates was our one and only splurg. Once they discovered our

penury they pressed picnics upon us...mostly consisting of left overs

from breakfast.

I think that it might have been the experience of staying there that

planted the idea in my mind that living in France would be a good thing.

[Will]

It was quite a grand house (near Beaune, in 71), not exactly a chateau, but listed as a chambres d'hote in Alastair Sawday, Fleurs de Soleil etc as well as Gites de France. Just to put it in perspective we did actually stay at a genuine chateau for the previous two nights, near Bourges, which was 45€ per night. Decor was a bit less grand, but breakfasts and general attention to detail was superb.

[Miki]

Cassis,

They may appear far away, just as Rennes might appear to us but I bet

they will have sub depots nearer but maybe not. A quick call to your

nearest branch will let you know. We usually order 10 boxes in total every

so often, depending on the demand. Space in the freezers is our main concern.

You have to remember to get whatever number you need for breakfast out,

at least 8 hours before, so to let them rise overnight. We actually put

some French on to them and for 2 months they never got them out and

cooked them from frozen in the oven !! They saw Tina and mentioned,

that hers were bigger than theirs (ooh Matron) and Tina simply asked

them how long they had them out of the freezer before cooking.... the

penny dropped and now they are happy with their nice big croissants !  As far as passable I have bought them in many boulangeries and  a Brakes croissant would put them to shame !

And if that driver says to me once more time that Brake are French I

will stick a baguette up his..........................nose !

In the Doo Don we had a fabulous place for bread, hopeless with aything

else, the next village had a great croissant chap but did gum ripping

baguettes, the best one 7 km away was superb with pain au raisin and

not bad with bread but hopeless at anythng else !! Plus they also all

shut on a Monday !!

[Miki]

Bill,

We have a couple of friends who have a chain of 4 pub/restos in Middx

& Surrey. They get much of their pub grub from Brake Bros. Also all

their bread rolls come from them and umpteen other delights. As I have

said in another post, too many boulangeries now are a total let down.

There are some great ones of course but I am sad now that too many are

simply just run of the mill places, all front and no substance !

We always try to offer value, it truly has to be that as the

aim. There is a fine line between making a good living and scraping by

and the worst is the thin line between ripping folks off and going broke. It

is hard work, we all know it can be great, it can be a case of let's

sell up and take it easy but I suppose, we all reckon most guests are

really wonderful, like at the moment, with 8 out of 14 return visitors

and nice peeps to boot !

We are slightly above average price, sure but we are also table d'hôte,

we offer a totally seperate residents lounge with TV in French & English,

comfortable living area and I guess a laugh and a crack, not a lot but it kind of works.................

[hastobe]

Sounds like you have a nice place Miki - you're not anywhere on the route from Calais to Perigueux (via Rouen / Orleans etc) are you?  Hospitality, sense of humour and friendly smile come out tops in my book any day - the rest is normally pretty much 'comme ci comme ça'

Kathie

[Miki]

Hi Kathie,

No not really, we are really more suitable for folks using Cherbourg,

Caen and at a stretch Le Havre (where recently, due to the low ferry

costs offered by the new LD lines, some people are using them rather

than Brittany Ferries) but mainly for any Brits we do get, we are just

around 20 minutes from Saint Malo. 'comme ci comme ça' 

yep, guess that's how we feel about staying in some places. We want

nice and clean, we want warm hosts, some breakfast and if we are

staying a few days or so, a nice region to mooch around. We are

probably a hosts dream, we get by as they say but we don't like

hosts that cut corners at the expense of their guests, when for a few

centimes more, we are easily pleased ! Hope that made

sense...........[8-)]

Perigueux hey, that's our old manor, we were back there in late March and had a drink in the Star Inn and spent a few days visiting a few old chums.