Germans

[Daley]

    Hi

I have a question to B&B/Gites owners, do you have many Germans as guests?  I was reading a website that said more Germans visit France than Brits (maybe cos there's more of them), can anyone quantify this stat?

Danke

Dale

[Quillan]

Yes is the answer from both East and West. From scientists to lorry drivers, is there a difference? I like the East Germans, they have culture which is something the West Germans don't appear to have. I find it quite funny really because I was ready to  bomb them 25 years ago. Funny old world, very nice people as it happens. We have had (coz I know you are doing your research)  - Germans (obviously), Belgians, Dutch, Norwegian, Rumanian. Bulgarian, Swiss, Italian, Swedish, Russian, Spanish, Grand Canaryain (they say they are different as do Basques and of course Catalans, we have had them all), Americans, Austrailans, New Zeelanders, English (Read English, Scot and Welsh, the latter complained because it rained!), Irish and of course French.

Your client base will depend on who you advertise with and where, both are linked actually. I would say you need to be registered with the big three thats GDF, Clévacances and BNB France all of which you will have to be inspected. But then it depends so much on who you are, where your B&B is, what type of property and what you have to offer. Our biggest draw although not mentioned much on our website is water activities especially White Water Rafting. You can't really put a finger on anything untill you know all this. You can also waste a lot of money and I mean a lot on advertising if you are not careful.

[Just Katie]

Out of nosiness what culture to East Germans have over West Germans?  I know it happens everywhere like the southern softies thing but whats the diff between the G's

[DZ]

I wonder if the difference might stem from the fact that East Germany was under a totally different political system - and hence, culture - for so many years after the war?  Still, I hardly know any people from East Germany, so will wait to hear from someone who might know more on the subject!

[Quillan]

I don't really know but I was quite supprised to hear they studied clasical plays and authors from all over the word including English and American. I suppose I rather thought they might study just Russian. I was also interested to hear that a common second language taught was English when again I thought it might be Russian. They also tend to be more interested in clasical music, opera etc. I had a preconcived idea and it was sort of blown out of the water. I understand that the west Germans are still making the East Germans pay. The main complaint was equal skill sets but not equal wages for doing the same job in the same factory or wherever. I can only go on what I was told mind, having never been to the 'East' I don't know for sure.

[Just Katie]

A bit like the welsh and english really then.  English screw us but we have more class and culture.[:)]

[Cerise]

We have never had any Germans to stay - nor in fact do we get many into local Tourist Office (edge of Tarn & Tarn & Garonne) lots of Dutch and Belgians but no Germans.  Interestingly, there was German POW camp here during end of World War II and quite a number of the prisoners stayed.  If you look in local phone book plenty of German sounding names, so I would have expected there might have been a few with family connections..   There are beginning to be a few Germans with second homes in the area but nothing like numbers of Belgians, Dutch and English.

Maggi

[DZ]

Maybe this could be explained by the phenomenon of "loathe your neighbour but love thy neighbour's neighbour"?  I would like to know if there are more German people buying/holidaying in Spain, for instance?

And back to the East Germans being more cultured that the West Germans - well, it is true that under the socialist system access to culture was incredibly easy and cheap (I used to go to the opera once a week as a teenager!).  The educational system was also very good and wide; we not only had to study the main representatives of French, English and American literature (and Russian - that goes without saying), but also learnt the history of those countries in some detail.  But no, I do not miss the old political system!

[Patmobile]

No Germans around here, even though we do some gite advertising in German, and give German as one of our spoken languages.

We see loads of Belgians and Dutch, though, even though the latter seem to prefer camping and caravanning to staying in luxurious rented cottages.

Perhaps they are just counting the Germans who pass through France (many in coaches) on their way to Spain, or is there a secret invasion going on?

Patrick

 

[Quillan]

The thing I have had them say on more than one occasion is how expensive things are in France compaired to Germany and other EU countries. Now I don't know if that is true but certainly living close to Spain we go there a lot and it is cheaper. So perhaps thats why they go past you Pat in their coaches as you say down to Spain.

[Daley]

Amazing, how does a question about Germans coming to stay in France end up comparing the differences between East and West [8-)]  I live in Germany, in the west and I believe that the west Germans are resentful of the east Germans as they for one are paying a tax for re-unification (myself included) and they have seen their country suffer finanicially because of re-unification.  This is not a generalisation, just an observation from the Germans I know.  A tip for attracting Germans; offer coffee and cake, a favourite pastime for the Germans.

[Daley]

    Thanks Quillan, I was considering what activities would attract people and provide a source of income such as, fishing, white water rafting where it may be possible to work with a local providers of these activities. 

I trust that was free advice??[:D]

Regards

Dale

[Quillan]

I was taliking to a German at the weekend. Apparently the germans are pulling out of Spain due to new tax laws in Germany. They now get taxed on their homes abroad. This could be good news for us in France, perhaps they will come here instead?

[Scarlett]

[quote user="Daley"]  A tip for attracting Germans; offer coffee and cake, a favourite pastime for the Germans.
[/quote]

Corr, don't remind me.  I did an exchange with a German student when I was 16 and it was over the Easter holidays.  We got this huge strawberry gateau with lashings of whipped cream for breakfast.  More of the same following lunch, then the relatives all turned up in the afternoon, each bearing a gift of a gooey cake and of course the little Englanderin (is that right?) had to try them all - after which, of course, I threw up everywhere!!!  If you've read naughty girls thread I hope you won't think there's a pattern developing.  I got over all this ickiness by the time I was about 18 or 19 [Www]

[Tony the Turner]

Isn't France abroad for the Germans? I think 1945 confirmed this.

[Daley]

    Don't mention the war!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Daley]

    Yes Englanderin, nothing has changed here the staple diet being; sausages and cake!!! Lecker

[Aly]

Its a little sad that any discussion amongst us Brits about Germany or

Germans always seems to descend into tales abt  the war or comments about invasion. With these Basil Fawlty, Daily 'hate' Mail type attitudes or stereotypes ( give them cake or sausage)  is it surprising that German tourists may not choose to stay in some of your chambre d,Hotes or gites.

Lots of Germans

visit France. l believe popular areas are Ardeche, Cote d,Azur ( have

German radio), Alsace, and  many French citys.

[Ty Korrigan]

Or...

The gite is postioned here but the Germans are here, here and here.

I met a shellfish farmer last weekend who told me that he often gets elderly Germans returning to his area of Finisterre to look up the places where they where stationed during WW2.

Regard 'The master race' he said to me as an obese former soldier squeezed out of a camping car to waddle of to the blockhouse he bravely ran away from in 1944.

 'Probally the best holiday of his life' I was told. Four years of eating oysters and dossing by the sea only to make a 'strategic withdrawl' at the first signs of action.

 The former soldier peeped into the blockhouse and recoiled at the sight of human excrement and litter than covered the floor before shaking his head and getting back into his camping car...

 Thats as I saw it....

 

[Cassis]

We've currently got an ancien combattant of the 2ème D.B. staying with us who is delighted that we have a book (long out of print) describing the liberation of the Saosnois in minute detail - the tank he was in features in the chapter on the liberation of Ancinnes and he's mentioned by name.  The old chap now lives in Bourges, was freed from a POW camp in North Africa by the 8th Army and spent 1943 in Hornsea before joining in the Liberation of Normandy in 1944.  And last night we went to the Ancinnes  - Schwarme jumelage meeting where we finalised arrangements for a visit by 25 of our German friends at the end of the month.

Phil