Guests

Running a Chambres d'hotes can be hard work - all that changing of beds and ironing. Made especially bad when your guests arrive at almost 10 p.m. on a Friday night having booked the Green Room (double bed, shower & toilet ensuiste) to say they wanted twin beds!  John swears Stephen never mentioned that, but as they went out to try and find somewhere to eat (fat chance around here at that time of night!) we quickly swap the beds around. But that made us nervous for Saturday night, because we received a phone booking just before for the one night, and I'd said we only had the twin room left.  What if they wanted a twin, and now found themselves with a double? Hah, John spend the afternoon (after watching the qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix of course) tidying up the Rose room which he'd used as a depository for all his tools etc whilst rebuilding the bathroom, and we had a solution. If they needed separate beds, they could have separate rooms!

Phew, it's not an easy way to earn €100!

Still, it has its compensations...

It turned out that the new people were Aussies, as was the girl who had arrived with her Nigerian boyfriend (but with twin-beds, so I think the 'friend' part was literal) and we all had aperos in the garden. The fact that I got through almost a whole bottle of wine to myself may have clouded my judgement, but sitting there in the sun, with 4 strangers and exchanging views on everything from how crap Vodaphone mobiles are, through the political situation to whether or not the Aussies should still cling to the Queen's Birthday bank holiday when they want to be a republic, it all seemed worthwhile.  Mike & Georgie (the two Aussies) were on motorbike driving a meanering route from Portugal, via Spain and Andorra, to Folkestone.  They actually shipped their motorbikes from Brisbane out to the UK and will be shipping them back next week, when their 3 month holiday is over! I wish we had long-service leave.

An interesting factoid that came out of our discussions on Australia was that they too are increasing their retirement age. This can have nothing to do with saving money as we are all tempted to think is the root of the UK (and French) moves, because the Oz economy is absolutely booming. It really must just be a result of us all living longer.

I tell you something, if this life is what's in front of us for another 20-odd years, you won't hear me complaining - not until we get back to the UK and I have to start commuting into Picadilly again, anyway!