Hôtel Restaurant du Lac — Restaurant in La Châtre

I was visiting my sister and her boyfriend both artists who live in Creuse for the summer months. Both myself and my sister are Irish and her boyfriend is Dutch. I do not speak French but they are both learning and keen to improve.||When we arrived we were greeted by an older woman if we had booked ( it was just after noon). We had not and were promptly informed that we could not have a table. I enquired about a table inside ( they were all empty ) she repeated no without a booking. We were turning to leave when a gentleman asked if we were willing to have a drink and wait downstairs he would come and get us in about 20 minutes. We agreed although still confused about the original greeting. The gentleman did as promised and returned to tell us our table was ready but not to rush our drinks but come up when finished. We went back shortly afterward.||Unfortunately this was the last we saw of the gentleman and our day got progressively worse. ||We were initially delighted that the older woman pointed us in the direction of a table on the terrace unfortunately that is where we met our waitress “Fanny” . From the start she was rude. Standing over us waiting I asked her to please give us a moment. When she left ( not asking us what we would like to drink) my sisters boyfriend poured the table water in to the wine glasses instead of the water glasses, We had decided not to have wine anyway ( opting for beer and tonic). We were however not prepared for the “annoyance of Fanny” at this breach of French table etiquette. Ordering the food was a dreadful ordeal and as we had chosen a main course and cheese to follow but Fanny insisted that we had to inform her how many portions we would be ordering as this had to be prepared in advance ( 3 pieces of cheese on 2 plates ( no way Fanny was going to provide a third plate!) with a smattering of garnish ). Fanny then asked if we were having wine and when we replied no she could not help but reply that she would not be taking the wine glasses away as they had water in them. One of the tables next to us with a French couple had clearly decided to also use their wine glasses for their water ( I wondered if Fanny had spotted this and given them a suitable scolding..). ||While Fanny was at another table we distinctly heard the word ‘anglais’ so whether this was the basis of Fanny’s rudeness I cannot say for sure but I personally believed this to be the case even though of course none of our table were English. If any british tourists or expatriates are reading this please know that whatever the outcome of Brexit there are many e u citizens like ourselves that will continue to look forward your visits whether Britain stays or remains.||The service here was ridiculously bad and the food was mediocre at best. We managed to make the most of it but the lunch was supposed to be a special day and this spoiled it for me. On asking for the bill true to form Fanny told me to go to the till and pay. I left a tip at the bar downstairs but obviously left nothing upstairs.||Beautiful spot by the Lake but I would recommend a drink downstairs and lunch further down the street. ||My unfortunate encounter with this establishment took place on 15th September 2019 and I paid for it standing up at the till as per Fanny’s instructions at...

I was visiting my sister and her boyfriend both artists who live in Creuse for the summer months. Both myself and my sister are Irish and her boyfriend is Dutch. I do not speak French but they are both learning and keen to improve.||When we arrived we were greeted by an older woman if we had booked ( it was just after noon). We had not and were promptly informed that we could not have a table. I enquired about a table inside ( they were all empty ) she repeated no without a booking. We were turning to leave when a gentleman asked if we were willing to have a drink and wait downstairs he would come and get us in about 20 minutes. We agreed although still confused about the original greeting. The gentleman did as promised and returned to tell us our table was ready but not to rush our drinks but come up when finished. We went back shortly afterward.||Unfortunately this was the last we saw of the gentleman and our day got progressively worse. ||We were initially delighted that the older woman pointed us in the direction of a table on the terrace unfortunately that is where we met our waitress “Fanny” . From the start she was rude. Standing over us waiting I asked her to please give us a moment. When she left ( not asking us what we would like to drink) my sisters boyfriend poured the table water in to the wine glasses instead of the water glasses, We had decided not to have wine anyway ( opting for beer and tonic). We were however not prepared for the “annoyance of Fanny” at this breach of French table etiquette. Ordering the food was a dreadful ordeal and as we had chosen a main course and cheese to follow but Fanny insisted that we had to inform her how many portions we would be ordering as this had to be prepared in advance ( 3 pieces of cheese on 2 plates ( no way Fanny was going to provide a third plate!) with a smattering of garnish ). Fanny then asked if we were having wine and when we replied no she could not help but reply that she would not be taking the wine glasses away as they had water in them. One of the tables next to us with a French couple had clearly decided to also use their wine glasses for their water ( I wondered if Fanny had spotted this and given them a suitable scolding..). ||While Fanny was at another table we distinctly heard the word ‘anglais’ so whether this was the basis of Fanny’s rudeness I cannot say for sure but I personally believed this to be the case even though of course none of our table were English. If any british tourists or expatriates are reading this please know that whatever the outcome of Brexit there are many e u citizens like ourselves that will continue to look forward your visits whether Britain stays or remains.||The service here was ridiculously bad and the food was mediocre at best. We managed to make the most of it but the lunch was supposed to be a special day and this spoiled it for me. On asking for the bill true to form Fanny told me to go to the till and pay. I left a tip at the bar downstairs but obviously left nothing upstairs.||Beautiful spot by the Lake but I would recommend a drink downstairs and lunch further down the street. ||My unfortunate encounter with this establishment took place on 15th September 2019 and I paid for it standing up at the till as per Fanny’s instructions at...

If you are a walker, beware. The owners of this hotel, he is Dutch and she is French, are used to a certain kind of clientele, and that definitely doesn't include walkers. I will not bore you with the details of what happened to me and my husband, all I will say is that they were rude and full of simple assumptions (if we are walkers, we are poor, loud and, since me and my husband of ten years are of different nationalities, we were bound to met each other yesterday and are horny as hell). And because of the above assumptions, they put us in a room 'way at the back', as the male proprietor of the hotel put it, so that 'we wouldn't disturb other guests early in the morning'. Oh, mind you, there was no double bed in the 'way back room' either, it was a twin room (probably just in case we wouldn't get too randy) and, he forgot to mention, that while all the other rooms have a view of the lake, ours didn't, even though we paid the same price! So, for 60 euros we got a room with no lake view, no phone reception, no wi-fi, no double bed, badly fitted carpet and a pretty poor bathroom (presuming other bathrooms are a bit better than our one). By the way, we had to leave our boots downstairs, because they were too worried about their cheap precious and very badly fitted) carpet in the room.||When they did realise we had a few bucks in our wallets, after all, (we did order a full course lunch even though they kept saying to us we can order 'something small' for lunch), they tried very hard to sell us the afternoon boat trip in their super dooper boat that was parked outside on the lake. After the third time of saying ‘no’ I guess they got the message. The only bright spot of the place was the British girl serving us lunch and treating us as normal people/tourists!||Btw, when we left the hotel at six next morning, only ONE table in the dining room was set for breakfast, which basically meant that they had guests in two other rooms at the most, so there was absolutely no need to put us in the ‘way back room’ at all!||All in all, if you are a walker, don't bother to stay there. It is very tempting, especially after walking from Gargilesse through the humid forest for 29 K's, but unless you are ready for a rude welcome, you're probably better off staying somewhere...