To consume shop-bought food and drink in a hotel?

[Alcemeg]

Four nights at a nice French hotel where we feel a bit out of place (other guests a bit snooty). Dinner in the restaurant here is a very hushed and formal affair -- not inclined to repeat the experience. It's also very rich food, served slowly, so you go to bed feeling as though you've swallowed a tub of cement. It's hard to sleep after that little lot.

Our room has a little terrace overlooking the hills. Our preference is to grab our own food and drink from a supermarket when out exploring during the day and stash it in an ice box so we can do our own thing when we get back to our room. But is this a bad thing? Is it rude to the hosts?

YANBU = Go ahead, relax and enjoy your terrace views while scoffing a big fat sarnie washed down with local wine

YABU = Only eat and drink your own stuff secretly in your room with the curtains drawn, or in a layby on the way back from the shops

So you're not eating in your room or a terrace attached to your room but on the main hotel terrace that everyone uses.

I mean I don't see why that's a problem but that might explain their frosty looks.

The trouble is, it's not in our room. It's out on the terrace, with the hotel owners wandering past now and then, nodding slightly frostily.

It is your room terrace though so you can absolutely eat where you like.

I love a hotel picnic. In France it would be bliss indeed!

@Anonymous48 and @Classica yup it was really really awkward. Like I say we're not fancy people at all, much more likely to find us at Premier inn but we decided to see how the other half lived, so just thought we were really unrefined and crass and that it must be normal for rich folks to ignore the waiter in the corner. He had a little cloth over his arm and a bottle ready to top up our glasses every time we took a sip.

@toomuchlaundry

Seems sad to go to France and not eat out at some point. Why choose a hotel in the middle of nowhere?

I agree. Sounds like a gite would have suited OP more. Maybe they eat out at lunch though?

[quote Alcemeg]@TatianaBis
A lighter meal option would be great, but the hotel sacrifices its geese in October and the menu is 100% foie gras, confit d'oie, or something dripping in goose fat![/quote]
Hmm… I’d love to be at your place there…

Sitting on a balcony abroad, eating good food and drinking a nice drink is one of my favourite things in the world. Knock yourselves out!

Yes @MalteseBubs - it's our own terrace, and actually fairly private/out of sight. What I meant was, I could understand it being OK to eat in your room, which is totally private. But I wasn't sure if it was taking the piss to eat where we might be seen, albeit only occasionally if someone happens to come round this side of the house!

I daren't set foot in the restaurant again since our first night here when I bounced in eager to try my rusty French. My question about what we could eat was met with a thin smile and the response "Il faut vous prévenir, madame, que le mot « bouffer » est un mot familier. Si ça vous plait d’être familier, c’est bien, mais je vous conseille que normalement, on dit « manger »."

If we go on a beach holiday B&B or half board, we always have something from the supermarket for dinner.

😂

Why did you use ‘bouffer’ though? a. It’s very much slang, like ‘scoffing’ or the noun could be grub/nosh. And b. It means oral sex.

I stayed at the Balmoral in Edinburgh, which is pretty posh by my standards. No-one batted an eye when I waltzed through the lobby with a bottle of wine tucked under my arm and a big greasy bag of McDonald’s in my hand.

Do it, OP. You’re on your holidays!

The small Parisian hotel we stayed in lent us a corkscrew to open the supermarket wine we'd brought in.

@TatianaBis I was trying to show off a bit of what I hoped was friendly slang, but I was obviously very tone deaf. Plus I had no idea it meant oral sex! 🤐

Have done similar many times! An expensive and very formal dinner is not always what you feel like.

How do you know they're snobby guests?

I was once on holiday and found the restaurant far too pricey for what it was. Everyone was complaining. We just bought bread, cheese and beer and has picnics. Far happier. It's your holiday.

Incredibly french to pull you up on a linguistic error like that! And in that tone

Aaah France is the BEST country for a hotel picnic. Excellent decadent snack foods. Knock yourself out OP.

We're off on holiday in a couple of weeks and trying to stick to a budget while we're away so hoping we'll also have a couple of evenings of hotel picnics & supermarket wine!

@SwedishEdith

How do you know they're snobby guests?

They ignore you as much as possible e.g. when entering the breakfast room. I've stopped saying hello in the mornings because it seemed to cause fluster.

at use of Bouffer

Oh you will have ruffled many people there. No wonder people don’t engage!!

FWIW, I’ve never seen people saying hello entering a restaurant in a hotel. I know it’s a different category, but you wouldn’t do that in the U.K. either.

We found a nice little Italian restaurant when we were in Paris 😂 it was a much more relaxed evening.
Nothing wrong with a little picnic on your balcony though.

@Energy4You
What about breakfast though? Are you supposed to just ignore everyone? Like, say there's just six of you in the room, sitting close together. Ignore ignore ignore, pretend you can't see each other?

I'm beginning to feel like an absolute buffoon who should definitely stick to self-catering in future 😳

@Anonymous48

I can't believe this is even a question! Have you never stayed in a hotel before? What would make you think there's something not right about taking food and drink to consume in your room?

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