blog - Le Portanel

The end of another busy summer season

I have mixed feelings as we move into September. It is sad to see the summer festivities come to end, to see the nights drawing in and the temperatures falling, but the change of pace here in the B&B will be very welcome, Tom and I can have some time to ourselves and start to plan our projects for the winter months ahead.

It has been another very busy season for us (we’ve served ~450 breakfasts over the last 6 months) and certainly the hottest that we have experienced, but we have enjoyed welcoming so many lovely people into our home, taking part in the excellent local summer fêtes and we also made sure we had some time-off both at home and away.

Running a busy B&B like ours is certainly not for the faint hearted, but in my opinion, it is way more enjoyable than the endless emails, meetings, conference calls, commuting and company politics from my previous life in the UK, plus we get to live in such a beautiful part of the world! So, despite being ready for a few months of the quiet-life, I am ending the season feeling very positive and I’m pleased to see so many reservations coming through for next year already.

Last weekend, the cafés and restaurants in central Eymet joined forces to mark the end of the summer season with an excellent South American themed Feria with various bands playing live music and a disco in the square. There was even a ‘bucking bronco’ set up by the excellent La Chartreuse. It was such a lovely family atmosphere and once again we were reminded how lucky we are to live in such a diverse and vibrant town.

Tonight is the last Eymet night market of the season until they return next June, but the temperatures are still set to be up around 30 for the next week so we should be able to carry on serving breakfast outside and enjoy the pool for a while longer.

As usual at this time of year, I’ll give the blog a rest for a while for now and pick it up again as we start to get busy in 2027.

And relax…

Life in France / admin / 01/10/2024

September has proved to be another busy month in the B&B with a flurry of last-minute bookings and, I think, a great end to another successful summer season. A 7-night booking for two rooms from guests that stayed with us earlier in the year was very welcome, and we hosted other returning guests during the month along with first-time visitors.

A lot of guests stay with us for a couple of nights as part of holiday / road-trip of the region, and during September, we closed for a week and did exactly that ourselves heading down to the mediterranean coast. What a lovely week we had stopping in Carcassonne, Nîmes, Fréjus and Béziers, all stunningly beautiful historic towns and it was great to lie on the beach for a few days with my paperback.

Having had Le Portanel up and running for 3 seasons from a standing-start, we have learned a lot, listened to feedback and adapted to make staying with us as relaxing and comfortable as we can, whilst becoming more efficient and making life more enjoyable for ourselves as well. Over the coming quieter months, we’ll be reflecting on how to improve things further for next year as well as getting on with the house and garden maintenance and improvement that has to be put on hold during the summer. The utility room is our first project!

I’m delighted that Maquiz’Art have booked with us again for the visiting musicians for their jazz concerts in the village right through the winter and spring, and with flights into Bergerac now available for next year from Bournemouth, Bristol, Brussels, Edinburgh, East Midlands, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Rotterdam, new reservations are arriving, and tentative bookings are being firmed up so 2025 looks like being another busy year for us!

If you are thinking about staying with us or visiting the area, please don’t hesitate to get in touch to discuss your requirements.

I’ll put the blog on hold for a while now. Last week was our last really busy week, and over the next few months we will be taking the opportunity to catch-up with the dreaded ‘to-do list’, spend some time with family, visit some new places, try some new experiences and, of course, just relax in front of the fire with a bottle of wine and some truly awful Christmas movies.

And relax… Read More »