They also often take much of their food from home on holiday, a real bugbear for villages with a lot if Dutch holiday homes I understand. I thought it was possibly an urban myth but my ex dil confirmed her dad does exactly that and used to take almost everything but now only takes stuff he is worried he won’t find! The joy of holidays for me is discovering new food!!!
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Jeremy Clarkson did a series years ago about different nations in Europe and their different habits; he said the same thing about the Dutch.
I asked a friend of ours whose mother was Dutch about this and didn’t get past ‘Is it true about the Dutch’ before he said, yes it is - they’re mean and they take their own food on holiday. It’s a shame that a lot of them don’t seem to add anything to the local economy.
@Porridge @toryroo @Jennifer11
…I think, though not totally sure that back in the day, the Dutch were famous for filling up their car and caravan with 3 weeks supply of potatoes and Heineken and whatever else and then going to the camping down the Rue du Soleil and then chillin out and not moving. I think things have changed a bit andall I see now are in the main, really posh cars, no caravan and I have no idea where they stay (where I am at least).
I think things have changed and now the Dutch are up there with the rich Europeans but it’s difficult to shake off these unfair stereotypes I would say.
My personal bug bear relates to motorcyclists who go out in big groups, drive really badly, make a bit of noise and just do a loop to the range of a gas tank. They make no contribution to the local economy but destroy the environment….
Bagging all of the breakfast goodies is mean and a Dutch friend of mine who has a number of gites and mainly rents to Dutch is quite brutal about it - he simply severs a bit of bread, some a slice of cheese, some jam (no butter) and a single coffee….no more and he says there are no complaints.
I bet they don’t come back though. 
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I must admit when young and even poorer than now if I was in a hotel (not a BnB) I’d often sneak an extra roll or something for my lunch 
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Scots with all the generosity squeezed out.
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…..And that’s from a Scot
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who else would dare? 
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Hi Steve,
Just curious; can you give me an idea of the difference between the asking price and your offer? Perhaps even a percentage?
Thanks.
I’ve used a couple of hotels in Dusseldorf where they encouraged the guests to pack a lunch bag from the breakfast buffet.
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Clever, a couple of Euros pp and you’d have repeat clients!
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Hello, and well done on your decision to purchase in France. May I suggest that if you are not good at french and in particular if you don’t know what to look our for in a french contract, that you need more than an interpreter but someone who can advise you on what you are buying . It may be that compromis is simple, but if there are any “doubts” you can protect yourself with what are called clauses suspensifs,. An english speaking Notaire would be a good person to have on your side, and in France although it is not usual to have two notaires, you can have your own notaire to look after your direct interests. I hope that doesn’t complicate things for you. It really depends WHAT you are buying and WHERE. Good luck anyway.
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It makes sense actually, as they would probably only throw away the leftovers.
When my father was on a posting in Germany, on visits to UK we used to stay at a guest house in Dover before the ferry to Ostende.
As soon as the toast arrived, triangles in a rack as was, in the 50’s, my mother would scoop the lot into a tea towel set to receive it on her lap. The next time a server passed our table she would ask for more toast. There was always a double-take but more toast did arrive.
Then, when the ‘full English’ was served my dad and I were ordered to hand over our bacon. This went into the stash with the toast. Later, packing up our room, my mum made bacon sandwiches.
My dad had had a 12V outlet fitted under the front pax glove box. A kettle with a hole in the lid for a mini immersion heater would be set to boil on the floor between my mum’s feet.
Tea and bacon sandwiches somewhere in Belgium …
On a battlefield tour, staying at the Hol Inn at Arras, our party of 16 came down for the buffet breakfast to find that the entire 25-30 riders of a charity bike ride - London>Paris - had got there first.
Slim pickins’ …
I can understand that. Everyone has their own ideas of what they want/need in a kitchen. For example I very rarely used my 60cm built-in oven, as left by the sellers of my house. An extravagant use of electric, a whole oven to do a pizza for one.
I removed it, adjusted the shelves in the tall cabinet I had installed - this involved a bit of adaptation to the original - to take an air fryer and microwave. The buyers of my house, should such an event occur 
can re-adapt this cabinet to take a 60cm oven again, if they want that.
I also had to choose between a dish-washer or a dryer. No room for both. I reckoned I could do the washing up myself but for months over autumn/winter I’d need a dryer.
I seem to remember a mention in the paperwork when I bought my house asking the vendors directly "Do you know of any disturbance/issues regarding neighbours?"
The answer was “Yes” but they didn’t specify what. I failed to ask.
It turned out that the ‘disturbance’ was a son of my immediate neighbour playing drums in an outbuilding backing onto the wall between our properties. It’s possible that the back wall of this outbuilding is the party wall - concrete blocks.
As a [lapsed] jazz drummer myself I had a modicum of tolerance for this. It was usually 15-20 mins at the lunch break and same again in the evenings. But the duration and frequency increased as he became more profficient.
I spoke to his mother about this 3-4 years ago. She said they intended to add sound insulation to the room. This hasn’t happened. I pointed out that the problem would be solved completely if they bought the boy a set of digital drums. She said they couldn’t afford them.
A neighbour has taken it upon himself to take up this issue. He maintains, correctly, that ‘the whole valley’ can hear this drumming. He’s spoken to someone in the Mairie who is a mediator in disputes of this sort and a meeting will take place when another couple of neighbours are back from holiday.
The drummer has gone to college in Paris. Peace reigns. I told my new friend that I will make the point to the mediator and the family that I am not prepared to tolerate a return to the situation that existed before the boy went to college.
We’ll see!
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Try being a photographer at a wedding where the couple have hired a band…
Any buffet will vanish before you even get to look at it (and before they have done a stroke of work of course).
Try being a photographer at a rock venue. Being up in front of the stage one is/was constantly bombarded by a hail of beer cans. The cans still containing beer were particularly unpleasant.
I suspect they don’t allow containers now, only plastic glasses.
That sounds like the Blues Brothers when they were in the cage at the country music club, captainendeavour.
don’t reduce it too much because as a second home owner (unless the law has changed) you will be paying tax on the profit if you sell it. Also I’ve across several cases where people have been asked to pay say 10,000€ under the table by sellers, which makes the property look cheaper than it is and causes problems later.