Archive
on not dawdling in the Dordogne
The Berkshire Belle and I spent much of Sunday talking through our return to Duras next year. We are too old to do a lot of the tourist stuff, but we have not done much of that anyway down the years, it just isn’t our scene.
One of the things we look for in our holidays is to get away and relax, and another is to behave like locals as much as possible. It is not for us to seek out our fellow British holidaymakers, in fact we deliberately avoid them as much as possible. We like to shop where the locals shop, and buy food to take back to our holiday rental and cook our meals. On that basis we were planning our return to the Dordogne, to the lovely Gite that we had found from where we could shop in the local towns and bring back nice things to cook and enjoy with a bottle of local wine.
Such plans were rudely shattered later yesterday when we got an email from the Gite owners, eight days after our departure, to say that cooking smells from our stay had permeated the soft furnishings to the extend that chair covers and curtains needed cleaning. As a result they would be withholding a portion of our security deposit to cover dry cleaning costs.
We are staggered. Not once in 35 years of renting self-catering properties in Europe and the USA have we ever had such a problem. We cooked on eleven of our fourteen evenings in the property. None of the meals we cooked was especially aromatic and none took more that about 25 minutes cooking. At all cooking sessions we used the extractor fan over the hob, and on no occasion did either of us come downstairs the next morning to find lingering aromas of the pervious nights meal.
Everyone is different and has their own standards, but if you are renting out property on a self-catering basis you expect your renters to cook in it. The kitchen in this Gite was very well equipped, so there was an obvious expectation that we would use it. That said, we understand that the owners have their own standards, and that our occupancy in some way breached them, but the way that it has been handled is just poor customer service.
For nearly twenty years we rented out our villa in Florida, and would never have treated a customer the way that we have been dealt with. The upshot is that we will not, after all, be going back next year. The Gite is perfect for us in terms of comfort, but if we can’t cook in it without worrying about the consequences there is no point in renting it again.
It appears, from the email, that they have had this problem before, so why not warn renters? Were it us we would have just included the dry-cleaning costs in the rental price and then we would not have had to risk upsetting people. Their choice, and they have both lost a customer, gained reviews that mention this issue and lost our recommendations for their property to others we know.
What now for us? Well, many years ago when we were first a couple, we used to holiday in the Charente-Maritime, so we are looking to return there instead. It won’t be the same all these years later, but it is not as rural as the Dordogne and we are hopeful of another good French holiday. We enjoyed this year, it’s sad that it is an avenue that is now closed to us, but I am sure that we will find somewhere just as good in our old stamping ground.
on dawdling in the Dordogne
A number of firsts here; first post for ages, first time back in France in 30 or so years, first time driving on the Continent for about the same time and first time in the Dordogne, so much to muse on.
We last went to France, as a couple, in 1992, although I had been over a couple of times without the Berkshire Belle in 1993/4. It was in 1993 that we discovered America (yes, we know that others had found it before we did), fell in love with the country and have holidayed there exclusively since, going once, twice or even thrice, a year missing just one year up until 2019. We sold the house we had bought over there in 2019, then missed a couple of years due to the pandemic before trying again in 2022 and 2023, but neither of those trips was a great success, the latter one nearly killing me. America is no longer the place that we fell for and so, on that basis we decided to return to Europe, but where?
We wanted to try Italy, but it is a long drive and neither of us speak the lingo. Spain we did not enjoy on our one trip there, and Portugal, whilst we liked our week there on the Algarve in 1993, did not appeal for a repeat visit. We both speak a little French, the Hastings Hottie better than me, and we had enjoyed our holidays in Brittany and the Charente Maritime when we first got together, and so France it was to be.
The Wonder of Wokingham (there, I’ve got all three pet names into one blog) fired up her iPad and found us a bite in the Dordogne, about as far the other side of Bordeaux as the one we stayed at a couple of times in the Charente. It was too far to drive in a single day (the lady does not drive) and so I plotted routes for two days each way with 6-7 hours driving each day with an overnight stop.
The longest drive I have done in recent years has been the four hour slog up from Miami airport to our old villa in central Florida, so I was a bit concerned about that amount of driving, especially in a right-hand drive car on left-hand drive roads. I need not have worried: We got on fine using mainly the Autoroutes, and the little transponder that I bought for the tolls worked fine.
The gite was excellent, by far the most comfortable that we have stayed in, and so good that we have booked it again for next year. The weather was not good though, and very unseasonable. The local farmers are all concerned for their vines and prune crops and we have the ignominy of witting in the gate watching the rain whilst our doorbell camera back home showed our tom cat sauntering down the front path in the Swindon sunshine. Such is life.
Because of the weather we did not get to explore much on foot. We found one Sunday market the first weekend whilst out on the supermarket run, but is was chucking it down and when we went back the following weekend in good weather it was not on. The other market that we tried, a 90 minute drive away, was so packed that we could not park. In the end, having driven around the town twice, I parked illegally for us to use a public convenience (not a pleasant experience) and we headed back to civilisation and lunch.
We ate well though, mostly back at the gate with me cooking. We got by with our, very rusty, French and settled in to the extent that we felt very much at home. At our age we probably do not have too many holidays like this left in us, but we are going to have a short trip back to France later this year, just a quick run over with a specific purpose in mind, and will be back in the Dordogne next year.
The highlight of the trip? For me it was getting my passport stamped both ways: How I missed that in the dire years of open borders.
on food on the road
I say on the road, but mean food whilst travelling in general, regardless of mode of transport. My first experiences of having to find food whilst out and about came back in the mid 1970s when I was a salesman flogging lorry parts and hydraulic fittings around London’s East End and the North bank of the Thames. It was there that I learned my first and second important lessons in finding decent, affordable food; firstly, ask the locals and secondly, learn who to trust for advice.
There were some dreadful “greasy spoons” about, but there we also some gems, all of which I would have driven past if I had not been told to stop. It was around that time that I was introduced to salt beef bagels for example and these are something that I will still look for one the rare occasions I get the chance. Pub grub was not a big thing back then, but the Waterman’s Arms on the Isle of Dogs, whilst a little more expensive than I might usually want to got to, became a regular spot for a treat when I was having a good week.
Jobs changed and I found myself working in offices with canteens (sorry, staff restaurants) for a few years before heading out and about again some ten years later. Motorways were the quick way to get around, but their service areas by then were pretty awful places and to be avoided so I began to search out other options. One of my early successes was to find garden centres not too far off the motorway. They often had a cafe and, in those days of mostly independent operations, you got good, home cooked, food. There were also some good pubs around where lunch, or even breakfast on days with early starts, could be found.
My aim was usually to try and eat more healthy food than the convenient locations offered and the sorts of places that I sought out often offered seasonal food. One favourite stop for lunch in the Spring was a country town cafe where I could get a poached egg on top of a crumpet with local asparagus; much nicer, and better for me, than a Big Mac and fries. I have no problem with the big chains and do use them even now, but trying something different is important for me even if it does cost a little more.
After a time travelling the UK I started to get the odd trip overseas and there even more opportunities to move away from regular fare arise. On a holiday there is an tendency to get trapped in the tourist fare that is on offer, but if you are working then talking to colleagues from the area will almost always find you something interesting. I have experienced dive bars on the waterfront in China, a home cooked meal in Libya and been taken to eateries in many places that I found never have found had one of the locals not guided me. In Thailand the ladies in the office would offer me fruit and curries and, for the ones that I liked, write out the names of them, or similar dishes, so that I could buy them in the street market behind my hotel for my evening meals.
My waistline did suffer over the dirty odd years that I travelled regularly and I have lost 20 or so Kg over the lockdown period. My main business travelling days are now over, but I have many happy memories of places that I have been fed at, from dive bars to Michelin stars they all have given me pleasure.
the lockdown log 4
There have been a few lockdowns in my business life as I have mentioned earlier in this series. Some have been a condition of my contract and one, for Libya, included a very formal risk assessment spreadsheet. I was not arguing about that one though as I left the country a day ahead of my colleagues to get to another contract. They only just made it out and in another 24 hours the country was shut down. Read more…
the lockdown log 2
Last time I talked about some pf my experiences of working in lockdown situations and this time I will describe another couple of incidents that came to mind. Hopefully they might amuse you. Read more…
the road to hell
With another working trip coming to an end I find that, yet again, my list of things to do during dead time is pretty much untouched. There were so many things that I was going to write while I had time to myself, but almost nothing got done; so much for good intentions. Read more…
on lift etiquette
I wrote recently in my diary column about lift etiquette in other countries and one or two people have asked me what I meant. Read more…
if you are reading this…
If you are reading this post it means that I am, as expected, unable to access WordPress, amongst other social media, from where I am in the world, so my absence from here, Facebook and Twitter is explained. All being well I will be back in the land of free access to such things next week, but for now all you will see is what I have scheduled before my departure. Read more…
the joys of travel
I have always loved those places where travellers gather to start or continue their journeys; stations, airports and the like. Part of the charm is in people watching and part in the buzz and general excitement that these places bring. Read more…
Improvement projects should make things better, shouldn’t they?
I travel by ‘bus and train as often as I can, not just because of the green aspects, but because I quite like it; I get to look around and to think in a way that I can’t afford to do when I am driving, but looking around and thinking can lead to seeing and realising. For someone who has a long record of customer service seeing and realising can mean trouble. Read more…
I support this charity
British Blogs
the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke 