Poor
2023-08-25
Traveller Type: Family with Young Children
: Our family stayed for three nights at the Moulin de Laboirie. The property is well kept and located just outside of the historic town of Bazas: a very quiet location where nothing really happens (all restaurants in Bazas were even closed on the Monday we were there) and it is probably too far as a base if your purpose is to head to the beaches of les Landes or the Bordeaux wine country. The owners keep a large dog and are accommodating to other dogs, although for seven euros a night which was not clear from the listing on booking.com, and our dog played well with theirs in the mornings before it got too hot during the afternoons. We spent the first two days mostly off the property, including a wonderful trip (but long drive) to Saint-Emilion, and because extreme heat (41 degrees celsius) was predicted for the next day, we opted to stay another day to rest and recuperate by the pool and in the relative cool of the property's common areas. Breakfast is not bad, but certainly below par in comparison to similar B&B, lacking cheese, meat, eggs, or pastries, and instead consisting mostly of store-bought concentrated orange juice and yoghurt, baguettes and brown bread, butter, plum jam, and coffee and tea). There is no air conditioning. On the first night, when it was only slightly cooler (38 degrees), we were not even offered a fan, despite them being available. After we asked, on the second night, we got a fan and some type of water dispenser that did not do much to cool down the room in this heat, but we spent the second night somewhat more comfortable. There is a swimming pool, although the areas around the swimming pool would benefit from far more thorough cleaning.
: On our third day, as "canicule" or sweltering heat lay heavy around the property, the owners' temperament also boiled over. After breakfast we spent most of the afternoon around the common areas. As we travelled with a five-month-old baby, we could not really go outside at all, but there was little understanding about this: on the several occasions the owners' passed through the common areas, we felt stared down as if we were inconveniencing them. Going to our room, however, was not an option either as without air conditioning the rooms, below the roof, were probably over 35C. Towards the end of the afternoon, as we wanted to avoid exposing our baby to the extreme heat by going to a restaurant, we thought to cook a simple pasta aglio e olio in the kitchen that was attached to the common area. We had not asked for permission to do this as nobody had been around for hours and had assumed, since the kitchen was not marked "private" and next to the common restrooms, that this would not be an issue. Boy, were we wrong. Severine peaked into the kitchen; instead of saying something herself, she retreated and a minute later we were accosted by her furious husband, who shouted that this was "unacceptable," "totally not intended to be used for cooking by guests," and although we had merely cut garlic, not yet cooked it, claimed we had ruined the experience of other travellers by making the house smell. We apologised for having misunderstood, stopped cooking immediately, and cleaned up after ourselves. But then Jan came back for a second shouting match, saying we "totally lacked respect" many times, called us dishonest and said that "you also would not go into a friend's kitchen like this" (maybe - but you also don't pay to stay at a friend's place) and then completely crossed the line by shouting to me that "my wife is a problem" after she told him his shouting was unacceptable.