Starting a chambres d`hôte

21/01/09 Brrrrr.....

Firstly let me wish you all a belated Happy New Year. This month seems to be flying by – I can’t believe it’s the 21^st already. It seems like only yesterday that we were in the UK spending Christmas with the family. We came back here for New Year as we had a “changeover” to do in the gite to get it ready for our New Year visitors. Both our Christmas and New Year guests enjoyed their stays – if not the weather which was a bit raw and cold. In fact the whole month has been cold really. The garden has been in a state of permafrost for ages but fortunately we are beginning to see a bit of a thaw now. The excessively low temperatures has meant that our fire has been on all day, every day – making quite a dent in our woodpile, much to Geoff’s dismay. Don’t get me wrong – we have plenty wood, he just hates to use it!!

We had a nice Christmas “back home” and enjoyed seeing the family again. Our trips to and from the UK went smoothly and we rediscovered the delights of going by boat again this year as the tunnel fares have gone through the roof recently. We took Chester (the dog) with us and he coped well with the ferry crossing – if not with getting in and out of the car. He is quite ancient now and can no longer hop in and out of the boot with ease. We got some very strange looks when we stopped for a break anywhere and produced our old Safeway plastic box for him to use as a step up! It worked though, but I think his days of doing long trips in the car are more or less over now.

We arrived back home in the depths of the cold spell and it took ages to get the house feeling cosy again. We had obviously been spoiled by staying in draught free centrally heated houses! Doesn’t everyone put curtains up at doors these days to keep the draughts out??? We didn’t help ourselves by going to the “do” in the village hall, the day we got back. The Marie and the Amicale Laique had joined forces to put on a film show for the inhabitants, however watching penguins dancing on ice (it was “Happy Feet”) in a glacial village hall with freezing temperatures outside was not a good way to warm up really!

Another brilliant idea of ours was to go for a walk on New Years day. We decided to go and explore a lake we had been told about just south of Clermont Ferrand. Unfortunately, as we got nearer to this lake we began to experience what the kids call the “Lake District Trip Factor” setting in. This refers to the many trips we did with the various exchange students who stayed with us, where we always took them to the lakes for a day trip out. And it was always in thick fog or driving rain. Our pointing out the “beautiful views” always brought puzzled looks from the unfortunate students and gales of laughter from our kids! Back to our trip to Lac Audyat.. it was impossible to see the lake (thick fog)and what we could see was frozen solid! It was also very, very cold.  A good day out – not! However we will return as it did seem as if it was nice – if only we had been able to see it!

I also persuaded Geoff to come with me to the sales the other day. The sales here are different to those in the UK in that they are not quite so aggressive, don’t start until the second week in January and last for a definite short period only. We did manage to get a few bits and pieces but were not really inspired much. Geoff was very pleased as he has great difficulty in opening his wallet to buy anything these days! We did take the opportunity, having driven to Clermont Ferrand, to go the cinema though – a rare treat now that the cinema which used to show the majority of VO-STF (original version i.e. in English with French sub titles) films has been demolished. It made a nice change to watch something in English although we both found ourselves reading the subtitles which was annoying!

Some exciting news now – we have some new neighbours in Chabanol! A young couple have bought one of the holiday houses and are going to live here full time. The house was owned by a lovely old couple, M and Mme T. Unfortunately Mr T. has Alzheimer’s and they were finding it impossible to cope here. The couple who have bought the house (Rachel and Benjamin) are really excited at the prospect of living in the countryside with their two dogs. They have been working very hard to modernise the house which was a bit dilapidated and hope to move in, in February/March depending on how the work goes. It’s great for us to have more people living in the hamlet and they seem a lovely couple. I have to say that Chester is not so delighted at the prospect of their Dalmatian dog muscling in on his territory but he will have to get used to it!

I have been working hard during this quiet time for the gite and B&B, to try and get our advertising up to date. I have decided to ditch some of the sites we were on and try out new ones which seem to work for other people round here. Our aim is to try and get more British guests in the gite, and this has been the main thrust of my targeting this year. However, I’m not sure if it will work due to the terrible exchange rate just now. In some ways I am pleased that we are able to attract so many French people to stay as the way the French Government supports and helps families to have holidays also helps us! We already have a couple of bookings for the new season so we are off and running I am pleased to say. Anyway we will see if my new strategies pay off in the next few weeks.