Anyone watching The Great B and B Challenge?

[Bulbsbulbsbulbs]

I'm absolutely loving it so came looking for a thread. Some of them are SO irritating and the rookie mistakes are very funny. It's really made me want to move to the Dordogne though!

Yes and loving it - I so wish I’d known about it as I would have applied although DH would deffo be back of house lol

Thanks for this thread. Hadn't heard about it, but will definitely give it a watch.

I might have run a b&b in rural France in a previous life

ETA: If it induces as much shouting and "oh FFS" as watching Escape to the Chateau, I might have to watch it when OH is out.

Thank you for the heads up! Just started watching.

It's so good! One of the contestants in the first week irritated me SO much.

@Bulbsbulbsbulbs

Sounds right up my street then. I will return after watching Ep1!

I’m enjoying it immensely, but who tears a sheet to make a fitted into a flat sheet? I should stop watching it late at night. I now want poached eggs on toast.

Yes, loving it. The Dordogne looks so gorgeous.

There was a couple in the first week that were, shall we say, very effervescent. The older female judge seemed to particularly like them but I think they'd be too much for some guests and I know I'd find them exhausting after a day or two!

I've watched the first 2 episodes now. Oh dear. There was much shouting and "oh FFS" Chez Oily. Interesting choice to go out and buy one set of bedlinen at a time, and they are all going to go bankrupt pretty quickly doing those breakfasts.

Just as well that the contestants don't also have to do the gardening and the pool maintenance too. Will definitely be watching to see what happens...

I have a friend very much like the 'effervescent' lady and it is small doses only!

I think unless she learns to adapt her style to the guests she won't win. It really set my teeth on edge when she kept saying "give us a love" as the guests departed.

i Love this programme. I think the prize B&B will be be far too much for these amateurs to take on. The expenses of that number of bedrooms, plus the bar and the evening meal. They surely would need to employ staff to help them manage. If you add in that none of them speak French, I see t as a disaster.

My friend has a 4 room b and b. She can't bring herself to do dinner as she's going breakfast from 7.30am, it makes it such a long day.

Maybe doing dinner on just certain nights would be an option for the winner. I can't say I'd want to eat dinner in a b and b every night of my stay.

I have holiday cottages in my garden, so bed without the breakfast. The thought of having to cook them dinner and sit and eat it with them makes me feel quite faint!

It really set my teeth on edge when she kept saying "give us a love"
Yeh, it was compulsory hugs and she might pin you to the ground if you tried to escape her clutches! Very friendly and meant well but...
I see it as a disaster
I do wonder how serious some of them are about actually running a business in France, maybe they'll just sell it and pocket the cash. Also, what is the turnover of guests and profit for a place like that? I think the reality might be quite different for them and a bit isolating unless they improve their French. It's kind of embarrassing if you shop at the local boulangerie and can't learn the word for 'four' when ordering the croissants!

I can't believe the two guys who got through to the final but could not be bothered to cook an egg for one of the guests!! I don't like any of them. The couple who keep crying all the time are so annoying and think they have it in the bag. The judges are really annoying as well.
I don't want all that attention if I stay in a b&b.. Show me my room and leave me alone. Don't want people fawning all over me. So fake.

The couple that keep making the soda bread are the best of the bunch I think. The two men are filling space.

i know this isn’t the politics board but I’m watching it thinking how British of us to assume that the French would be absolutely fine for the tv company to decide who is moving to France.

I absolutely agree with this. My Brother and his wife are now returning to England after spending nearly 30 years in France. She has dementia and neither of them have enough French to cope with French hospitals.. Typical arrogant expats who have taken the best that France has to offer them.

The older NI couple are by far the best, the Barnsley couple are just cringeworthy, I think they are hoping for their own show!

However the only way someone from the UK can go and live and work in France is with an EU passport.
The NI couples could well have Irish and British passports.

I wonder if that’s why out of the 4 couples 2 are Irish/ northern Irish. Maybe it was a pre requisite for appearing on the programme.

Well if they are British/northern Ireland They won't have an Irish passport. The young couple are way too inexperienced with life.. The two who keep making soda bread are in the lead of course as the husband is a chef. I don't like them at all.
The young French judge does not have her own opinion. She tastes food and looks at the other judges for a reaction before she gives hers.
Why not throw in some French couples.

It's not rocket science to run a b&b. Most people could do it as it requires jobs that most folks do every day. Cooking, cleaning. Hosting visitors.
There is nothing special about any of them. The male judges are nice and have personalities.

Anyone born in NI is entitled to an Irish passport.

How is that?

@AyleenGood Friday Agreement. Northern Irish can claim Irish citizenship. Lucky buggers.

I’m wondering whether the prize is full ownership of the house or just a rental agreement. If it’s ownership, it must be one of the most valuable competition show prizes out there!

The two male judges seem to always wear matchy matchy outfits.