bathroom or because the floorboards creak on the landing. And of course, we’ve all heard horror stories of beautiful gîtes being left by guests in a horrible mess.
So for the summer weeks I live in a perpetual state of worry. It’s a French mill house. It’s old. It comes with a fair number of spiders on the inside and a whole lot of wild life on the outside. It comes with creaky floorboards, temperamental drains and an entire national grid that groans under the pressure of a summer storm. You can't plug too many things in at once if it’s raining and don’t ask me why. Just don’t. Those are just some of the reasons I love it.
But towards the end of August, I can stop worrying. Because that is my arrivals day. The last damage deposit returned (with luck), the last summer guest waved off by our housekeeper, now it is our time to relax and enjoy our gîte and some of those all precious summer moments. Relax that is, once I’ve re-arranged everything to how I like it, checked everything over for hidden damage and losses and before I start the big autumn clean down, preparing our gîte to be closed down for the long winter months ahead.