We’ve have finally found a way to let potential guests send us credit card information securely when booking. We ask for a credit card number to hold a reservation. It’s the best we’ve found of dissuading no-shows.

It’s something that we’ve been wanting to put in place for years, but it’s proved harder to do than we ever expected. Up until recently, we’ve been able to work around the problem using fax machines and phone calls. But it seems that fewer and fewer people have access to fax machines. So it was time to put in place some kind of online solution.

The snag was that we didn’t want to charge the card; we only wanted to hold on to the number. Because we weren’t making a transaction, traditional e-commerce shopping carts were out of the question. Encrypted email was another option, but it was too complicated for for mere mortals like you and I.

After much searching, we’ve found a solution that protects the information you give us in two ways:

1. First, our web site is now SSL protected. This means that  the communication between your computer and our web server in encrypted. In other words, no one can eavesdrop while you’re fill out the form.
2. Second, the information collected through the web form is encrypted and delivered to a special encrypted email account. This means that the information is never sent over unsecured email channels.

As of today, we’ll be providing this service for all future reservation requests. When we reply to a reservation request, we include a link to the secure web page. We’ve tested it a number of times and it works like a charm.

We have been included in the latest edition of the “Frankrijk Logeren in Kastelen” Dutch-language guidebook published by Hobb Guides.

We get a lot of Dutch guests, and maybe some of them recommended us to Hobb. In any case we are delighted to have been picked. And according to the Dutch guests that ate here last night, the write-up is very nice, but just don’t ask me to translate it!

You can find us on page 87, in the Loire Valley section (even though we could be considered part of the Paris region).

It can be ordered from here.

After a month of providing evening meals and getting feedback from guests, we’ve decided to simplify the offering.

Instead of two formules, with different prices and different days of the week, which guests found a bit confusing, we’ve settled on a single sit-down meal served at 7:30 PM.

The most important change is the disappearance of the buffet. While on paper it was a good idea, in reality we had a very hard time making it work, for a variety of reasons. The most important of which was the fact that Virginie likes to cook, so a cold buffet just isn’t much fun for her. A buffet didn’t fit in with the way she manages her kitchen and plans the week’s meals. And to paraphrase a famous cowboy saying: if chef ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.

To learn more, click here.

The potager is coming along nicely. The weeds are under control and we’ve begun eating strawberries and lettuce.