bbinnsitters
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Just had an interesting B&B experience in France that I thought I would share with you all. I came away with a "wow, that is a great way to get business" (cos I am always looking for the positive side to things)
On our last night in Provence my husband and I decided to get a B&B room and not stay with my sister and her other friends at a 2 bedroom cottage (too crowded for me!) We had to be at the train station early and so it made sense on many levels. I called a B&B in the Rick Steves book that said the owners spoke English - "no, we don't have any vacancies for the night you are looking for, but I will put a mass e-mail out to other B&B's in the area" The next day we got a very nice e-mail from Nathalie - "yes, we have a room for you on that night and we can take you to the train station for 12 euros" etc. etc. l was very happy to have rec'd a quick reply from an English speaking B&B. I don't speak a lick of French and depended on my sister to translate for our whole week there. We ended up getting a reply back from 6 different B&B's which really surprised me cos it was the annual festival in Avignon (sp?). I went with the 1st one cos she replied first and was so kind and spoke English!
HA! Joke is on me - got to the B&B and the owners spoke about as much English as I spoke French! I was a little miffed at first realizing that they evidently had a system where Nathalie probably gets a lot of their reservations for them! But in the long run they were very nice, fantastic room with A/C (rare in France), recommended a great restaurant, lovely breakfast at 7am (certainly not my ideal time), got us to the train station on time and we communicated as best we could.
Lesson learned - things aren't always as they seem, but good, kind service doesn't need a language.
On our last night in Provence my husband and I decided to get a B&B room and not stay with my sister and her other friends at a 2 bedroom cottage (too crowded for me!) We had to be at the train station early and so it made sense on many levels. I called a B&B in the Rick Steves book that said the owners spoke English - "no, we don't have any vacancies for the night you are looking for, but I will put a mass e-mail out to other B&B's in the area" The next day we got a very nice e-mail from Nathalie - "yes, we have a room for you on that night and we can take you to the train station for 12 euros" etc. etc. l was very happy to have rec'd a quick reply from an English speaking B&B. I don't speak a lick of French and depended on my sister to translate for our whole week there. We ended up getting a reply back from 6 different B&B's which really surprised me cos it was the annual festival in Avignon (sp?). I went with the 1st one cos she replied first and was so kind and spoke English!
HA! Joke is on me - got to the B&B and the owners spoke about as much English as I spoke French! I was a little miffed at first realizing that they evidently had a system where Nathalie probably gets a lot of their reservations for them! But in the long run they were very nice, fantastic room with A/C (rare in France), recommended a great restaurant, lovely breakfast at 7am (certainly not my ideal time), got us to the train station on time and we communicated as best we could.
Lesson learned - things aren't always as they seem, but good, kind service doesn't need a language.