No matter how much you savour every moment and refuse to take anything for granted, there are some things about travel that are... a touch tiresome.
A noisy hotel room that you pay $150 for, and can’t swing a husband in.
Translating “noix, basse and cote” on a restaurant menu as “fish coated in nuts” and ending up with a large steak with zucchini.
The answer is “Chambre d’hote”.
You get a gorgeous room filled with family antiques, often on a 17th century farm for $90 a night. You then pre-book a dinner, “Table d’hote” and enjoy whatever the host feels like cooking that night. It’s 3 or 4 courses, including wine for a paltry $22. You’ll perhaps share the table with 6 septugenarians who can’t speak English and 2 young Parisiennes who can. Laughter ensues as you try to understand a jolly old man’s joke about Napoleon. You offer each other seconds from the copper pot of vegetable soup and pour another glass of wine, knowing the carafe will be refilled as soon as it’s empty.
After three hours of stuffing yourself like a french farmer, you stumble back to your room of thick stone walls and sleep like… well, like a pickled french farmer!
You wake to a breakfast of croissants, fresh bread and homemade jams made from the fruit of the trees in the garden. Before leaving, you use the free wi-fi to book the next Chambre d’hote.
