We too have stayed in french chambre d'hote and not had them join us but we have also stayed in english ones and had them sit with us and it is a chance to find out about the area etc.
We had all meals with our guests last year and they all seem to enjoy it and wrote some nice comments in our guestbook.
Paul Carmel wrote:So if the owners are French and you don't speak French, and they don't speak English, or vice versa, what a bloody awkward evening that's going to be.
Paul Carmel wrote:So you have to be on top form, even if you have had a lousy day
Yup - that's about the long and short of it!
We always eat with guests, although like scaliwells, between us miss some of the courses, and we've only once in 5 years had a difficult evening because of the language barrier, and I suspect it would have been almost as difficult an evening in English.
We had a very non-talkative French mother and grown-up daughter and son with Downs syndrome, and all three limited their conversation to one word at a time! We could hear the clock ticking.......it was by far the longest evening we've ever had.
Does anyone else sit & eat breakfast, or just sit & chat with guests eating their breakfast? My husband insists we need to do this. I would like to know if this is standad as when ever we have stayed B&B ourselves it has never happened.
We do get some very good conversations though & it solves the silence when people of different nationalitits sit down round the same table as he speaks 5 languages & can usually comunicate with anyone. But on a bad day leaves us exhausted for the rest of the day!
Caroline wrote:Does anyone else sit & eat breakfast, or just sit & chat with guests eating their breakfast?
Not normally.........particularly if we have a lot of guests at the same time for breakfast. When we've finished running round, it has been known that we sit down with them for a cuppa. Trouble is............if you're busy and have a lot of room changes to get on with, sitting down at the table only makes breakfast a longer event!
We don't do it as a rule, but if the guests are asking me lots of questions I might sit down and have a cup of tea with them. But only if they are realy chatty and want info etc. I would never insist that it be done and I have never been anywhere else where it is done.
We have one large table in the dining area, if my breakfast is ready mrsp puts it on the table, if the guests are there then I eat with them, sometimes they are not up yet, but as our kitchen area is in the same room conversations happen anyway, we also have always sat at the dinner table and ate too, 3 lots of french guests that booked dinner last year asked when booking that it was to be table d'hotes with us.
I think our situation is much like yours Pete, kitchen & dining table all in one area. So we eat breakfast with the guests if they are there at the time.
Also I chat as I am cooking our food with any body at any time of day as they pass through this way to the garden. It is one reason we stopped doing table d'hotes. So many people stopped to chat as I was cooking that I was completely wipped out by the time I sat down to eat, never mind carry on conversation all through the meal as well. A problem with our otherwise lovely open plan ground floor!
But I think I am going to try to insist that we don't have to eat or stop to chat throughout breakfast in future.
Do you ask people to vacate their rooms before breakfast or do you start change overs & cleaning with their stuff still in their rooms? I never start the cleaning of rooms until guests have left for the day. We don't have a pool & so they all go out at some point after breakfast. It means sometimes I am not finished for the next set of folks by the time they arrive. I seem to be getting more one nighters this year, so I may have to tighten up here as well!
I'll chat whislt serving our Guests Breakfast but would never have the time - or inclination - to sit and eat with them.
I don't start cleaning rooms before the Guests go out but do tell them that, in Summer if they have not gone out before 11 a.m., their room will not be done until after 4 p.m. when not quite so hot.
We don't eat with Guests at night either - except on one occasion when the Guests insisted. As I am generally clearing/washing up whilst they eat this put me way back time wise.
