Issue No. 23

I gave them the dressing down they
thoroughly deserved and felt strangely
empowered by my futile actions not
realising that while doing so, a crowd had
gathered. Three families staying in the
chambres d’hôtes had assembled quietly
to see what the fuss was all about. What
they got was a middle-aged man in a tightfitting
suit reading the riot act to three
utterly disinterested farm animals. I went
red.
‘New members of staff,’ I said striding off
like Basil Fawlty, ‘just breaking them in.’
I expected Natalie to be angry at the show
too, but no.
‘That’s it,’ she said, ‘give the punters the
angry, absurd, pent up man that’s in your
books! That’s a great selling point!’
think you have to calm down to run a BnB
like the perfect host and the next you’ve
created your own kind of ‘man at odds with
the world’ theme park, a sort of Dollywood
for expats. But you know what? It works.
Ian has written two books on living in
France and travelling as a comedian, and
this year his first fiction was published, a
crime novel set in the Loire Valley. All his
books are available here
And if you fancy a few days at Ian’s
Chambres d’hôtes and to watch a grown
man swear at livestock, you can see the
place here www.lapausevaldeloire.
com/
And that’s how it happens, one minute you