Le Clos des Saumanes

Sorry to say this was the big disappointment of our entire France vacation. Arrived @ 4pm and there was no one to meet us. Waited approximately 30 minutes before the hosts showed up (no note left for our arrival). Room we were provided was up three flights of stairs in the attic (La Cigale) which is absolutely unbearable during the summer heat (~100 F) as there is no air conditioning in this part of the house. Provided room fan did not work properly. Bathroom towels were old, stained, and ...

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Sorry to say this was the big disappointment of our entire France vacation. Arrived @ 4pm and there was no one to meet us. Waited approximately 30 minutes before the hosts showed up (no note left for our arrival). Room we were provided was up three flights of stairs in the attic (La Cigale) which is absolutely unbearable during the summer heat (~100 F) as there is no air conditioning in this part of the house. Provided room fan did not work properly. Bathroom towels were old, stained, and smelled of dog. Bathroom provided tub (no shower) with very low flow water handheld shower nozzle was awkward to use and one sink did not drain. Hallway smelled badly of cat pee (very bad in the summer heat) with the lavendar spray being applied barely masking it. Breakfast appeared provisioned from the local supermarket and the coffee cup my wife was provided at our last breakfast was cracked. Most of the guests were French residents in town for the Avignon theatre season and the environment seemed like we were ’permitted’ to be around while court was being held.

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Dear Karen, We were really upset about the negative comment you just sent us, the 1st one in 12 years of B&B activity. We have been running our home the best we could for all these years and we feel that we were taking good care of our guests. But nobody’s perfect !!! Mr Wack is certainly right. We ...

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Dear Karen, We were really upset about the negative comment you just sent us, the 1st one in 12 years of B&B activity. We have been running our home the best we could for all these years and we feel that we were taking good care of our guests. But nobody’s perfect !!! Mr Wack is certainly right. We are only sorry that he did not mention anything to us while he was staying with us for 2 nights, when the house was full and we were very busy with everyone. His comments are really so bitter that we want to try and justify our point of view with a positive attitude and a little sense of humour! Mr Wack arrived at our home at 4 o’clock (other guests testified) and sat by the pool for 30 min. When we exchange mails with our guests, giving road directions, we always mention that the best check-in time is between 5 and 7 PM. We ask them to give us a call for different schedules. In that, we follow the suggestions from KB guide page 17. We arrived at 4:30 and apologized but did not feel too guilty. We took our guest to his bedroom ’La Cigale’, on the 2nd floor of our Bastide which is a last floor but not an attic ! This room stays particularly cool because it opens on the north side, overlooks a pine forest and does not require air conditionning, temperature never exceeding 26∘C, even in the bad heat wave we experienced while Mr Wack visited us, with an exceptionnal 38∘C outside. We change towels everyday if required. Our towels are cleaned by professionals and it would have been very simple to mention the ’stain’. The fan works perfectly well. Blocked sinks can be deblocked instantly. We also have 3 cats, not allowed inside guestrooms, and a very friendly Labrador who does not sleep on our guests’ towels but in her own bed. Special mention for breakfast: We do not make fruit juice. We do not make yogourts. We do not milk a cow every morning. We do not make the 5 kinds of cheeses we serve. We do not make the 3 different kinds of bread. We do not make the croissants. We do not make butter. We do not make the 2 kinds of Muesli and cereals you can find on the breakfast buffet. Nor do we make the honey from our own bees. But we make coffee and tea and hot drinking chocolate. We make a cake. We make the jams and we prepare every morning fresh fruit salads from the local farmer’s market which every one seems to be pleased with. In the last lines of Mr Wack message, we understand he felt lonely among our other french guests who attend the famous theatre festival here in Avignon, one actor, 2 journalists and a group of ’theatre freaks’ whom we have seen every year at the same period for 10 years. We are very sorry for that. We hope he likes french people inspite of that because we think he is going to marry his french companion Nicole soon. We wish both of them a very happy life. By the way, we could not express our wishes to Mr Wack and his wife to be, as they left without saying a word. We have to mention that Mr Wack was in a terrible mood because he fell by accident during his visit to Fontaine de Vaucluse and broke a very valuable camera. We expressed our regrets about that, but cannot be held responsible, we hope ! Thank you for reading those lines. Some words do hurt, but, fortunately, we comfort ourselves with other comments and the words of gratitude that we get. We are pleased to tell you that Heather and Myers from Boston who stayed in ’La Cigale’ for 5 nights from July 7 to July 12 already made a reservation for 2 weeks in 2010 !!! Some people do not like to sleep in the attic. Kindest Regards ! Elisabeth&Philippe

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