Busy Summer

Mohon Vide Grenire.

Summer is still clinging on valiantly in our part of Brittany and we are still getting a small number of guests coming to enjoy the beauty and peace of the area now the schools have returned. 

July and August have been really good for bookings, considering this is our first year, and we're on a big learning curve I think we've coped quite well. Of coarse "you can't please all the people all the time" but in the main customers have gone away pretty happy. Reading reviews placed on web sites such as Booking/Trip advisor etc. can be a torrid experience, and over time your skin becomes a little thicker. And when the good ones out weigh the more negative ones it doesn't seem to matter so much. 

On the whole I think my assumption that B&B'ers are pretty likeable people has been proved correct. Since we opened we've met some real characters, from pilgrim walkers to Belgian bikers to enthusiastic wedding parties, and all, in one way or another, have made their mark on our French life, and hopefully have made us better at what we've chosen to do.

 

Vide Grenier's, we have discovered, are a big part of the French summer, and are a great  social occasion. They knock the British boot fair into a cocked hat, in my opinion. You just never know what you're going to find at the next stall. The food is great and there's usually a bar, which the French men make good use of due to the fact that, unlike England, the regular bars are mostly shut on a Sunday.

 

 

  

 

  The garden has been full of surprises this year, due mainly to the fact that we hadn't a clue what the boarders contained or, more importantly, what kind of trees we had. One of which, as shown above, turned out, in the end, to be a plum. We had pounds and pounds of the things, people weren't allowed to leave our house without taking a bag full with them. We also have many apple trees and one pear and a peach which this year we don't seem to be making best use of, hopefully next year we will be better organised and perhaps make some cider.

Mind you the whole community seems to grow vegetables on a vast scale and we have been kept well supplied with Courgettes Lettuce and the such by our lovely French neighbours. Next year, with the help of our friend Pete, and his rotavator, we hope to have our own vegetable garden to tend.

Karen has put some of Maison Driscoll's home grown produce to good use by making raspberry and plum jam which seems to be going down well with the guests at breakfast.

Life here, I have to say is pretty idyllic, and we are very lucky  to have picked a location that has given the chance to  hopefully make a go of this hare brained scheme, and make good friends along the way,. However this year has been made so much easier by the occasional visit of friends and family from the U.K. Thanks to everyone.

 

So now we have to knuckle down and see what trade the Autumn and Winter months can bring us, to make this work we can't rely on just the summer rush. November in Brittany is the next big thing....Tell your friends!!