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The bed is comfortable, the sheets white, the table pleasantly served and the cuisine honest. More than honest, loyal. But the cabinets!...
Well yes! let's talk about cabinets. The foreign tourist pays some attention to it. He asks where the toilets are.
They said to him: — At the end of the yard, to the left... — He goes there and finds a sinkhole.
His opinion of France is made up: it's a country of dirty people.
The next morning, the traveler wants to wash up. He is in front of an old sink: earthenware basin, small water jug, zinc jug. No running water. No hot water. He rings: He calls. A quarter of an hour later, they bring him a little lukewarm water in a jug.
His opinion on France is confirmed: it's a country where you don't wash.
The day before yesterday, I submitted these observations to the hoteliers of the Centre, meeting in congress at Blois. They answered me like Pandora to her brigadier: — You are right!.….— Only they added:
- But !.…
- But what?
— We don't all own luxury houses.
— How is a clean wardrobe, how is mains drainage, how are running water and hot water a luxury?
'We wonder as you do. But if one of us, whose house is classed as third category and pays the tax accordingly, took it into his head to have toilets fitted out, to have running water put in his rooms and to install a bathroom, we would, be sure, move into the next category and pay 3% tax where he pays 1% today. He would be forced to raise his prices accordingly. Then you understand...
— No, I don't understand! That the tax authorities consider a hotel to be a luxury establishment because it has mains drainage; that he considers a modest house as a palace, because the
customers can take their bath there when they get up; That running water is taxed as a snobs' fancy is beyond comprehension, in truth. And this is a singular way of encouraging the French hotel industry, that is to say one of the most important among these industries which make our reputation throughout the world: the industry: good hospitality. —
JOHN PIOT.
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