On Friday we finally managed a visit to a local wine estate - Domaine la Bouscade, which is based in Puicheric and is owned and run by an English couple, David and Jo Cowderoy.
We first came across one of their wines when we sampled their 'late harvest' naturally sweet wine at a wine tasting at VinEcole with Matthew Stubbs, who praises David at every opportunity as one of his favourite 'garagiste' winemakers.
And you know what, they really do make the wine in the big garage next to their house in the middle of the village - the vineyards are a few kilometres away. Jo very kindly gave us a couple of hours of her time and showed us round the wine making process before sitting us down at their dining room table to sample some of their wines - whites, rosé and reds.
We have been meaning to visit vineyards and meet the winemakers since we first came out to France, but somehow have never found the time. We actually have a really good reason for doing so now as we need to source a good house wine for the suites and for the dinners. The wines from La Bouscade might well fit the bill and so we bought a good selection to try out over Christmas and beyond.
All of which made us a bit late getting back to the house and left us with a bit of a rush to prepare dinner for our lovely French friends, Nathalie (8 cookbooks published in France) and Fabien and also Xavier (marketing director of the Hotel de la Cité) and Charlotte. We have cooked many dinners over the course of the year for guests but this was our first local soirée and we wanted it all to go right, which, typically of course, it didn't.
Nathalie had promised to show me how to prepare a fresh foie gras and so I had purchased one that morning in anticipation but her email with the list of ingredients that I needed didn't reach me for some reason and as a result I was ill-prepared for my cooking lesson - so Nathalie showed me how to de-vein the liver and explained the recipe so that I could make it the next day.
Whilst I was slightly embarrassed with my cooking lesson, Debrah was being embarrassed by her beans, which having been soaked overnight, were being decidedly stubborn when it came to being cooked, taking at least an hour longer than they should have. Beans have been a recurring (or should I say, repeating) problem over the weekend - more of that later.
So we ended up eating a bit late but everyone seemed to enjoy the food and everyone seemed to have a lovely time, although Fabien started to feel a bit 'malade' towards the end of the evening. I'm certain it was nothing to do with anything we served but it didn't help our paranoia.
You so want your first dinner party for local people to be absolutely perfect - it wasn't but it was a success nonetheless.
Sunday, 30 November 2008
Thursday, 27 November 2008
New Bar
The problem with the difficult tenant isn't resolved and is probably going to run and run.
Last night I accompanied Brigitte whilst she attempted to both smooth the ground and also to tell him what is and what isn't acceptable. He was extremely surly and very uncooperative throughout the entire conversation and nothing was resolved. To make matters worse, the owner of the apartment is so far removed from Carcassonne and the day to day reality that they can't form an opinion or take sides from a distance, which is to be expected I guess.
Sadly, we also found out that the studio that was for sale upstairs has been sold - thus scuppering our next move in the master plan of acquiring all the other apartments in the building. There may have to be a drastic re-think.
This evening I ventured down to the new Irish bar - Debrah didn't fancy it so stayed at home - and realised how much the town has been missing a good bar. It reminded me that a lot of the people I now know in this town I originally met in the old Irish bar or met through people I was introduced to at the bar - including Patrick, the new owner.
So, I chatted with Patrick and his lovely Mum and Dad and then with Dutch Rob, who owns a book shop in Montolieu (I haven't seen him for over a year) and with Brigitte and a girlfriend of hers (they drank Guinness with strawberry sirop - bizarre) and with Bob and David (but not Pierre because he was down in Narbonne with one of his girlfriends) and with Lesa (who I haven't seen for a month since she went back to Australia) and naturally with Susan who is now running the bar and with Gary who is manning the door.
I am very pleased for Patrick - it's a good bar and does what good bars do - brings people together - and of course I will have somewhere new to send our guests next year.
Last night I accompanied Brigitte whilst she attempted to both smooth the ground and also to tell him what is and what isn't acceptable. He was extremely surly and very uncooperative throughout the entire conversation and nothing was resolved. To make matters worse, the owner of the apartment is so far removed from Carcassonne and the day to day reality that they can't form an opinion or take sides from a distance, which is to be expected I guess.
Sadly, we also found out that the studio that was for sale upstairs has been sold - thus scuppering our next move in the master plan of acquiring all the other apartments in the building. There may have to be a drastic re-think.
This evening I ventured down to the new Irish bar - Debrah didn't fancy it so stayed at home - and realised how much the town has been missing a good bar. It reminded me that a lot of the people I now know in this town I originally met in the old Irish bar or met through people I was introduced to at the bar - including Patrick, the new owner.
So, I chatted with Patrick and his lovely Mum and Dad and then with Dutch Rob, who owns a book shop in Montolieu (I haven't seen him for over a year) and with Brigitte and a girlfriend of hers (they drank Guinness with strawberry sirop - bizarre) and with Bob and David (but not Pierre because he was down in Narbonne with one of his girlfriends) and with Lesa (who I haven't seen for a month since she went back to Australia) and naturally with Susan who is now running the bar and with Gary who is manning the door.
I am very pleased for Patrick - it's a good bar and does what good bars do - brings people together - and of course I will have somewhere new to send our guests next year.
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Drama
With no guests in the studio suite we are taking full advantage of the big TV and we are loving a mini-series.
When Debrah was last here we sat through the first ten episodes of the Tudors and we bought the second series in HMV at Stansted on the way out here last Sunday - and have already sat through the next ten episodes - all the way up to the separation of Anne Boleyn's head from her body.
I do miss a good BBC historical costume drama out here in France and I have to say that I much prefer to watch a series straight through in one go (or over three days) than have to make sure I am at home at the same hour on the same day over a ten week period if I was watching it in the UK on the telly.
Where is series three? What are we going to watch tomorrow?
I suppose we are going to have to work our way through the five film box set of Audrey Hepburn movies that was reduced by 75% at the airport - not quite the same level of blood, guts, sex and religious zeal though, I suspect.
Just in case you get the wrong idea, it is not all lounging about on the sofa with remote control in hand - oh no, I have been busy with odd jobs here and there that have needed doing for some time. The repair work to the damaged wall in the apartment en-suite bathroom was finally finished today with a last sanding and a paint touch-up and the tile cutter made an unexpected appearance from it's basement home as I finally got around to finishing the step in our spare bedroom.
That job will take a few days to complete but the tiles have been cut to size and are ready to go. This is one of those jobs that has been waiting for over a year to be finished, not because I didn't want to do it but because it was never top of the list of jobs to be done.
It will be good to finally finish it, but I suspect there will be some heartache along the way before then - even today it nearly all went wrong - I needed three tiles for the job and we had four spare tiles left over from the renovation works and I messed up on one of the tile cuts - I might have panicked or lost my temper in the past but not any more because these jobs now hold no fear for me - I know I can I do it.
Surprisingly, it wasn't the work that I shunned to watch Henry VIII. It was the Champions League football that is now available for viewing in the newly opened 'Celt' Irish bar. Patrick has finally finished the build and the bar is open, although typically I missed the opening night party last week whilst I was in London.
After Anne's head fell off I popped down there for an hour to say hello to Gary on the door and Susan behind the bar and to Patrick and to wish them all well - it was great to see a good crowd in there - even Jean-Jacques, one of the waiters from Bar Felix, seems to have already become a regular which is a good sign - if the French locals adopt the bar it is bound to succeed.
The old Irish bar, O'Sheridans, has also re-opened under it's new management - when I walked past this evening there were only three people inside and the place looked very dead - let's hope it stays that way.
I didn't stay long and I'm glad that I didn't - if I had I would have missed the big argument between Brigitte and the young tenant who lives above our living room. It sounded as if they were shouting down the corridor at each other and then Brigitte rang the doorbell - she was visibly upset.
It transpires that said tenant has been keeping her awake at night with music and loud friends in his room. He also continues to bring his motorbike into the building when he has been expressly asked not to do so because of damage to the fabulous stone on the ground floor. It is a problem that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible - if my French was better I would speak with him directly and I may well have to do so at some point, but in the meantime we have a meeting of the co-proprietors scheduled for next week and we will try to find an amicable solution - hopefully one that involves him moving out!!
The last thing we need is for this develop into our own real life mini-drama.
When Debrah was last here we sat through the first ten episodes of the Tudors and we bought the second series in HMV at Stansted on the way out here last Sunday - and have already sat through the next ten episodes - all the way up to the separation of Anne Boleyn's head from her body.
I do miss a good BBC historical costume drama out here in France and I have to say that I much prefer to watch a series straight through in one go (or over three days) than have to make sure I am at home at the same hour on the same day over a ten week period if I was watching it in the UK on the telly.
Where is series three? What are we going to watch tomorrow?
I suppose we are going to have to work our way through the five film box set of Audrey Hepburn movies that was reduced by 75% at the airport - not quite the same level of blood, guts, sex and religious zeal though, I suspect.
Just in case you get the wrong idea, it is not all lounging about on the sofa with remote control in hand - oh no, I have been busy with odd jobs here and there that have needed doing for some time. The repair work to the damaged wall in the apartment en-suite bathroom was finally finished today with a last sanding and a paint touch-up and the tile cutter made an unexpected appearance from it's basement home as I finally got around to finishing the step in our spare bedroom.
That job will take a few days to complete but the tiles have been cut to size and are ready to go. This is one of those jobs that has been waiting for over a year to be finished, not because I didn't want to do it but because it was never top of the list of jobs to be done.
It will be good to finally finish it, but I suspect there will be some heartache along the way before then - even today it nearly all went wrong - I needed three tiles for the job and we had four spare tiles left over from the renovation works and I messed up on one of the tile cuts - I might have panicked or lost my temper in the past but not any more because these jobs now hold no fear for me - I know I can I do it.
Surprisingly, it wasn't the work that I shunned to watch Henry VIII. It was the Champions League football that is now available for viewing in the newly opened 'Celt' Irish bar. Patrick has finally finished the build and the bar is open, although typically I missed the opening night party last week whilst I was in London.
After Anne's head fell off I popped down there for an hour to say hello to Gary on the door and Susan behind the bar and to Patrick and to wish them all well - it was great to see a good crowd in there - even Jean-Jacques, one of the waiters from Bar Felix, seems to have already become a regular which is a good sign - if the French locals adopt the bar it is bound to succeed.
The old Irish bar, O'Sheridans, has also re-opened under it's new management - when I walked past this evening there were only three people inside and the place looked very dead - let's hope it stays that way.
I didn't stay long and I'm glad that I didn't - if I had I would have missed the big argument between Brigitte and the young tenant who lives above our living room. It sounded as if they were shouting down the corridor at each other and then Brigitte rang the doorbell - she was visibly upset.
It transpires that said tenant has been keeping her awake at night with music and loud friends in his room. He also continues to bring his motorbike into the building when he has been expressly asked not to do so because of damage to the fabulous stone on the ground floor. It is a problem that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible - if my French was better I would speak with him directly and I may well have to do so at some point, but in the meantime we have a meeting of the co-proprietors scheduled for next week and we will try to find an amicable solution - hopefully one that involves him moving out!!
The last thing we need is for this develop into our own real life mini-drama.
Monday, 24 November 2008
Unhappy clients
We have had our first bad review. It was posted on tripadvisor at the end of last week by our very last visitors of the year so far - the same ones who described Carcassonne as a dump.
Clearly they didn't enjoy their weekend here.
It is very disappointing when you have gone out of your way to accommodate someone with a baby (when we clearly state that our rooms are not suitable for families) and ask them several times if everything is alright, request that they just ask if they need anything and get positive responses whilst they are here, only for them to get home and write a lot of stretched truths and vindictive comments.
I am annoyed because I think a lot of what was written was unfair criticism from someone expecting 4 star service but only prepared to pay for bed and breakfast - and it is now up in the public domain for anybody to read.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion so we will just have to take it on the chin. As far as I can tell they are the only people who have visited all year who didn't enjoy being here - which I guess says more about them than it does about us and 42rvh.
Still, we can't rest on our laurels and with the tough economic climate we are going to have to work even harder to attract customers for next year and to improve what we offer. We have already re-launched the website with more information and more services and we will look at all the comments and criticisms that we have received this year and see how we can address them.
As a result Debrah and I spent a lot longer than we thought we would trying to fix a curtain pole in place over the entrance to the en-suite shower room in the apartment suite - at one point the whole thing came apart in my hands as I was balanced on top of the ladder and we had curtain rings and poles and ends all over the place - but after a couple of deep breaths we got it sorted and in place.
The curtain will provide a bit more privacy between the two rooms and came from some helpful suggestions earlier in the year.
I'm all for constructive criticism - bitchiness is just so unnecessary.
Clearly they didn't enjoy their weekend here.
It is very disappointing when you have gone out of your way to accommodate someone with a baby (when we clearly state that our rooms are not suitable for families) and ask them several times if everything is alright, request that they just ask if they need anything and get positive responses whilst they are here, only for them to get home and write a lot of stretched truths and vindictive comments.
I am annoyed because I think a lot of what was written was unfair criticism from someone expecting 4 star service but only prepared to pay for bed and breakfast - and it is now up in the public domain for anybody to read.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion so we will just have to take it on the chin. As far as I can tell they are the only people who have visited all year who didn't enjoy being here - which I guess says more about them than it does about us and 42rvh.
Still, we can't rest on our laurels and with the tough economic climate we are going to have to work even harder to attract customers for next year and to improve what we offer. We have already re-launched the website with more information and more services and we will look at all the comments and criticisms that we have received this year and see how we can address them.
As a result Debrah and I spent a lot longer than we thought we would trying to fix a curtain pole in place over the entrance to the en-suite shower room in the apartment suite - at one point the whole thing came apart in my hands as I was balanced on top of the ladder and we had curtain rings and poles and ends all over the place - but after a couple of deep breaths we got it sorted and in place.
The curtain will provide a bit more privacy between the two rooms and came from some helpful suggestions earlier in the year.
I'm all for constructive criticism - bitchiness is just so unnecessary.
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Clear as mud
The last week seems to have flown by and here we are back in France once more. It felt as if I was in London for weeks, although it was only 13 days and it also felt as if I had been away from France for weeks, although now that I am back everything is just as it was and feels very familiar.
It was a strange and difficult time in London. I have a sense that I didn't achieve a great deal and yet lots of little things got sorted and fixed (new tyres and brake light for the car, mended plug in the sink etc) and I was there to help Debrah with her tooth problem. Just being there was the most important thing for her, so in that sense it was very valuable time.
I am very pleased to say that Debrah looks much healthier than she has for a while which is entirely due to not having a massive throbbing pain in her mouth any longer and, as a result, not having to take massive amounts of painkillers each day - she has got stronger and healthier every day for the past week - hurrah - and now she can have a week of rest and relaxation here in France with me and with no work pressures, although we do have some Christmas planning to do on menus and room decoration etc.
London is of course full of Christmas, in the papers and in the shops and especially on the TV - and the lights are all in full neon glow on Oxford and Regent Street and I suppose elsewhere too. We are probably two weeks away from it all kicking off here in Carcassonne although the preparations are well under way and most of the lights are up in place and ready to go.
The other thing that you can't avoid in the UK is the credit crunch/economic downturn/depression - it is rammed down your throat at every opportunity in every branch of the media, in every TV programme and every newspaper article - I really believe the media make any problem much worse than it really is in their need to tell the same story in ever more dramatic tones as they bid to outdo each other with their sensationalist exposeés.
Of course, there is an economic problem and I am affected as much as anyone and have spent a large part of the last week assessing the impact of the falling pound against the euro, the options for our London apartment (impossible to sell at the moment, but possible to rent it out), how to relieve the impact of debts and coming up on a daily basis with a different solution to solve the problem of Debrah and me spending too much time apart from each other.
Are we any clearer about what we are going to do - absolutely not.
It was a strange and difficult time in London. I have a sense that I didn't achieve a great deal and yet lots of little things got sorted and fixed (new tyres and brake light for the car, mended plug in the sink etc) and I was there to help Debrah with her tooth problem. Just being there was the most important thing for her, so in that sense it was very valuable time.
I am very pleased to say that Debrah looks much healthier than she has for a while which is entirely due to not having a massive throbbing pain in her mouth any longer and, as a result, not having to take massive amounts of painkillers each day - she has got stronger and healthier every day for the past week - hurrah - and now she can have a week of rest and relaxation here in France with me and with no work pressures, although we do have some Christmas planning to do on menus and room decoration etc.
London is of course full of Christmas, in the papers and in the shops and especially on the TV - and the lights are all in full neon glow on Oxford and Regent Street and I suppose elsewhere too. We are probably two weeks away from it all kicking off here in Carcassonne although the preparations are well under way and most of the lights are up in place and ready to go.
The other thing that you can't avoid in the UK is the credit crunch/economic downturn/depression - it is rammed down your throat at every opportunity in every branch of the media, in every TV programme and every newspaper article - I really believe the media make any problem much worse than it really is in their need to tell the same story in ever more dramatic tones as they bid to outdo each other with their sensationalist exposeés.
Of course, there is an economic problem and I am affected as much as anyone and have spent a large part of the last week assessing the impact of the falling pound against the euro, the options for our London apartment (impossible to sell at the moment, but possible to rent it out), how to relieve the impact of debts and coming up on a daily basis with a different solution to solve the problem of Debrah and me spending too much time apart from each other.
Are we any clearer about what we are going to do - absolutely not.
Friday, 14 November 2008
Extraction
The tooth with the abcess has finally been removed - thank god for that. Debrah is fast asleep recovering from the trauma and the sedation drugs and I'm just recovering from a stressful and tiring afternoon and an unexpectedly close-up view of a tooth extraction.
In the end it all happened very suddenly after a frustrating week of trying to resolve the problem and a week of continued pain for Debrah.
I landed back in the UK on Monday afternoon and went directly to Debrah's office and from there directly to a swish (in fact, Swiss) dental clinic in the heart of the West End. The dentist was excellent and all the staff very friendly and understanding of Debrah's fear and her pain and after a couple of x-rays and a bit of "Can I look in your mouth?, No you can't" fencing between Debrah and the dentist we left with an estimate for £3,500 (better than the £7,000 we had been quoted by one private dentist) and a promise of an appointment as soon as possible.
If Debrah hadn't needed treatment under sedation the work could have been done there and then but because sedation was absolutely necessary we had to wait until an anaesthetist was available - a real catch-22 situation - the ridiculousness of which was confirmed when we were told that the first available date for an appointment was 10th December, nearly a whole month away.
Clearly there was no way Debrah could cope with the pain for another month, so we went back to square one, typed 'emergency dental treatment london' into google and started phoning around. I tried to get in touch with the dental hospitals, where I figured that sedation would be readily available, but got lost in a maze of telephone answering systems and many other clinics could do immediate emergency treatment but didn't provide sedation.
Finally I found a small clinic in Camden that had availability the next day and at a cost that made the other quotes look like outrageous profiteering, which no doubt there is in this line of business at the moment. They gave me an appointment at 2.30 - I was so relieved that I didn't even spot how ironic that time was!
It all suddenly seemed too good to be true and I read every page of their website just to make sure we weren't going to end up in someone's kitchen with a bottle of whisky and a pair of pliers - but the reality was it was a small one dentist clinic with non of the glitz and overheads of the big West End ones.
The conscious sedation was interesting stuff - Debrah had a completely hallucinogenic time and said some bizarre things such as "Why are they putting scorpions in my mouth?" and "What did the dog do?" before later on trying to bite the dentist. It went well until the final root wouldn't come out and the sedation started to wear off but we got there eventually and, thankfully, Debrah doesn't remember too much about it.
There is more work to be done and the broken tooth is still there but for now, I hope, once the hole heals up and the bruising settles down, the pain will have gone.
In the end it all happened very suddenly after a frustrating week of trying to resolve the problem and a week of continued pain for Debrah.
I landed back in the UK on Monday afternoon and went directly to Debrah's office and from there directly to a swish (in fact, Swiss) dental clinic in the heart of the West End. The dentist was excellent and all the staff very friendly and understanding of Debrah's fear and her pain and after a couple of x-rays and a bit of "Can I look in your mouth?, No you can't" fencing between Debrah and the dentist we left with an estimate for £3,500 (better than the £7,000 we had been quoted by one private dentist) and a promise of an appointment as soon as possible.
If Debrah hadn't needed treatment under sedation the work could have been done there and then but because sedation was absolutely necessary we had to wait until an anaesthetist was available - a real catch-22 situation - the ridiculousness of which was confirmed when we were told that the first available date for an appointment was 10th December, nearly a whole month away.
Clearly there was no way Debrah could cope with the pain for another month, so we went back to square one, typed 'emergency dental treatment london' into google and started phoning around. I tried to get in touch with the dental hospitals, where I figured that sedation would be readily available, but got lost in a maze of telephone answering systems and many other clinics could do immediate emergency treatment but didn't provide sedation.
Finally I found a small clinic in Camden that had availability the next day and at a cost that made the other quotes look like outrageous profiteering, which no doubt there is in this line of business at the moment. They gave me an appointment at 2.30 - I was so relieved that I didn't even spot how ironic that time was!
It all suddenly seemed too good to be true and I read every page of their website just to make sure we weren't going to end up in someone's kitchen with a bottle of whisky and a pair of pliers - but the reality was it was a small one dentist clinic with non of the glitz and overheads of the big West End ones.
The conscious sedation was interesting stuff - Debrah had a completely hallucinogenic time and said some bizarre things such as "Why are they putting scorpions in my mouth?" and "What did the dog do?" before later on trying to bite the dentist. It went well until the final root wouldn't come out and the sedation started to wear off but we got there eventually and, thankfully, Debrah doesn't remember too much about it.
There is more work to be done and the broken tooth is still there but for now, I hope, once the hole heals up and the bruising settles down, the pain will have gone.
Sunday, 9 November 2008
Painful to behold
Debrah has gone back to London today and I am following her tomorrow - it has been a traumatic weekend with hospital visits and tears and tooth pain and it needs to be resolved immediately.
It would have been much better if I had been able to go back with Debrah today but there were good reasons for not doing so - a check-in at Maison Juliette that I promised to do, and at short notice, it would have been difficult to find someone else to do it, and a conversation I needed to have with Brigitte about plans for 42rvh. I will find someone else for the check-out and will take Debrah straight to the dental clinic tomorrow evening when I get back to London.
The weekend had started well - we were enjoying some bonus time together after the midweek missed flight and now desperately need to get hold of the second season of the Tudors.
On Friday lunchtime we visited a chic new lunchspot in town - an extension of the excellent delicatessen, La Ferme. It had a fabulous wine tasting/dispensing machine which every home should have and an excellent policy of selling all the wines from the shop at retail price plus €10 which is significantly less than a restaurant mark-up. The food however was a bit pricey, though delicious. It was full last Friday but then they had only just opened the day before - it will be interesting to see how it does and is certainly somewhere to send guests.
Naturally on Saturday we took in the market in the morning and even though we didn't need very much it is always such a pleasure in Autumn sunshine, a welcome relief after the rain all week. There was also a new event in town this weekend - the 'Festival des Saveurs', featuring food and drink artisans from all over the region, cookery demonstrations from the top chefs in town and of course, plenty to sample and taste and indeed buy.
Later that day, we had a visit from a representative of a travel website that would really like to list us - it seems interesting and would open up a new market for us as the site is centred on Spain and has very much a Mediterranean clientele.
It was after this visit that all hell broke loose and Debrah's tooth pain finally got beyond her pain threshold, although there had been signs earlier. It was a combination of finishing the course of antibiotics and no doubt the abcess just getting worse. An evening visit to the emergency unit at the Polyclinique Montreal, the local hospital, was the only way to try and get something a bit stronger to help Debrah sleep and get through the pain until she and I get to London to deal with it.
They were very helpful at the hospital but, because there was no dentist on duty, they wouldn't prescribe any more antibiotics. We could have gone back today but two hospital visits in two days would probably have tipped Debrah over the edge and I needed to get her back to the UK as calmly as possible.
This might all sound a bit extreme but phobias are not easy to understand because they are so unique to the individual - and we all have them, even if we don't admit it or don't yet know it!
All in all, the whole weekend was a bit stressful and very tiring - and I'm not the one with toothache, so I can't begin to think how Debrah feels - hopefully tomorrow we start the process of resolving the whole painful mess.
It would have been much better if I had been able to go back with Debrah today but there were good reasons for not doing so - a check-in at Maison Juliette that I promised to do, and at short notice, it would have been difficult to find someone else to do it, and a conversation I needed to have with Brigitte about plans for 42rvh. I will find someone else for the check-out and will take Debrah straight to the dental clinic tomorrow evening when I get back to London.
The weekend had started well - we were enjoying some bonus time together after the midweek missed flight and now desperately need to get hold of the second season of the Tudors.
On Friday lunchtime we visited a chic new lunchspot in town - an extension of the excellent delicatessen, La Ferme. It had a fabulous wine tasting/dispensing machine which every home should have and an excellent policy of selling all the wines from the shop at retail price plus €10 which is significantly less than a restaurant mark-up. The food however was a bit pricey, though delicious. It was full last Friday but then they had only just opened the day before - it will be interesting to see how it does and is certainly somewhere to send guests.
Naturally on Saturday we took in the market in the morning and even though we didn't need very much it is always such a pleasure in Autumn sunshine, a welcome relief after the rain all week. There was also a new event in town this weekend - the 'Festival des Saveurs', featuring food and drink artisans from all over the region, cookery demonstrations from the top chefs in town and of course, plenty to sample and taste and indeed buy.
Later that day, we had a visit from a representative of a travel website that would really like to list us - it seems interesting and would open up a new market for us as the site is centred on Spain and has very much a Mediterranean clientele.
It was after this visit that all hell broke loose and Debrah's tooth pain finally got beyond her pain threshold, although there had been signs earlier. It was a combination of finishing the course of antibiotics and no doubt the abcess just getting worse. An evening visit to the emergency unit at the Polyclinique Montreal, the local hospital, was the only way to try and get something a bit stronger to help Debrah sleep and get through the pain until she and I get to London to deal with it.
They were very helpful at the hospital but, because there was no dentist on duty, they wouldn't prescribe any more antibiotics. We could have gone back today but two hospital visits in two days would probably have tipped Debrah over the edge and I needed to get her back to the UK as calmly as possible.
This might all sound a bit extreme but phobias are not easy to understand because they are so unique to the individual - and we all have them, even if we don't admit it or don't yet know it!
All in all, the whole weekend was a bit stressful and very tiring - and I'm not the one with toothache, so I can't begin to think how Debrah feels - hopefully tomorrow we start the process of resolving the whole painful mess.
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Rain and Reign
Debrah was supposed to go back to London yesterday but fate intervened.
The rain has continued here unabated for three days now and was probably a factor in the car battery being flat when I was supposed to be taking Debrah to the airport for her flight. It was certainly a factor in there being no taxis available immediately, and as we had left our departure until the last minute as ever, we had no room for manouevre.
We retreated back inside resigned to it all and lost a crucial fifteen minutes before I discovered that the flight was running 30 minutes late. I rushed upstairs to Denis' apartment and grabbed the garage keys and we rushed up to the airport in Denis' car. The plane was just landing as we got there, but it was all to no avail - as far as they were concerned we were late for the flight and they had closed the gate and they weren't going to let Debrah on the flight despite the fact she had checked in online and only had hand baggage and despite there being plenty of time for her to go through security and join the back of the queue at the gate (one plane, one gate, twenty metres from security to the gate, lots of people stood about doing nothing - but no go).
I don't know if it was Ryanair policy or Carcassonne airport policy or both but it wasn't a good advert for either of them. We accept that we were late but so was the flight coming in - seems that Ryanair are allowed to be late without consequence (I'm sure there was a good reason) but passengers get no leeway despite also having a good reason and despite it all being easily feasible for Debrah to have joined the flight in good time. Maybe they are only really interested in charging the £75 fee for re-booking than in actually getting people onto the flights they have already paid for.
Actually none of all that surprised me - I've always known that the whole system is geared towards the benefit of the provider of the service and not the person paying for the service - surely it should be the other way around.
The reason that all the above is relevant, and is not just a diatribe, is that we have been discussing the service that we provide here at 42rvh to our paying customers. The debate is centred around whether we give too much for too little cost or not - i.e. should we be going out of our way to provide the best possible experience at all times, no matter the inconvenience, for our guests or should we draw the line somewhere and downgrade what we do or charge extra for certain things.
I make it sound very black and white but it's nothing of the sort and not as extreme as the picture painted, but it is still difficult to decide how we move on next year in continuing to develop the business and the services we will provide and what cost we should charge for them, especially given the economic situation.
In it's barest form the equation is easy - we want to provide as good a service as possible at a price people can afford that also generates a profit. Can we do all three? I hope so.
In the meantime, the relentless wet weather, the unexpected bonus of Debrah being here longer than expected and no guests to worry about has resulted in us getting thoroughly absorbed in the BBC mini-series of the Tudors - all long leather boots, bare chests, loose morals, double dealing and intrigue - and a history lesson too, your grace, my lord, your majesty!
The rain has continued here unabated for three days now and was probably a factor in the car battery being flat when I was supposed to be taking Debrah to the airport for her flight. It was certainly a factor in there being no taxis available immediately, and as we had left our departure until the last minute as ever, we had no room for manouevre.
We retreated back inside resigned to it all and lost a crucial fifteen minutes before I discovered that the flight was running 30 minutes late. I rushed upstairs to Denis' apartment and grabbed the garage keys and we rushed up to the airport in Denis' car. The plane was just landing as we got there, but it was all to no avail - as far as they were concerned we were late for the flight and they had closed the gate and they weren't going to let Debrah on the flight despite the fact she had checked in online and only had hand baggage and despite there being plenty of time for her to go through security and join the back of the queue at the gate (one plane, one gate, twenty metres from security to the gate, lots of people stood about doing nothing - but no go).
I don't know if it was Ryanair policy or Carcassonne airport policy or both but it wasn't a good advert for either of them. We accept that we were late but so was the flight coming in - seems that Ryanair are allowed to be late without consequence (I'm sure there was a good reason) but passengers get no leeway despite also having a good reason and despite it all being easily feasible for Debrah to have joined the flight in good time. Maybe they are only really interested in charging the £75 fee for re-booking than in actually getting people onto the flights they have already paid for.
Actually none of all that surprised me - I've always known that the whole system is geared towards the benefit of the provider of the service and not the person paying for the service - surely it should be the other way around.
The reason that all the above is relevant, and is not just a diatribe, is that we have been discussing the service that we provide here at 42rvh to our paying customers. The debate is centred around whether we give too much for too little cost or not - i.e. should we be going out of our way to provide the best possible experience at all times, no matter the inconvenience, for our guests or should we draw the line somewhere and downgrade what we do or charge extra for certain things.
I make it sound very black and white but it's nothing of the sort and not as extreme as the picture painted, but it is still difficult to decide how we move on next year in continuing to develop the business and the services we will provide and what cost we should charge for them, especially given the economic situation.
In it's barest form the equation is easy - we want to provide as good a service as possible at a price people can afford that also generates a profit. Can we do all three? I hope so.
In the meantime, the relentless wet weather, the unexpected bonus of Debrah being here longer than expected and no guests to worry about has resulted in us getting thoroughly absorbed in the BBC mini-series of the Tudors - all long leather boots, bare chests, loose morals, double dealing and intrigue - and a history lesson too, your grace, my lord, your majesty!
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Dump?
It has been a long time since I was able go to sleep without having to worry about what time I had to get up to make a breakfast, but I was able to fully enjoy that pleasure this morning.
Both sets of guests left on Monday and we now have no bookings until Christmas. I am not sure how much of that is due to the credit crunch or whether this is just normal for November. Either way, it gives us time to take stock of things, catch up with accounts and tax returns, not worry about breakfasts and lounge about watching dvds in the evening on the big TV in the Studio - great.
The guests were a complete contrast. One couple came up on the train from Barcelona and had a very enjoyable weekend here. They were originally from Brazil via the USA and England via Amsterdam, so they are both well travelled.
The other couple, with their six month old son, were from the UK and looking to move abroad at some point in the future. They didn't seem to have such a nice time and complained about the street noise and Eliot's change of routine and just about everything. When she left she told me that she thought Carcassonne was a dump!
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, of course, but as I live here I thought her comments were extremely insensitive to say the least and obviously I don't agree with her. It makes me wonder what she was looking for - I hope she finds it whatever it is.
It poured down on Sunday, but yesterday was glorious sunshine all day. So after despatching the guests Debrah and I went out for a spot of lunch and it being sunny and us being English we elected to sit outside at the brasserie Saint Germain much to the bemusement, I'm sure, of the other diners and to our very amusing waiter (he spoke English very well after a spell working in Winchester).
It was lovely until the low sun passed behind the top of the adjacent buildings and then it began to get slightly chilly - but we had enjoyed a classic brasserie lunch of fish soup and sausage and lentils washed down with a glass of red - glorious.
Whilst walking off lunch immediately after, we came across the main town cemetary around the back of the barracks and decided to have a look inside. I am glad we did because the place was a riot of colour with all the chrysanthemums placed on the graves and tombs after 'toussaint' last Saturday.
Of course, predominately Catholic cemetaries are a glory of stone carved angels and jesuses and madonnas and elaborate mausoleums. One of the most moving tributes is a common one found on many tombs - 'mort pour la france' - which as always means a young man cut down in his prime during the great wars of the last century. Everyone should visit cemetaries now and again - I think they bring a great deal of perspective to life and make you realise the importance of your loved ones and your family.
After the cemetary, we wandered along the banks of the Aude, with the Cité up on the hill to our right and the trees in their many shades of Autumn colour and thought how beautiful is the dump that we live in!
Both sets of guests left on Monday and we now have no bookings until Christmas. I am not sure how much of that is due to the credit crunch or whether this is just normal for November. Either way, it gives us time to take stock of things, catch up with accounts and tax returns, not worry about breakfasts and lounge about watching dvds in the evening on the big TV in the Studio - great.
The guests were a complete contrast. One couple came up on the train from Barcelona and had a very enjoyable weekend here. They were originally from Brazil via the USA and England via Amsterdam, so they are both well travelled.
The other couple, with their six month old son, were from the UK and looking to move abroad at some point in the future. They didn't seem to have such a nice time and complained about the street noise and Eliot's change of routine and just about everything. When she left she told me that she thought Carcassonne was a dump!
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, of course, but as I live here I thought her comments were extremely insensitive to say the least and obviously I don't agree with her. It makes me wonder what she was looking for - I hope she finds it whatever it is.
It poured down on Sunday, but yesterday was glorious sunshine all day. So after despatching the guests Debrah and I went out for a spot of lunch and it being sunny and us being English we elected to sit outside at the brasserie Saint Germain much to the bemusement, I'm sure, of the other diners and to our very amusing waiter (he spoke English very well after a spell working in Winchester).
It was lovely until the low sun passed behind the top of the adjacent buildings and then it began to get slightly chilly - but we had enjoyed a classic brasserie lunch of fish soup and sausage and lentils washed down with a glass of red - glorious.
Whilst walking off lunch immediately after, we came across the main town cemetary around the back of the barracks and decided to have a look inside. I am glad we did because the place was a riot of colour with all the chrysanthemums placed on the graves and tombs after 'toussaint' last Saturday.
Of course, predominately Catholic cemetaries are a glory of stone carved angels and jesuses and madonnas and elaborate mausoleums. One of the most moving tributes is a common one found on many tombs - 'mort pour la france' - which as always means a young man cut down in his prime during the great wars of the last century. Everyone should visit cemetaries now and again - I think they bring a great deal of perspective to life and make you realise the importance of your loved ones and your family.
After the cemetary, we wandered along the banks of the Aude, with the Cité up on the hill to our right and the trees in their many shades of Autumn colour and thought how beautiful is the dump that we live in!
Saturday, 1 November 2008
Hurrah for live footie
After threatening all sorts of nonsense weather-wise for this weekend (according to all the forecasts), it turned out to be a lovely start to November and a good market day.
The 1st November is a national holiday in France (all saints or 'toussaint') and so the market wasn't as big as usual with several stallholders obviously taking the day off and many of the bars and cafes were also closed and a lot of the shops closed early too.
Despite all that we still managed an exciting market day. Today we went large on unusual and, in some cases, exotic fruit. We bought quinces and pomegranates and prickly pear and from a producer from Salleles d'Aude, near Narbonne, we bought feijoa, a brazilian cousin of the guava, and fuyu, a relative of the 'kaki' (persimmon, in English). Our plan is to make a very different but exotic fruit salad for dessert tomorrow with our vegan guest in mind.
We also bought a selection of the most fabulous wild mushrooms picked from the hills surrounding the Aude valley and had some of them this evening in a cream sauce with fillet steak and sauté potatoes and a rocket and watercress salad - it was absolutely delicious and all washed down with one of our favourite wines, La Falaise from Chateau de la Negly - if you can find it you should buy it.
The baby theme of the week continued during lunch at Saillan, where it was warm enough to sit outside and enjoy the sun. David's daughter and her husband and 6 month old grandchild were over for the weekend (came on the same flight as our guests from East Midlands apparently and stood behind them in the checkout queue!) and bizarrely David's ex, Anne, and his son Stefan, were also there - too many generations and ages to keep up with. Nonetheless, it was a very pleasant hour sat in the open air chatting about life.
Phil, the son-in-law, was bemoaning the fact that there was nowhere to watch Sky TV (the new Irish bar is probably still two weeks away from opening according to Patrick, whom we bumped into earlier).
Lo and behold, when I got home there was a message from Mr Sieff in London with a link to online live tv channels including live premiership football. How happy was I that I could watch some live football - in fact live football that most people in the UK can't watch (unless they have discovered this link, that is, or paid for subscription tv).
So I tested it out this afternoon and watched the Man U v Hull match and then sent the link to David so that Phil could watch Derby tomorrow and I will certainly be watching Bolton trying to extricate themselves from the bottom of the Premier League, without any hope that it will happen, sadly.
In between all that I repaired a window in the stairwell. On our way out to the market this morning Debrah noticed that one of the window panes in the window outside our internal front door was hanging on by a thread (the old putty had cracked and fallen out on three sides). So I lifted the glass out and cleaned up both the pane of glass and the window frame and siliconed it back in place - tomorrow I will put some new putty around it.
It's just as well Debrah spotted it because it could have been disastrous if it had fallen out. It is also another example of a job that will cost the owners next to nothing but which could have cost us all a couple of hundred euros under the old managing agents because they would have got a specialist glazier to do the job.
A couple of years ago I wouldn't really have known how to fix it, but now I knew immediately what needed to be done. I am proud of that - not just the knowledge, but also the confidence to just deal with it.
It is yet one more example of how this whole enterprise, renovation and business building, has been so very good for me.
The 1st November is a national holiday in France (all saints or 'toussaint') and so the market wasn't as big as usual with several stallholders obviously taking the day off and many of the bars and cafes were also closed and a lot of the shops closed early too.
Despite all that we still managed an exciting market day. Today we went large on unusual and, in some cases, exotic fruit. We bought quinces and pomegranates and prickly pear and from a producer from Salleles d'Aude, near Narbonne, we bought feijoa, a brazilian cousin of the guava, and fuyu, a relative of the 'kaki' (persimmon, in English). Our plan is to make a very different but exotic fruit salad for dessert tomorrow with our vegan guest in mind.
We also bought a selection of the most fabulous wild mushrooms picked from the hills surrounding the Aude valley and had some of them this evening in a cream sauce with fillet steak and sauté potatoes and a rocket and watercress salad - it was absolutely delicious and all washed down with one of our favourite wines, La Falaise from Chateau de la Negly - if you can find it you should buy it.
The baby theme of the week continued during lunch at Saillan, where it was warm enough to sit outside and enjoy the sun. David's daughter and her husband and 6 month old grandchild were over for the weekend (came on the same flight as our guests from East Midlands apparently and stood behind them in the checkout queue!) and bizarrely David's ex, Anne, and his son Stefan, were also there - too many generations and ages to keep up with. Nonetheless, it was a very pleasant hour sat in the open air chatting about life.
Phil, the son-in-law, was bemoaning the fact that there was nowhere to watch Sky TV (the new Irish bar is probably still two weeks away from opening according to Patrick, whom we bumped into earlier).
Lo and behold, when I got home there was a message from Mr Sieff in London with a link to online live tv channels including live premiership football. How happy was I that I could watch some live football - in fact live football that most people in the UK can't watch (unless they have discovered this link, that is, or paid for subscription tv).
So I tested it out this afternoon and watched the Man U v Hull match and then sent the link to David so that Phil could watch Derby tomorrow and I will certainly be watching Bolton trying to extricate themselves from the bottom of the Premier League, without any hope that it will happen, sadly.
In between all that I repaired a window in the stairwell. On our way out to the market this morning Debrah noticed that one of the window panes in the window outside our internal front door was hanging on by a thread (the old putty had cracked and fallen out on three sides). So I lifted the glass out and cleaned up both the pane of glass and the window frame and siliconed it back in place - tomorrow I will put some new putty around it.
It's just as well Debrah spotted it because it could have been disastrous if it had fallen out. It is also another example of a job that will cost the owners next to nothing but which could have cost us all a couple of hundred euros under the old managing agents because they would have got a specialist glazier to do the job.
A couple of years ago I wouldn't really have known how to fix it, but now I knew immediately what needed to be done. I am proud of that - not just the knowledge, but also the confidence to just deal with it.
It is yet one more example of how this whole enterprise, renovation and business building, has been so very good for me.
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