My wife is a pretty good French speaker and likes the chance to use her language. So, from time to time we abandon the tent and use a bed and breakfast in France. We have a now elderly Gite de France bed and breakfast book. It is huge, has thousands of potential B and Bs but is in French. When we get to an area we might stay, we open the book and try to find a suitable place. Our priorities are a cheap price and the presence of a kitchen for guests to use. That way we can cook our own evening meal and avoid the expense of eating out. Our food will be French, purchased locally in a supermarket or hypermarket.
Back in 2008 we were heading south in early April, with every intention of getting the tent up at some point. But we looked for a B and B and found one which seemed to fit the bill. My wife phoned and it seemed confused – particularly with regard to cooking facilities but, assured we could cook, we booked in.
It was in a chateau at St. Martin Sepert.
On arrival, we needed the loo – but no chance of that. We had to do a tour of the grounds – in particular to see the beehives.
Then we had to do a tour of the chateau which had all sorts of oddities.
This was said to be Marie Antoinette’s slipper, which fell off her foot as she walked to the guillotine.
An electrical fitting caught my eye.
We finally got shown our room which was fine.
And we understood the cooking problem. They had had a kitchen for guests, but it had burned down. But we could use Madame’s kitchen. This was not the kitchen on the scale of that at Hampton Court which we had seen on our tour, but a modern, smaller one. We cooked and enjoyed our simple meal before walking the village and then enjoying a sunset.
Locksands Life 