Les Fleurs Bleues

The room facing the street was pleasant and the bed was comfortable, but the heat inside was unbearable, especially during the heatwave. I arrived without a reservation after cycling several hundred kilometers with a trailer in 38°C weather, and the campsite was full, so I had no other choice. At €84, the price felt unjustified. For that amount, I think air conditioning would be a reasonable investment.

We booked a family room for €85 and left dissatisfied. After a freezing night, breakfast was just a lukewarm coffee, even though we went down 15 minutes before the scheduled time. Getting out of bed and washing in the morning was miserable, with our feet freezing. The bed blankets were thin, so thankfully we had brought blankets in the car. We'd arrived on the evening of February 3, 2017, to a warm welcome, but none of the rooms had been heated because there weren't many guests, which I can understand. The owner, a plumber and heating engineer, switched on the two radiators in our room and said it'd be properly warm, at 20°C, when we got back from the restaurant. It wasn't. The bedroom radiator was barely warm, and the bathroom one didn't work, so we didn't dare shower. We complained, and after his third visit we insisted until he lent us a portable electric heater. He said he was going to bed. It reached the right temperature, then stopped after 15 minutes and never came back on. When we requested a partial refund, he refused. Only then did he say he set his radiators between 16 and 17 degrees Celsius, which regulations allowed, and that the auxiliary heater needed to be switched off each time to restart. If this is how he handles things in the off-season, it's probably best to stay at his gîte in summer only.

Take photos and write everything down, even details that seem trivial. That's my advice after a dispute over cleanliness, the security deposit, the check-in and check-out inventory, the cleaning deposit, tourist tax, and invoices. I consider the landlord dishonest. After sending several registered letters and emails, I got no reply. My legal protection insurance also wrote to him and received no response. Read reviews on different websites and make up your own mind. A word to the wise. Catherine

I thought the bad reviews on an online sales site were from people who slept badly. I was wrong. In the morning, the boss, who wasn't very "flowery", handed me a €68 bill and demanded another €27 in cash, on top of the €41 I'd already paid through the online sales site. He said the site wouldn't charge for the full reservation. It sounded like a well-rehearsed spiel, and messages in English made me think there were other people this had happened to. There was no point trying to discuss it. If you don't want to deal with a small earner, move on and don't stop here. Dear hoteliers, find another line of work.