Thanks Jane. At the moment my partner is doing the local market and he should be going tomorrow. We tend to head forthe food stalls (particularly fish as there is a very good one there) but I’m sure I could get him to divert 
Right, thanks everyone for the advice.
I’ve bought the tout fait (Lidl, quite nice looking, how do you stop people putting it in the oven?)
I’ve got the Ikea face cloths
Molotov is loaded on the TV
Curtains made - not strictly blackout, but pretty good especially as we have shutters as well. And as the nights are drawing in and we have no lights around, I think they will be fine
Looking for individual sachets of chicorée if poss, a jar is just a waste.
Forgotten the salad spinner. I’ll get it tomorrow.
Everything translated using DEEPL (thanks for the help on another thread)
Checked what they want in their welcome pack - red wine, no milk, unsalted butter, etc etc.
So I think we’re pretty much there. Thanks again everyone.
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Lucky guests…hope they appreciate the effort!
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sounds fantastic 
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My French guests are leaving tomorrow (having told me I provided “too much” - I think that’s good but it’s almost a reproach).
I get the feeling they expect something formal in the way of checking that all is well before they leave. I’d welcome thoughts / suggestions. Thanks
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Start by counting the teaspoons and see how long they stay for!
The French often expect you to inspect the house before saying goodbye and wishing them a safe journey home.
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When we had a gite, I always had a good look round, and checked that the aircon and TV remotes were still there before the guests left. A check is expected. Unfortunately, I never checked that the wall-mounted bath tap had not been leaned heavily upon - who would? Those particular guests, who had almost wrenched it out of the wall, didn’t fess up. We just fixed it. On another occasion I didn’t notice that an upstairs window was actually broken!
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It’s a thing with Belgian and Dutch guests as well. They seem to believe that you’re going to pull out a clip board and don a pair of white gloves ready to conduct a military inspection.
Our information sheet says leave the gite as you find and please report any accidental breakages so we can fix them for the next guests.
I usually just poke my head inside the door and can tell immediately if the place needs a proper look over.
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Thanks for the advice everyone. My T&C also say leave the gite as you found it and when I was asking them today to leave doors / windows open and clear out everything (COVID good practice) that was when they said aren’t you coming down to the cottage tomorrow? I tend to leave my guests in peace when they are packing to go - seems to me last thing they need is the owner hovering! But seemingly not. So, we’ll pop down and check the place over. (When they arrived they were surprised not to meet OH. “The boss”, I was told!!! So we won’t make that mistake when they leave)
I’m with @Fleur on this one - quite frankly if something serious has happened and they haven’t fessed up I’m not going to find it with just a quick look round. The last guests left the place spotless, so I was lulled into a false sense of security and didn’t in fact find the breakages until I was getting ready for this lot. 
My favourite guests are the ones who break a glass, tell me, apologise they can’t find like for like and then I find they’ve bought three.
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We checked out a large French party last weekend (16 guests) and told them we’d do a proper inspection when we cleaned the house, they were happy with that so gave me the keys and off they went.
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I do a quick walk round, but more for things left behind! The last family had left 5kg of fish food in a cupboard, the ones before had not emptied their food cupboard…
I find that the francophone & german guests want to be reassured that all is fine as far as one can tell with a quick check, and like to have an état des lieu de sortie. And I have a couple of rather nice wood turned small “objets”, which I cast an eye towards to check they are still there (the gîte was a wood turners workshop, so we have tried to keep it in character).
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And some French guests wouldn’t pay a deposit until they had inspected the accommodation on their arrival, whereas the Brits demanded to pay, months in advance.
The guy in question replied to my email asking for the usual deposit, saying “Je suis étonné par votre démarche”. An excellent phrase which I took to heart, and I guess could come in handy one of these days. Needless to say I didn’t insist on the deposit. He came, and stayed, with his family, but one day they had a problem with the aircon dripping down the wall. He called us up and then stood and watched closely all the time my OH sorted it out. He was a bit of a pain, I would say.
We’ve been managing rental properties here for 14 years and have found the French to be the most contrary and demanding guests, they want to arrive early and leave late, expect to bring a dog (or dogs) even when the property is advertised as not accepting pets and think nothing of inviting family and friends to stay which bumps up the laundry costs etc to the owner. At the same time should something go wrong they will insist on it being dealt with immediately which in August is often nigh on impossible yet being French you’d have thought they’d be more understanding but oh no, they’ve paid their money and they want it fixed!
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Made me smile Tim, I expect Vero would disagree. 
I thought it was just us! And yes, could they arrive early because she’d got the day off? And could I rearrange how the beds were? She made me very anxious before they arrived, but in fact they came bearing presents and have been (on the whole) fine.
But, this and last summer have been a real eye-opener for me. Our relationship with our mainland Europe guests has been very different to those from the UK. Partly, I suspect, stuff gets lost in translation, but also they seem to have a much more functional attitude towards being in a gite - after all, it’s nothing that special.
Our UK guests have tended to be more grateful and appreciative of what we have created here and the whole experience for them seems to be a bit more “out of the ordinary” - but then we only are catering for couples or families of four (16! good heavens, I panic with only 2. How do you manage?)
We’re used to big groups as the properties have either 5 or 6 bedrooms, you just have to be firm but polite at all times and smile a lot.
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I would actually say the opposite! We have only ever had 2 sets of British guests, so not much of a sample size, but they were a pain and did more damage than most of the rest.
The French and other European guests have been fine with the exception of Parisian families who were a bit up themselves, and did do the classic things like arrive with unannounced dogs and extra people.
Yes they are perhaps slightly more direct, but that’s no bad thing, But we have found them to be appreciative, and often Interested in the renovation. And often come bearing gifts which the British certainly didn’t.
To be fair as an ‘on site’ owner you would expect to get a different reaction from guests than we often receive as managers.
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What happens if unanounced/unwanted animals and/or people arrive…
Do they get turned away ?
Bark at them