Sometimes (quite often) we get some lovely letters from people and with Ralphes permission I've reproduced his here. It's especially important because he and his family came a long way and I'm acutely aware that sending large amounts of money to some bandit with a website is everyone's nightmare - Ralphe is happy for people to contact him for an unbiased opinion.

Hello Geoff & Kate:

This is a little late in writing but here's a note that you can use as a testimonial or clip quotes from and add to your former guests' lists of very positive comments. We're late in writing since we moved our household upon our return to Canada, then add in some settling time and Christmas...... excuses, excuses. Never the less, here's a very positive note for you:

"In 2006 we were stressed out by our very busy work lives and all that goes into raising 3 active children (ages 10, 7, and 5). Our goals were to find a holiday where (a) we could spend a lot of quality time together, (b) get a good taste of the "real" France to expand our collective cultural awareness, (c) have an active vacation that all 5 of us could do together, and (d) just get away from it all. We searched the web and came acros your site.

Your advice and patience with our initial emails was wonderful. In the end there were no surprises. Response time to our queries was extremely quick and you were well versed to the travel requirements of a family. Thanks ever so much.

It is quite daunting (and a little scary) selecting a website and then sending money to someone we had never met nor had anyone recommended you to us. My wife and I can say that we never regretted anything, and that the trip was simply fantastic. It matched and exceeded all 4 of the above stated goals.

We did 2 weeks with you. One week by camping mostly for the children and one week in the hotels for us older folks. The recommended itnenrary was bang on. Binic was loved by all (even if it was a little hilly en route). The two chateaux capitvated our imagination. The food (Madame Tutour made a meal for us that was simply our best ever and one for the ages), wine, and apple cider were extremely memorable. We now regularly eat crepes and croissants here at home.

The map (when read carefully) and instructions were clear and got us where we needed to be. The secenery was spectacular. We have, in fact, no concerns or complaints at all about our trip. We really appreciated your help and friendly service.

The true acid test in all of this is, as we sit here a few months later, the fact that our kids talk about the trip enthusiastically and remember details of the bike trip vividly. They want to retrun and do more cycling. Great stuff when one considers that we travelled over 300 km with such a young troop!

We have mentioned your establishment to several others and hope that they will come and that we'll return. Thanks for our best vacation ever.

cheers

Ralph Troschke

mail to Ralphe Troschke