What do you give your guests for breakfast?

[LesPonts]

We are in our first year of living in France fuul-time and enjoying travelling around the country, exploring different regions. We are also in our first year of offering gite/B&B accommodation. Our experience of travelling around France is that what we get for breakfast varies dramatically.

Some of the time it is...1 Croissant, 1 Baguette between 2 people, some jam, butter, a glass of fruit juice and a small pot of coffee.

At another place we were each given....large jug of fruit juice, pot of coffee, 2 types of bread, toast, 2 croissants each, half a pineapple, half a grapefruit, muesli, dried fruit, preserves, honey, butter etc etc (we couldn't eat everything of course!!)

What do you give your guests?

[Dick Smith]

Our experience has usually been the latter example, often with cheese and cold meat (seems popular with Belgians and Dutch) but I suppose you might not want to do that...

[lizzy h]

We give

cereals the little boxes of kellogs or weetabix or museli

cereal bars, yogurts, toast and jam marmalade, choc spread,

croissants (3 for two people), honey, butter and boiled eggs and cheese( little breakfast cheeses babybel for eg) and for the french and Belgins a varity of meats

Tea and coffee and fresh fruit juice, we also do full English  breakfast or bacon sarnies or poached eggs on request people always comment on how good our breakfasts are but I thought all bandbs provided this.

[Miki]

Sorry but we have been through all this just a short time ago, try a search and you should find quite a few B&B'ers participated that time and described their breakfasts.

Liz, you appear to give quite a few things, as far as "foreigners" well they get what the French get, when in France etc. As for the full English, no way, we cater mainly for French and anyone else simply gets what the French person would expect, although for our few golfing weeks we do get asked and supply, poached, boiled or scrambled eggs. We do table d'hôte and to do full breakfasts as well, would mean Tina or I, spending more time in the kitchen than we would really like.

I must say your full breakfast at 6€ has to be a bargain, Mmmmm very tempting !

[Quillan]

I am afraid we don't do individual cereal boxs, they are too expensive. We do all the other cold stuff (including meats and cheeses) and offer boiled or scrambled eggs on request but have never been asked. We did get a English guy ask if our prices included a full English, I sent him to the local hotel. We get a lot of Catalans come and stay so the only thing we do offer is a Catalan breakfast which just means putting tomatoes and olive oil out. Yogurts are quite popular and many of our EU guests use them instead of milk on their cereals. We advertise our breakfasts as Continental as opposed to a typical French breakfast.

Cor I have not had a English breakfast for about 18 months, it's sound very nice. Does that include a mug of tea and two slices?

By the way Liz did you mean that you thought all B&B's offer breakfast or just the English breakfast.

[Coco]

We always do FRESHLY SQUEEZED orange juice (and the comments are definitely worth the effort) 1 croissant, 1 pain chocolat (or pain au raisin, whichever looks best on the day) and half a baguette per person.  We also put out a bowl of fresh fruit, and in the summer diced melon and pineapple when they're at a reasonable price!  Natural yoghurt and natural yoghurt with added sugar (which the continentals seem to prefer), a choice of 4 jams, honey from our Maire, butter and cereals.  We then offer coffee, English or continental tea or hot chocolate.

[lizzy h]

hi there, in answer to your question " I thought all bandbs do this,

Yes I thought most bandbs put out cheeses cold meats etc not full english, we had that many british asking for full english we thought we we had better charge as we have to get our bacon from England or if desperate off the internet at a price!

When you say you put fresh fruit out, is this just fruit or in salad form? as I used to do this and found it to expensive and time consuming and people were not really fussed and I dont now and knowone has ever asked for it.

Also re the tea and toast thats already provided with the continental as I still put it all out with the full english, the good thing about doing the full english is I always do extra and I and hubby and mum sit down afterwards and enjoy ours ( well you cannot cook one without having some yourself says me being a bacon addict!!!)

[Coco]

When you say you put fresh fruit out, is this just fruit or in salad form? as I used to do this and found it to expensive and time consuming and people were not really fussed and I dont now and knowone has ever asked for it.

That's interesting, I thought that you were all being extravagant with meat and cheeses - at least with the fruit if it doesn't get eaten it will last about a week, but surely you can't put the meats out for more than a couple of days?  Cherries, pears, bananas, apples, peaches, nectarines I leave as a fruit bowl but pineapple and melon I will do as a salad but only if it's leftover from evening meals.  And this year, with the price of them, the melons are few and far between!! 

I've also found that no one has ever enquired about meat or cheese but sometimes the fruit bowl gets cleaned out!  Last week I had a lady who had a pear, a nectarine, a banana and half a bowl of cherries after her bread and croissants!  A lot of them eat the fruit with the yoghurt, so I suppose it depends whether you offer yoghurt or not.

[lizzy h]

hi there,

I was on about doing a fresh fruit salad about being expensive and time consuming as you have to do it fresh on the day  and I agree with you about cold meats they are very dear and thats what I thought you gave to the europeans esp french for breccy but I might drop that from my list and maybe give them a fruit bowl instead

thanks for the advice

 

[LesPonts]

Thanks for all your replies - we all seem to offer the same generous amount. The only thing I don't offer at the moment is the cheese (and cold meat of course!)  - I'll have a look into that one.

I'm always keen that my guests have a good filling breakfast as sometimes this may have to keep them going all day until they return in the evening. My own experience so far is that 2 croissants each is too much for people and the croissants are often left when I clear up.

[Alan]

1 croissant, 1 pain chocolat or pain au raisin

baguette

Brown bread or cereals  bread

Cereals cornflakes and  museli

Fresh fruits

boiled eggs

Meats and cheeses ( if guests don’t eat it then the kids have in it sandwiches at lunch time)

Natural and fruit yoghurt

Home made jams

butter

And sometimes a homemade cake

Fruit juice orange

Tea coffee or I offer children hot chocolate

 

Don’t do toast and don’t do cooked breakfasts apart from last year we had some Belgium’s stay and wanted me to do a full English breakfast , they even went and bought me a frying pan

[Jenny Rennes]

I have to say that i am appalled by most of the replies on this forum.

It appears that most of the posters are interested only in the maximum profit they can make rather than the excellence of their services.

I appreciate that a business needs to make a profit but adjusting the cereal from a nicely presented individual box to a catering pack says a great deal about the person, as does not offering a melon because it's a bit too expensive.

What happened to excellence ?

It saddens me .

I would like to think that as an English woman staying in an English persons place in France I would be offered the best available rather than a carefully portioned quota based on a profit percentage!

I would offer as many croissants as were necessary to satisfy and a full English if required.

Of course I would charge an appropriate amount but at least my guests would feel like guests rather than visitors to an all inclusive package holiday.

I am sorry to be picky about this but this is just one reason why the rest of Europe thinks the English are rubbish.

Jenny Rennes.

[Catalpa]

Hmmm. This thread should really take off now

[Miki]

"....I have to say that i am appalled by most of the replies on this forum"

Are we looking at the same thread, I was thinking just how generous the members have been compared to many and I mean, many CdH's we know in France.

"....It appears that most of the posters are interested only in the maximum profit they can make rather than the excellence of their services"

One will find that there is a level of excellence in comparison to the price a member offer their rooms for. As ever, anything to do with price is relative. The dream of having a B&B in France and running it for pin money is just that, a dream. Most people will require the income to live on and thus as in all businesses, one has to get the quality and "things"on offer to tally with what people will require and how much one needs to survive. No decent profit, no survival equals no B&B's..........simple economics. Too many guests want top service, maximum food for minimum pay out, nothing wrong with that but there are not enough guests willing to pay for top service for top money, that's the bottom line.

I will point you to the fact, that to run a good B&B and be signed on at the C de Com, means fairly large cotisations and one will have to find even larger annual sums just to open the door, ibelieve me, it is not easy, even if it looks that way to outsiders.

"I appreciate that a business needs to make a profit but adjusting the cereal from a nicely presented individual box to a catering pack says a great deal about the person, as does not offering a melon because it's a bit too expensive"

It says good business to me, take a look at how good chefs prepare and how little they try to spend on decent cuts of meat, it is not about paying top money but how one presents what one buys, simple formula used by all great chefs.

"....What happened to excellence ?"

It went in to 4 star gaffs not B&B's for goodness sake. That is not to say some B&B's are not par excellence but in the main they are small businesses offering good value at down to earth prices.

".....I would like to think that as an English woman staying in an English persons place in France I would be offered the best available rather than a carefully portioned quota based on a profit percentage!"

I would like to think that you would be willing to pay a good price for what you want but all too often, it is as I stated before, a casof too many people wanting something for nothing. Of course things have to be portioned, give far too much away for far too little money, over long periods and you will not be around for the next season, again simple economics. None of us members with B&B's are mean I'm sure but we all gain experience to know what our guests want.

"I would offer as many croissants as were necessary to satisfy and a full English if required."

And if everyday many were left and one got fed up with gaining plenty of kilos eating leftovers and the weekly bill at the boulangerie was simply too high, you would do what members probably do, give one per person and offer other alternatives to go with them. Full English, goodness me, how do you propose those of us who do table d'hôtes in the evenings will manage not just to get the rashers and sausages from but still be standing to do as many as 15 evening meals later on in the day aswell as change rooms, wash the linen and on and non and on......We are B&B's in France and we deal with around 75% French clientele, who although curious are still traditionalists and cooking full breakfasts are not for the greater part, very French !

"Of course I would charge an appropriate amount but at least my guests would feel like guests rather than visitors to an all inclusive package holiday."

There lies the crunch, French prices are on the whole quite low but you want to charge for all the extras, then prepare to be quiet for long periods. French people are often very picky on pricing. They often simply want their traditional petit déjeuners at a sensible price.

"....I am sorry to be picky about this but this is just one reason why the rest of Europe thinks the English are rubbish"

Not around here they don't, we get a great many return. The reason Europe thinks Britian is rubbish, is partly because of pathetic quotes by people like Chirac who cannot get their head around the fact that British food and restos are slowly but surely passing the mediocre fayre that France too often turns out these days.

There you are, a point of view from someone who has been in the tourist business in France for quite some time.

Now let's see what others think.

[Russethouse]

Jenny - Do you actually have a B&B in France ? Its pretty easy to say or think I would do this or that but when it comes to it after a few months you may change your mind.

>>I would like to think that as an English woman staying in an English persons place in France I would be offered the best available rather than a carefully portioned quota based on a profit percentage!<<<

Many B&B owners would starve if they waited for the English trade, perhaps your expectations of B&B are rather high.

>>>Of course I would charge an appropriate amount<<

But wouldn't the appropriate amount perhaps put you in the same league as a reasonable hotel ?

>>the rest of Europe thinks the English are rubbish.<<

Who told you that ? Are you friends with Chirac perchance ?

[mascamps.com]

As Miki says, we can't ignore the economics for very long. In practice, going by this thread our guests get extremely good value in comparison to the likes of, for example, the IBIS et al.

It's also not the case that the likes of the IBIS operate on a "as many croissants as you can eat" basis - try turning up for breakfast there 15 minutes before they stop serving and you'll find that they have assumed that not everyone will eat everything and have therefore run out of most things. Turn up for our breakfast even an hour after we "close" and you'll find that we haven't run out.

I'd also say that, in general, I find that brit-run places offer much, much better value than French run places. One thing that always sticks our in our minds is the breakfast we had in a small place in Bayeux. One croissant, a small piece of baguette, coffee and small glass of juice. Nothing else and 5€ (a few years ago) for it.

We vary our offering a bit depending on the mix of people that we have but generally it's a croissant and pain au chocolat per person plus a selection of teas, coffee, hot chocolate, selection of juices, fruit, cereal and corn flakes, baguettes, yogourts, cheese (and sometimes cold meats).

We also offer a freshly cooked English breakfast at additional cost on request. This was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time but in practice we didn't get a lot of takers last year and it's only been in recent months that we've had a lot of requests for it. For reasons that escape me, we can't get either the sausages or the bacon in normal French shops so buy them specially from one of the British shops.

The brits may well be rubbish at many things. Breakfast isn't one of them - it's one area where we leave the French in the dust.

 

Arnold

 

[Cerise]

Dear Jenny

If you can tell me where I can get these wonderful, willing to pay for quality, guests then I will be delighted.  Sorry to disillusion you, but we are fully aware that we are considered 'expensive' at 50 euros a night for a double room including breakfast.  If one more person locally tells me that there is a place down the road which does B & B for 45 euros I will scream.

Despite the fact that it is not actually that nice, and their 'breakfast' consists of a lump of baguette and a cup of inferior coffee, the Tourist Office tell me, apologetically, that people actually want to save that 5 euros.  All our guests comment on the quality of our breakfasts, but sadly my ingredients cost more than the 3 euros which another of our competitors charge for breakfast.  We are quite lucky in that our garden is full of fruit trees, so most of the time we can have fresh cherries, peaches, figs etc for only the labour - but actually making all that homemade jam when it is 40° outside is not that much fun.

Of course we care about service and quality, but we also have to live!  Not all of us are rich and retired, and in the face of cheap competition it is virtually impossible to give very high quality and make a profit.  If you are lucky enough not to have to worry about money then say a silent thank you and spare a thought for those of us who do need to earn a living and are trying to do so whilst dealing with a clientele who by and large do not want to pay much.

I agree with Arnold - the breakfasts in many B & Bs is of a much higher standard than in many French hotels and costs a great deal less.

Maggi

[mascamps.com]

Jenny,

I've skimmed over the posts and I don't see where anyone has said or implied that we are aiming to achieve the "maximum profit". Yes, we all aim to make a profit on the breakfasts but the prices that B&B people charge are far from high. I've commented myself many times that they should be higher. Considerably higher in many cases. Taking the relatively typical 15€ or so for a table d'hote meal, I would challenge anyone to get a similar meal for under 30€ (or even 40€) in a restaurant. Even those who are "ex" professional chefs are only charging around the 15€ mark when 10 years ago they'd have been charging you a sum more like 50€ (in today's money) for the same meal.

As Maggi has said, people are looking for "value for money" and, sadly, in many cases that just means the cheapest. We could offer the "full English" breakfast as our standard breakfast but less than 10% of people are prepared to pay for it even though it is, in our case, a really full English breakfast freshly cooked with specially imported bacon, sausages, and baked beans alongside everything from mushrooms to yoghurt. We charge 11€ for that at the moment which is below the prices charged by most of the UK hotels and B&Bs I've stayed in over the years and they don't have to import the ingredients.

We don't do the cereal in individual boxes because we try, as far as possible, to operate on an "all you can eat" basis. The individual boxes are more expensive but they are also "portion controlled" ie you get less than you'd normally eat at home.

Unlike Miki, we do get quite a high proportion of brits staying with us which is one reason that we do the cooked breakfasts. Even so, as I say, not many people are prepared to pay for it.

As far as your "as many croissants as were necessary to satisfy", we find that our croissant plus pain au chocolat plus baguette means that every morning we've a lot of food left over.

We charge separately for the breakfast which offers the people the option to choose a cooked breakfast if they wish. Many chambres d'hotes include the breakfast in the accommodation charge so if they offered a cooked breakfast as their standard breakfast, they'd need to increase their charges by around 5€ which, as Maggi, notes is more than enough to lose her business. Few people look at the "small print" of what's provided when they book and would just see her higher prices. And, of course, the French don't eat cooked breakfasts.

 

Arnold

 

[Alan]

 

I would offer as many croissants as were necessary to satisfy and a full English if required.

.

I know i have only being doing this now for 2 1/2 years and there are many on here that have much more experence and have been in the business for years but could you please tell me how? maybe you use frozen croissant? as i can only think this would be the way round it.

I travel 10km every morning to the local bakers and buy fresh, yesterday i had 7 people  for breakfast spent 11 euro just for the croissants, not one was eatern this morning, these are now waste, as we do not re heat and serve them  tomorrow, or maybe you think i should do this.So i currently have 14 spare, maybe tomrrow i should buy 21 just in case somebody would like extra, or do you expect me to get back in the car abd do another 20 km to the bakers for maybe another one. I would just like to remind you we are not a hotel and i think a number of guests before booking a chambre d hote really need to define the true meaning of the word.

50% of our guest are not english and would no way thank you for bacon and eggs in the morning, even if you could buy the bacon in france. If you do have a french source for back bacon i would like to know as i do like a bacon buttie, but its no good if the bacon has been frozen as it tends to have a fishy taste

[Catalpa]

quote from Arnold:

<< I'd also say that, in general, I find that brit-run places offer much, much better value than French run places. One thing that always sticks our in our minds is the breakfast we had in a small place in Bayeux. One croissant, a small piece of baguette, coffee and small glass of juice. Nothing else and 5€ (a few years ago) for it. >>

Yes, I agree. We've only ever stayed in French-run CdH's and I've found them generally unfriendly... well, nice enough to us but it's a case of here's the room, do you want it? Here's a key. Would you like to pay us now? What time do you want breakfast? See you tomorrow. And in several instances they allegedly (judging by signs or literature) offer evening meal but it's never been suggested to us. Breakfast has been baguette, butter, pots of jam, very average coffee. Never croissants, pain au raisins, etc.

We've not stayed in B&B / CdH for the last 5 years or so - since we bought our house here - but certainly from the standard apparently on offer from the participants on this site, the attention and standards would far surpass a lot of French establishments.

I also don't see from where Jenny got her impression off this thread of British meanness. You're all businesses offering guests a good, varied breakfast in your home, not canteens providing meals to take your guests through to dinner at 8pm.

[Jenny Rennes]

Well you have all put me in my place, haven't you ?

On reflection I have certainly been hasty and possibly unfair in my comments and I hope all of you who are trying to make a living as well as offering outstanding service and value for money will forgive me.

In my defence can I just say that I get fed up with the constant crop of 'Brits' who think they can turn their hand to anything once they set foot on foreign soil, including catering for paying customers when they really haven't got a clue, becoming a 'builder' when all they have ever built is a brick barbecue and looking after peoples gardens when they have spent all their life in a 2 up 2 down in Manchester.

I concede that none of you fall into this category and I apologise unreservedly.

Jenny Rennes.

Despite my surname I am English.

 

 

[mascamps.com]

Jenny, "red rag to a bull" wouldn't even be in it

I'd like to defend the builders too whilst we're at it.

I haven't had a lot of experience of French tradespeople nor of English transplants living in France. However, I have found that the French are completely undependable: if you think about it, we own a very large building and will therefore be needing a constant stream of work done over the years yet three times we have tried to get a French electician to do work for us and three times they've come, given a rough estimate, said they'd be back next week to do the work and not returned. It isn't that we're not French either for I asked our neighbours and they confirm that that's how it is with French tradespeople in general.

We tried one of the local Brits who can "turn their hand to anything" when we needed a door installed. Frankly, I was amazed at how thoroughly professional he was and would gladly recommend him to anyone else.

As a consequence of the above two extremes, the local brits are very, very busy with work and we ourselves are actively seeking a brit electrician to do our work.

 

As far as the folk you'll "meet" on this forum goes, I think that most (perhaps all) of the folk who contribute and visit the owners forums are at least aiming to provide a very high standard of service. OK, we will all mess it up from time to time, but I'd say that even on our worst days we're better than the average in France (not hard when some of the French are so bad at it). Actually, if catalpa's experiences are anything to go by, I think our worst days are better than the best days in a French run place!

In defense of the French, I appreciate how hard it must be to provide a decent level of service when their countrymen generally ask for a discount on the already low French prices (and prices in French run places are generally a bit lower than in Brit run places). We've friends with a similar place to ours who were initially running with prices about 30% below ours yet still they were asked for discounts from the French.

(rant, rave)...

In fact, we have tonight got a French family who initially wanted to cram five people into a double room just to get a cheaper stay. They're currently packed into two rooms. Friday night sees the arrival of two separate French families who booked our two smallest rooms yet are proposing to have three people in each of them (we can't get in touch with them to say it ain't gonna work).

 

Arnold

 

[Tourangelle]

Admittedly it was hotels rather than b&bs, but I have just got back from a trip to the Toulouse area having had some frankly awful breakfasts. I stayed in 3 hotels, and only one had a decent breakfast, that is to say more on offer than a croissant and a bit of bread. Being hotels, breakfast was extra, the nasty breakfasts were 5.50 euros and 6 euros and the nice one was 7, but the difference was enormous. My positive experience was a buffet breakfast with half a baguette and a croissant then as much as you wanted of various fruit, compote, yoghurt, fruit juice, cereals... really very good. How some places have the cheek to ask for 5.50euros for a croissant and frankly it must have been the previous day's bread and some very mediocre coffee I don't know. But I do know which hotel I would return to if I was in the area again!!! Breakfast really makes all the difference for me.

[Miki]

"...Well you have all put me in my place, haven't you ?"

Well yes I guess we have

But Jenny, you have been very reasonable in posting how you might "possibly" have been unfair.

I do agree with how you see many Brits that pop up here and there, not registering or declaring their B&B (or indeed, many other forms of business) and giving awful accomodation (I have seen some and must say they are having to do it all on a shoe string but sadly don't realise that to run a B&B at any price, people want clean comfortable beds, a decent shower/bath room, a nice breakfast and in general, everything clean and not inherited from the local dechetterie (don't laugh, I have seen it !!)

It is not just those from a 2 up 2 down in Manchester either !

I for one, think it quite refreshing to see someone apologise for their heartless attack on us poor (and I mean poor, as in church mice !)who carry on trying our best to satisfy the needs of people from all nations who come to our humble but oh so clean with hearty petit déj's Chambres D'Hôtes in France.

Well done Jenny, apologies accepted from I.

[Cerise]

Thank you Jenny and apology accepted.  I was not very happy when I replied as have had a week of people messing me about.

Guests last night had specifically asked if they could arrive between 9 - 10 pm so we were somewhat disconcerted to find them, not best pleased to find no-one at home, on the doorstep when we popped out for 5 minutes at 6.00 pm.  They then sulked as they couldn't have dinner (I did organise a nice restaurant for them) but I had already started dinner for other guests who had booked.  At times like that you wonder why you do it at all and when you read a posting criticising (even if it is perhaps justified) you do tend to fly off the handle.

On another note - Alan, do you think we could make some sort of Tarn & Garonne sculpture with leftover croissants as even the dogs can't eat any more and I hate throwing so many away!!

 

Maggi