“An interesting experience”

The hotel was an hour’s drive from Bordeaux airport, in the perfect location (and with parking) for a stopover at the start of my 4-day trip touring the area towards my final destination, Aurillac. Mein host phoned me before I landed, wanting to know when I would arrive and if I wanted dinner. I rang back when I got to my car and arrived within an hour. I checked in but wasn’t allowed up to my room or take a drink at the bar. I was told to leave my case in the lobby and ushered to the restaurant. Rather a brusque and bizarre welcome. I sat in the exterior section of the very large and unnervingly silent restaurant, shared only by myself and an elderly couple. I had an excellent meal and began to relax. That was until it was time to go to my room. The nice lady who served my meal asked me to pay the bill for the hotel & restaurant (in case I disappeared in the morning I guess) then took me into a tiny lobby to the bottom of a dour, dark, very narrow brown carpeted winding staircase. I struggled up three turns to the dimly lit landing, firstly heading in the wrong direction in the dark, eventually finding my room up a few more stairs halfway along a narrow dreary corridor. I was clearly the only guest & it was all rather creepy so, once in the room, my first task was to find the fire escape, returning from which I was startled by mein hostess wanting to know why I was wandering about. Apart from one of the bed lights not working and, as I often find is the case in moderate quality hotels, the shower holder broken, the room had everything one could wish for. The hot water took an absolute age to reach the tap in the morning but I eventually managed to take a hand held shower. I thought the meal with wine, good though it was, was rather expensive at 40€ and 87.55€ for the hotel was way too much given the location and quality of the accommodation. It had everything I would expect from an hotel of this standard but expensive and a rather bizarre experience.