As we’ve traveled from our little apartment in Saint Clar for a few days at a time, we’ve stayed in country inns that are for sale (B&Bs, chambres d’hotes) and paid attention to how they operate.

Guy Vandenbroucke, the Belgian from Flemland, hosted us in his beautiful stone farmhouse in Le Caylar for a couple of weeks.

He shared his business knowhow and experiences with us—from the repeated lawsuits filed against him by former employees, to passing off mass-produced food as homemade gourmet. He showed us what he declares for tax purposes, and what he doesn’t declare. From the Facebook photos posted by him and his wife Martine, I could see the changes over ten years they’d made to their little home-inn, and how their lifestyle was reflected in their faces and bodies.

Guy and Martine bought a hotel in the Pyrenees that came with a pizza restaurant. After their pizza cook walked off the job for no apparent reason, leaving pizzas in the oven and a restaurant full of guests, Martine and Guy learned to make pizza. The first pizzas they made were odd-shaped and uneven, and they learned how to apologize to people.

Guy turned the pizza joint into a fine restaurant and had the good luck to hire a chef who caught the attention of the Michelin Guide and won a spoon emblem or something in their book.   The town council asked Guy to stand for election serve as a member for a few years, something that everyone and anyone can do in France.

Anyway, I’ll spare you the rest of the story…if you are particularly interested in drunken derelicts, then read on:

The hotel experience, on the other hand, resulted in difficulties with individuals filling the low-paying jobs that most hospitality businesses offer. Guy was sued after dismissing one employee for drunken dereliction, and won in court, then got sued again by the same fellow and won again. But I heard very similar stories from other innkeepers and restaurateurs, saying the primary employment dispute-adjudicating bodies are populated “by communists,” and a former employee usually wins the first round on a dogmatic basis.

Guy wanted to get away from future disputes and decided to forego ever hiring anybody again…so he and Martine sold the whole affair and bought and refurbished the B&B in Le Caylar. But his personnel issues weren’t over. Guy’s former chef sued Guy one year after the new owners closed the restaurant. (It looks like the new guys didn’t know how to make an already successful business into a still successful business.)

He’s prevailed but oh, the travails.