The Winter Lull - January 2010

Its pretty quiet here at La Roultiere in January. The ground is frozen and the gites are bitterly cold. To cold to do progress with our planned refurbishments. The remodelling of the bathrooms in Grenier, Fermette and Veranda of course will be done for May...its just hard to get motivated when its SO COLD!. The new suites sit, vacuum wrapped in black plastic along with Phil's diggers in the shed. Mustn't forget to order the taps!.
January does tend to be a month to hibernate but plan ahead. The new 3 piece suite for Ecurie is ordered and the new beds for Fermette have arrived at our depot in the UK so are ready to be shipped. Also need to look through the seed catalogues and plan the veggie patch for the year. Hopefully Nigel in Cheshire has put aside our cheshire potatoes for chitting. The thought of light summer salads with freshly picked cherry tomatos helps me get through the winter!!
The police were about in Breil this morning, checking drivers for insurance. I noticed they had pulled over "NoNo" (our stone mason) when I went passed on my way to Guy de Ray to meet Alison. I hope he is up to date with his insurance...he's the kind of French gentleman who bends the rules at times. He's due to start work on the facade of the gites again in February. Might have to be picking him up every morning!!!
Reservations have come in fast and furious since Christmas, with a healthy smattering of returning guests which I just love having. There certainly is no science to the booking patterns of our guests. Last year we were worried in April because we had so few reservations; this year its all happening much earlier, which is a huge weight of my mind. Hope its something to do with the new website that my brother and I worked so hard on, not just the fact that the UK has been covered in snow for 2 weeks!
Debating with myself whether to do a barbeque evening every Sunday with our guests. Can't decide yet. Perhaps I'll get some feed back through this!