A star is born!
I have had one of the busiest weeks ever! As an innkeeper our weeks are a little different I consider my Monday and Tuesday or Tuesday and Wednesday as my weekend since we work on Saturday and Sunday.
There are many advantages to this. First of all there are never any lines at the stores or the theater and Tuesday is always half price at the cinema! Restaurants are never very busy and the Chef is usually in the kitchen on Tuesday's and Wednesday's and since we are so close to Montreal, the produce, fish and meat are always fresh.
So let me tell you about my crazy week as the Mad Innkeeper!
Last Wednesday I had a photo shoot at the Inn that started at 7h00 am and finished at 7h00 pm. We did food, the stables and horses, the maple sugar shack, the deer and last but not least me the Innkeeper. This was for a magazine called VITA which is the french version of MORE magazine. I was selected as one of the featured women. They usually have a local and an international women that they interview. I was the Local face of the month of April which means the magazine will be on the stands in March.
This first hand experience certainly made me realise what a tough job modeling is. I had a great Australian photographer named Angus McRitchie who made me feel sooo comfortable. He was so good he did not even spook the horses when he did his close ups. The only thing I refused him was his idea of getting me on one of them. Our horses are Percheron's and used for sleigh or carriage rides.
Thursday I was busy taking orders from grocery stores for our maple syrup. Since Maple syrup is produced in the spring time the inventories are low everywhere. The Federation of maple producers used to have an inventory of one years worth of syrup in a warehouse but last year everything was sold due a much smaller crop than usual. Now there are only a very few producers that have syrup for sale. We are one of them since we decided to keep last years crop of 1,600 gallons (4 liters). A can of maple syrup sells for 7$ now and at the grocery store in Quebec it sells for 9$ or more. I also tried and tested a maple syrup recipe that I posted on my blog.
Friday was errand day, running around, getting the spa water (we have an outdoor heated spa and even in -20 weather our Quebec clients love to go sit in it and watch the deer feed) tested and treated.
Saturday I was booked solid with potential wedding customers from 9h00 to 5h00 and booked 4 weddings.
Sunday we had a very busy brunch with a sleigh ride and more wedding customers. I ran out of the inn at 6h15 pm since I had a dinner planned at 7h00 in Montreal with my fellow innkeepers. I am president of Quebec Resorts and Country inns which makes me a very busy innkeeper in more ways than one!
I stayed at the Hilton Bonaventure Sunday and Monday night so I could attend the Hotel suppliers show as well as all kinds of other events. My fellow innkeepers and myself met for breakfast, had a marketing meeting Monday morning and visited the show in the afternoon. Monday evening we had the Quebec Hotel Association's yearly Gala where I had dinner with the Tourism minister and the president of the Canadian Hotel association as well the Provincial president who is a good friend of mine. Tuesday we had meetings all day. I decided to call it quits at 3h30 to avoid the Montreal Traffic and found myself searching for my car in the underground parking lot for over half an hour! After three days I could no longer remember where I had parked!!!
Wednesday I had organised a birthday party at the Inn for one of my dear Yaya's and then a meeting with my staff to prepare for one of the biggest weekends of the year for Innkeepers...Valentines day!
So have you noticed that we are now Friday 10 days later and I did not mention anything about the actual inn and Innkeeping??? After 27 years and all the paper work, I can go weeks without being present and greeting the guests. It is kind of sad when you think of it.
posted by Linda Gallant @ 9:01 AM
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