Hi

We are currently staying in France at a place we rented through one of the big UK cottage people

There are there are several issues with it all of which we have mentioned to the owner and none of which are easily fixable

The main one is the pool filtration plant went down after the first 3 days, the main reason we chose this place being the pool

There are some other niggles relating to being in the middle of French countryside like random drops in the water supply which I kind of accept but the major other bugbear is quite literally the flies

There are hundreds of them
Not just outside like eg Thailand but the whole house is infested with blue bottles
The place is best described as shabby chic and is down on its luck with poor windows etc which must be where they are getting in

The family have had enough and I’m at the point of insanity with them
Even keeping all the doors and windows shut not to mention being obsessive with food in the you can’t sit down for a second without flies crawling over your face

Is it worth the hassle of moaning to the agent when I get home and if so to what end?

I haven’t phoned from here as it’s 40p a minute and their website shows no availability for an alternative cottage

Cheers

Speak to the owner first at least something may be done.

Complain to that agent now. You need to give them a chance to do something. Its got to be worth a few quid, or phone then and tell them to call you back.

Fly paper for the flies. If the house is full of them, rather than the odd few, then something in the place has died and the resulting fly crowd will go away once they are all caught or let out.

Definitely complain to the owner and the rental company, forget the cost of the call – think of it as an investment in your quality of holiday and cost of getting some kind of refund. I’d also send an email to them so you have a written record. At as minimum you should be aiming for a partial refund for no pool. If you want to play hardball you could threaten to report the flies issue to the local town hall / tourist authority. I’ve had some variable experience in France, mostly hosts are very welcoming but occasionally you get the awkward squad who think foreigners are stupid, have too much money and will put up with anything

Is it on an Indian Burial Ground?

Did you buy the holiday on ebay from “CarbonAlan” ?

That’s the trouble with the ‘countryside’ this time of year…. Fly papers, fly spray and door strips to keep them out. Get some swats and have regular competitive culls to keep the numbers down. They are a fact of French rural life, not much the owner can do.

Have you reported the pool fault and asked them to come and fix it?

Fly paper for the flies. If the house is full of them, rather than the odd few, then something in the place has died and the resulting fly crowd will go away once they are all caught or let out.

This.

They won’t be ‘getting in’, they are ‘in’. You need to eradicate them

Big can of fly spray and open all the windows, plus take a look around to see if you can find what died.

Yes of course it’s worth complaining, get video evidence whilst you’re there and document your concerns. I would pay the charge and ring the agent now just to register your dissatisfaction. What a pain though, you spend all year looking fwd to your holiday and then it gets ruined. A working pool was part of the contract when you forked over some cash, if it’s not working for all or part of your holiday I would very definately be chasing a partial or full refund. Also worth checking your holiday insurance.

Is it worth the hassle of moaning to the agent when I get home and if so to what end?

I haven’t phoned from here as it’s 40p a minute and their website shows no availability for an alternative cottage

And if you are that bothered. Ring them. What’s 40ppm vs a spoiled holiday.

Did you pay on a Credit Card, if so and you don’t get a happy answer, then use the insurance (but you’ve only so many days).

Complaining to a Frenchman? Good luck with that

😉

Flies are part and parcel of hot places in summer unfortunately. As others have said, fly paper keeps them down but I’d spray the crap out of the rooms before you go out one morning then air it out when you come back. That at least ensures the ones inside are dead and you can control the newcomers a bit better.

For goodness sake…. Before we get all contractual, has the OP actually reported the fault and asked for it to be fixed or is he still whinging about paying 40ppm to save the family from ‘insanity’? Sometimes, you just need to crack on. Whining on a bike forum will not save the family…

<edit> binners, looks like he rented from Le Rosbif so the Gallic stereotype should be kept in reserve for now 🙂

In our part of France the problem this year is Taons(horse flies that persist in trying to bite you until dead), fancy a swap for your irritating but harmless flies? Next year book into Charente Maritime, you’ll love the mosquitos. 🙁

A pool usually adds a couple of hundred euros to a week of rent so if they don’t fix it within a reasonable time (a couple of days) I’d ask for that back.

Of course they haven’t Boblo, why would you do that before posting on social media site after days of putting up with it?

Just be glad you’ve not got frelons motoring around the place. 1.5-inch long wasps aren’t really the most entertaining house guests. You know an insect is bad news when they warn you on the roadsides to keep an eye out for them

Good work!

Have absolutely spoken to the owner who is predictably gallic

We’d reached the point where we wondered if this level of flyage was normal in France 🙂

Will now mtfu and call the agent back home

Cheers

Damn my dyslexia I read your OP that you hadn’t spoke to the owner. 😳

You should email them as well. A record for later (if needed).

We had rented a couple of places this summer.

What sort of information did you get from the owner beforehand and was there any kind of info at the let itself? Most owners will have a local agent who should have done a handover with you or is at least contactable to deal with a problem(s). If the owner is based in the UK then its fair enough that they might not fix the problem personally but the very least they should do is have someone local who can support. Under the circumstances you describe it seems you might be underselling the issues to the owner by ‘mentioning’ them and appearing to accept things are ‘not easily fixable’. Complain and give him or her a deadline to fix things. For example anyone with a pool in France will have a Piscene – literally the pool guy. Have the been sent round? Ask the owner how they intend to compensate you if nothing gets fixed. You didn’t agree the price based on clogged pool, intermittent water and fly infestation.

Contact the local agent first.

If nothing improves then document everything with supporting photos and video and again if the owner is UK based contact your local trading standards and take him to small claims for some compo. It won’t improve your holiday but might give you some satisfaction afterwards.

I sympathise with you. I know Mrs Nano would be threatening divorce if she thought I had booked a lemon for two weeks away.

Have absolutely spoken to the owner who is predictably gallic

One of the problems in August is that a lot of people run skeleton staff so pool repair people may all be enjoying their own pools rather than fixing yours. I called out an emergency plumber the other day and he told me he could fit me in in 10 days time (I found another one).

On the other hand if you asked him to do something about the flies… well…

Sounds like a great holiday! Just ring them FFS. How tight are you that you are worried about spending a few quid on your phone Vs a ruined holiday? Unbelievable.

Blue bottles are usually a sign of rotting meat somewhere. As above, try and locate the corpse. Spray every room then shut the doors when you go out. I suspect only one or two rooms will have live flies on your return. Should help you narrow down the location.

Call your mobile network and buy a roaming bundle. And charge the holiday company for the calls.

Or email the company.

Which agency, just out of interest?

If you’re worried about the cost of the call, if you have internet and a smartphone download Skype app or simililar, load on £10 credit and speak away to your hearts content for tupence a minute (you can call proper phone numbers).

@binners – top post once again !

Have you ever been to France before? Rule #1 – buy fly paper from the supermarche on the way to the house. Theres no point in going to France if you have to keep all the doors and windows shut.

The pool thing though you definitely need to complain about. I’d be frigging raving about that.

There are some other niggles relating to being in the middle of French countryside like random drops in the water supply which I kind of accept but the major other bugbear is quite literally the flies

Do they not have their own water tank which you can switch on when the supply drops, or rather is diverted for agricultural use.

Hot country in fly shocker, although unless your exaggerating then something is dead in the house.

Why can’t you continue to use the pool?

Why can’t you continue to use the pool

It’s got a dead horse in it, covered in flies….

must be an indoor pool then 🙂