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The pitfalls of running a B&B in France.

Last month I wrote about the pleasures of running our B&B and hardly touched on the pitfalls but thankfully they are few and far between so this might be a short article.

The most obvious of course is the sheer volume of washing and ironing of bedding that needs to be done and one of my pet hates is ironing king size duvet covers. I seem to get all tangled and confused and think I must look a bit like Norman Wisdom in one of his sketches as I try to iron all the surfaces! Arms and legs all over the place but thankfully I haven’t ended up trapped inside one yet. We have both king size and double beds in our home and it always seems that when I need a double fitted sheet I have grabbed a king size and vice versa.

We seem to be able to wear out washing machines pretty well. Maybe I should suggest to a manufacturer that if they supply me with a new machine I’ll test it to destruction for them free of charge!

Another of my pet hates is hair, I don’t have an awful lot of my own these days and it is a complete mystery to me how somebody with long hair can leave so much on the pillow, in the bath, in the shower and on the floor and yet still have a full head of hair.

Another is the make up problem, I won’t be sexist and say ladies make up but I suspect that they are the main culprits and some manage it to leave it on the pillows and towels. I don’t know what it is made of but it resists all my efforts to remove it even when I use all sorts of special products in the wash.

And finally French banks. Why can’t the local branch of my bank take the cheque the guests have written me and credit it to my account ? I know I’m with the internet banking branch of the same company but surely in this day and age it should be possible for them to do an electronic transfer. And as they are an internet bank why do they insist on sending me a paper confirmation through the post every time I pay a cheque in. What’s that all about ?

This all sounds a bit Victor Meldewish but believe me I really love living in France and doing what we’re doing.

PS you may read this and wonder what my wife is doing while I am doing all of the above…..so do I ! Just to keep her sweet….she does all the cleaning, walks to the village at the crack of dawn every morning for fresh bread and all the technical computer stuff that I have no clue about including sending this article to Kerry at Guide2Limousin.