Dream goes sour!

[Aly]

Interesting article -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/08/expat-dream-turned-sour-jon-ronson

[AnOther]

Tragic but this happened in Sept last year and was well reported so I'm not sure of the authors motives or objectives in raking over it now.

[pachapapa]

Well it is all news to me, certainly made no strong journalistic impact on the french media; so the OPs post has been a heads-up. The fact that in 12 hours nearly 200 comments have been made suggests some wide degree of interest.I expect Sunday with the amelioration in the forecasted weather and some welcome winter sunshine will see UK expatriate residents make the pilgrimage to "rubber neck".

[pachapapa]

Of course it is all much more difficult for the "english" to conserve their working capital; whereas the french will get the preferential opportunity to purchase race courses with adjoining forests at knock-down prices making a quick return on capital even for the most entrepreneurially incompetent facile.

[Théière]

[quote user="pachapapa"]The fact that in 12 hours nearly 200 comments have been made suggests some wide degree of interest.[/quote]

More like 201 people with not enough in their own lives..............

[woolybanana]

Rubbernecking is a way of life which fills all one's time

[Théière]

I wonder if it was sympathy/empathy from 200 more pathological liars?

[Araucaria]

I was struck by this bit from the Grauniad article:

In August 2006, Laura Walsh was looking to rent a château for her family holiday when she chanced upon chateaudefretay.com. The site is gone now, but you can still find it on the internet archive, with its photograph of horses grazing by the lake, plus a list of activities such as fishing, swimming, a games room, a go-karting stadium, cycling and a weekly treasure hunt.

Laura phoned Joanne Hall, who told her, "We're not Center Parcs, but we do our best", which Laura took to mean they were something like Center Parcs.

And so, swept up in the lovely sounding nature of the thing, she offered to pay the full amount up front – £2,600 for a fortnight's stay.

I appreciate you can't believe much you read in the press, but I wonder what she would have thought if the owner had said "We're not the Ritz, but we do our best"? She'd have expected something like the Ritz? and paid in full up front?