End of Season Anecdotes

[Quillan]

I'm sure we all have a few stories to tell, heres a few of mine.

We had an American lady, she came on her own and stayed a few days as a break from her travels. She spent hours sitting down by the river reading. She asked for afternoon tea one day and when I dropped it off there was a small self sealing clear bag on the table with something in it. I though oh my god she’s on bl**dy drugs. So plucking up courage I asked her what it was because if it was drugs I would have to ask her to go. “It’s hair from my pussy” she said, so my mouth dropped (so far I got grass on my bottom lip) but she then went on to explain it was from her cat and that by stroking it she could communicate with it. I thought we had a right one here but said how sorry I was for her and that it was always sad when one looses an animal. She replied that it was not dead but lived in her apartment back in the States and that she stroked the hair in the bag and her cat knew and was happy. She knew this worked because she did it at a specific time each day when she knew that her neighbour would visit to feed the cat and when she was there the cat purred. I’m not surprised as the thing only got fed once a day and probably purred because it was thinking ‘food at last, I didn’t think I would be getting anything today”. Silly bloody woman.

 

We also had an English couple arrive, the bloke was a bit odd (wore black socks with his shorts). They asked if their daughter could stay for the weekend as she was currently on camp the other side of Carcassonne. As we had a spare room it was not a problem. On the Sunday her friends turned up (about 10 of them) in a mini bus to collect her. When they saw the river and garden they asked if they could all go and pray, turned out they were born again Christians, mum and dad as well. So on the day of our summer fete on one side of the river we had the guys setting up the tables and chairs for our village meal and on my side we had a group of people with guitars and tambourines signing “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam” followed by “Cum bia my Lord” and “Morning has Broken” well to say I had the p1ss taken out of me at the village meal is a bit of a understatement. When they all got drunk they came round our table and started singing “Morning has broken” to me. You have to laugh.

[Dave&Olive]

Best on Ive seen is open all year closed october 28 untill 8 january 2005

[Quillan]

[quote]Best on Ive seen is open all year closed october 28 untill 8 january 2005[/quote]

Where was that then?

[Dave&Olive]

Try www.chambresdhote.com 

[Miki]

Pretty cute Chris, best way is learning from feedback n'est ce pas.

I have an error as well but I keep forgetting to change it but as no one has ever told me about it, I leave it, even when I remember about it !! but you are 20 (probably 100) times better than me at building a website. Even with making the adjustments, I am so slow at uploading, it takes all day for me to change the tarifs each year !! I think it is because it was built for us and my computer skills are zero

Still close to 100 room nights to get through (thats pre-reservations to date) before we can close for a few months, and you sunning yourself already, lucky devils !!

 

 

 

[Coco]

Funny isn't it.  When I first read that you close from 1 November to 1 March each year Miki I thought you must be mad.  Then, having had guests just about every week from mid-March through to the beginning of September I could see where you were coming from, we were feeling pretty knackered and looking forward to the quiet winter months and a few days (and lunches out) during late September.  However, September turned out to be our second busiest month of the year, October has been MUCH better than expected and we have several bookings for both November and December.  Having only been going for just over a year we can't afford to turn any business away yet, so are still plodding away at it and looking forward to when it quietens down a bit!

As for odd visitors..... I took an enquiry in August from a French family who said they were a party of six.  I told them five was the maximum I could cope with and they then said one of their party was a baby, so I said OK.  You should have seen mine and my husband's jaws bounce off the ground when the Renault Scenic turned up and more and more people kept piling out.  First grandma (perhaps a size14/16), then mumf (easily a size 26), then the youngest daughter (perhaps a 16) and the two grown up daughters, (each at least a size 28/30), followed by son-in-law and finally baby grand-daughter.  Oh, and then the three large dogs!!!  How do you get so much body mass in one car???

We were desparately trying to work out how to turn them away politely in French when they told us that one of them would sleep in the car with the dogs.  And being cowardly and taking the easy option, we felt that as it was 8pm and they wanted to go out to eat we would let them stay.  Next morning, having been kept awake most of the night by the house shaking from the snoring, we got breakfast ready and presumed that any minute now the one male in the party would alight from the car.  Again, jaws bounced off the floor when we discovered that it was poor old gran who had drawn the short straw and slept in the car.  They were indeed one of the politest families we had staying with us; even still, we were horrified to read in the visitors book that they hope to return....... I don't think so!!

[Quillan]

We have had a couple of dog incidences. We had one, French couple, with dogs who phoned to make two bookings. They were going to Spain and would stop for one night on the way down and again on the way back. They assured us that the dogs were very gentle and would be no problem at all. I always tell my guests we have 3 cats and a dog as a matter of course just in case of allergies.

 

Well they turned up and got out with Fifi the French toy Poodle and this ‘thing’ which is the closest I’ve ever been to an American Pit Bull which immediately went for my dog with teeth bared and saliva dripping, I was not a happy chap.

 

Being late there was not much I could do except lock my dog in the bedroom and let them get on with it. Still I got my revenge by firstly giving them ‘poo bags’ for the garden, they loved that and by not giving them a card. Let me explain the latter. We give guests that we would welcome back a card which also on production gives them a 10% discount. If we don’t like you or feel you don’t ‘fit in’ you don’t get a card and are not invited to sign the visitor’s book. We even have a little ceremony for presenting the card and people find it quite amusing. The Germans look quite proud when presented with theirs. There have been a few this season who didn’t get cards.