Le Petit Capelier :: House Manual
Some General Info & a few House Rules
This document may not be available at the house so please save it for future reference.
Here is some info to make your stay as instantly pleasurable as possible.
WI-FI network: NETGEAR29
Password: freshboat648
The WiFi at LPC is limited, slow and unreliable. Fibre Optic is many years away here in rural France so satellite broadband is the next best thing but it is intermittent, subject to weather and temperature.
When it works it can be accessed from the house all the way to the pool (usually). The modem is situated in the master bedroom and the signal is sent to a wireless router in the sejour/salon/living room and another in the master bedroom. If the green lights are on, on the wireless routers, then it’s working as best as it can. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CHANGE ANY SETTINGS. There is nothing you can do to improve it save unplugging the white plug in the wall socket in the master bedroom to the right of the bed , waiting ten seconds and plugging it back in and waiting a further five mins until all four blue lights show on the router. If this doesn’t work then re- lax, take a book to the pool or put a DVD on. Please do not complain to the housekeepers about lack of WiFi.
There is an allowance of internet usage of 5,000 mb per week; if your devices are set up with iCloud and they try to update photos etc whenever within a wi-fi zone the allowance will be used up very quickly. Please turn off these settings and only use the Internet for light browsing and emails.
Downloading music and videos will use up the allowance and throttle the system very quickly making it almost entirely useless for yourselves and any other guest arriving after you the same month. There will be considerable extra charges made if the allowance is overused at €20 per 1000 MB (1GB).
House keepers
The house keepers have prepared the accommodation for you by providing bed linen and clean- ing the cottage. Your preparation fee does not cover all our preparation expenses (bed linen laun- dry and bed making, and house prep cost us more than €180, the pool cleaning is over €100 a week including chemicals and other products and keeping the grass tidy and the gardens trimmed throughout the Summer is very costly) and we discount all these costs to ensure your holiday is not prohibitively expensive. If you have any comments in regard to the cleaning, bed linen, any aspect of the house prep or pool you must make them as soon as you are able to the housekeepers or pool cleaner directly by ‘phone or email or in person when they are at the house. Their contact details have been left for you in a laminated document along with ‘things to do’ . Please don’t expect us to be able to resolve any issues if you inform us about them after your stay.
Pets
No pets in any bedroom or on any furniture; all pets must sleep in the hallway or kitchen with their own basket/bedding with the door closed between the bedrooms and the living room. We will is- sue an extra cleaning fee of €40 if any dog hair is found in the house after you leave; this will be taken from your deposit. Also (a big one this) they can’t ever be allowed in the pool as claws damaging the pool liner will make your holiday prohibitively expensive.
Bedroom availability
There are two bedrooms for you to sleep in if you are four or fewer persons and three if you are
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five or six persons (and, on occasions, an additional small child to make an absolute maximum of seven persons). We do not like to lock rooms when fewer than five persons stay but please do not use more beds than required as laundry costs are expensive (see above). Also, If you intend to invite guests over and above that which you have specified before arrival you must tell our housekeepers beforehand; there is a fee of 30EURO per person per night which includes local taxes that must be paid by us by law for the number of people staying at the cottage. We hope that this meets with your understanding.
The Fosse Septique
The drains here are not like those in urban areas. Some way from the house is a large, septic tank that takes all waste from the loo, the sinks, and the bath. It is very clever, a little sensitive but en- vironmentally wonderful as it deals with all that it can deal with biologically and without any harm to the environment. It needs to be treated with the utmost respect. Nothing other than human waste and the minimum of toilet paper must go down the toilet. No tampons, baby wipes, nap- pies or any other object must be flushed away. Similarly, no oils, fats or food stuffs of any kind are to be washed down the sinks. All food waste including oil and crumbs must be removed to black bin bags and taken away from the house. Any hot oils must be allowed to cool and then disposed of in black bin bags.
Deviating from any of the above will result in your holiday becoming prohibitively expensive and certainly a great deal more than the €150 deposit we require before your visit to Le Petit Capelier. On this we trust our guests to follow these directions to the letter and also that you make it very clear to all children what they can and can’t do. Our house keepers can solve any issue that arises here but it will cost a considerable amount of Euros to put right.
Hot water
If, in the unusual circumstance that, there is no hot water when you arrive: to turn on the hot wa- ter, open the cupboard in the kitchen next to the fridge and you’ll find a switch with ‘J’ and ‘N’. Turn it to ‘J’ for jour (day) and flick the black up and down side switch to down. The water takes about an hour to heat up and then gets very hot so please be careful.
Open Fire
During the summer months (May to September) the living-room fire must never be lit
During winter stays the fire can be lit (after October).
Please use kindling from the left-hand door to the piggery and prepared logs and branches form the right-hand side of the piggery.
It’s quite a knack to get the fire going so if you’re not confident please don’t attempt to try. Naturally any rugs near to the fire must be moved so that they don’t suffer from errant embers.
It is a time-consuming job managing the trees at Le Petit Capelier, with cutting and logging up and to buy firewood locally is extremely expensive. We would therefore hope you’d contribute some funds towards any use of firewood.
La Plancha
For the first time this year (2021) we are leaving the plancha in the piggery for guests to use. There are a few conditions:
Please replace the gas bottle if it runs out (supermarket at Bouganies or Castillonès)
Please clean it AFTER EVERY USE with a soft cloth and detergent. Do not allow fat to build up in the reservoir.
The plancha must not, in any circumstances, be moved from where it is positioned.
And please take pictures of what you cook and of those that enjoy what you’ve made and send them to mail@tillymintsholidaylets.com.
House ‘Phone
The house ‘phone is for emergencies only. The call history can be checked if required but we’d like to trust our guests won’t use the ‘phone.
TV use
The TV and all associated equipment including the Wi-Fi are for your own use. The Humax box is connected to a satellite dish that provides some channels sometimes; during the Summer it rarely works because of the leaves on the tress. We prefer trees and bushes rather than access to TV. However DVDs (and CDs) can be played on the DVD player and the TVs ‘source’ must be switched to SCART for either the DVD player or the HUMX box with the unrequired box switched off. Please find a selection of DVDs in the large trunk in the sejour/living room.
No loud music, particularly with the doors/windows open.
Heating
There are various wall heaters in the house. They use a tremendous amount of electricity the costs of which are extortionate compared with the UK; we very rarely use them and even then only during the winter months. If you do need them they must never be left on while you sleep nor should they ever be left on if the house is empty.
Please note all utilities bills (water, gas, electricity) for stays longer than 14 days will be charged against your deposit. There is no charge for the standing rental costs of any utility.
Sun lounger cushions
These should never be left outside unattended as wind can blow them away and rain will damage them. Please return them to the house when you are not using them.
The outdoor ‘rustic’ table.
The wooden table and benches must not be moved from their position on the terrace near the piggery outside the master bedroom (in the shade). This part of the house gets all the Sun in the evening and is a lovely place to have a meal. Please feel free to use the blue oil table cloth when dining here.
Rubbish and recycling
There are no rubbish collections like you’ll find in the UK and other parts of Europe. All rubbish must be removed from the property before the next guests arrive. Cardboard, paper, bottles, tin cans to yellow-ish, see-through bin bags provided and all other material to black bin bags. On Thursday AM there is a collection that picks up black bin bags (non recycle items) and recycling items from the newly provide bins that are positioned about five hundred yards to the right of the entrance to our drive along the C201. You can deposit black bin bags and recycling items there at any time.
All rubbish must be removed from the property when you leave. Any rubbish left that has to be dealt with by our housekeepers will incur charges.
Have a lovely stay!
Dominic
Tilly Mint Holiday Lets
This is a 600-year old home in the French countryside with very little TV reception and limited (sometimes non-existent) WiFi.
The kitchen and bathroom are basic but entirely serviceable. The kitchen has lots of equipment so you can create lovely meals and the plancha should bring a great deal of pleasure for those who love cooking.
A place to get away from it all and enjoy the rural life.
Please read the house manual online before your arrival and respect the rules below.
No more than two couples per booking, no parties. No oils, fats or any food stuffs down any sink or toilet, nothing other than human waste and minimal paper down toilet, no pets in the pool, re- spect for the local environment, all rubbish to be removed from the property and taken away at the end of stay.
This document is subject to change and an up-to-date version can always be found at www.lepetitcapelier.com/housemanual.
