While we all love a holiday in the sun, two of the Transition Year students got to see what goes on behind the scenes to make it all happen.
| During the first week in October, Cian and I went to my cousin's hotel (or as the French call these types of hotels, 'des châteaux') situated near Carcassonne just off a small village named Capestang, which means castle in English. Traditionally, and in some cases today, des châteaux were made to produce wine, using the crop vines, and they also had a few rooms where people could stay in luxury. The château we worked in (Château Les Carrasses) is designed to produce wine and also has a main part of the château, which consists of some luxury bedrooms and a restaurant as well as small houses in which people could buy as well as rent for a couple of days. During our time in France we had a busy schedule, and with people not speaking English it made the job much harder and added an extra challenge to the task. Here was our schedule in brief: Monday and Tuesday: We have lunch and dinner with the staff everyday, lunch being at 11:30 and dinner being at 6:30. Today our shift started after lunch. Today was all about the work that goes on while gardening and refurbishing the older parts of the château. Our main tasks today were: cleaning pools, cleaning the clay tennis court, and gardening (plant watering, and sweeping, etc.) Wednesday: Today we experienced the work of a receptionist. Our main work included: paper work (organising receipts, bills and order of papers in correct dates) and setting up rooms for the guests. This was interesting as we found out how organised you have to be in order to be a receptionist ! Thursday: Thursday was our day off! For our day off my uncle (who reviews wines for magazines) took us out to see a château (specifically designed for producing wines). It was very interesting as it was the 'Vendage' (the late harvesting of grapes in France). We saw the grapes beind picked by a huge machine and emptied into a truck and brought to the château where it was produced. |
Friday and Saturday:
These two days we worked in the restaurant. On Friday I was waiting tables, it was a quiet night, with the restaurant about a quarter full. The main jobs involved in serving at tables are : serving food, and remembering the names of them!, getting drinks and taking orders. Cian was working in the kitchen that night. The main jobs involved in this were talking fast and knowing the technique the cook used, chopping and presenting the food, and cleaning plates. The next day we switched jobs and that night was nearly full, it was hectic! It was very tiring, our shift did not finish until very late. For me it was incredibly interesting to see how a restaurant is run and how fast and how good the chefs are at their job.
It was an incredible experience to see the amount of work that goes into the running of a hotel, and the funny thing is when you are there you do not even realise that all this is happening! I may even have learned some more French !
Text: L O'H
These two days we worked in the restaurant. On Friday I was waiting tables, it was a quiet night, with the restaurant about a quarter full. The main jobs involved in serving at tables are : serving food, and remembering the names of them!, getting drinks and taking orders. Cian was working in the kitchen that night. The main jobs involved in this were talking fast and knowing the technique the cook used, chopping and presenting the food, and cleaning plates. The next day we switched jobs and that night was nearly full, it was hectic! It was very tiring, our shift did not finish until very late. For me it was incredibly interesting to see how a restaurant is run and how fast and how good the chefs are at their job.
It was an incredible experience to see the amount of work that goes into the running of a hotel, and the funny thing is when you are there you do not even realise that all this is happening! I may even have learned some more French !
Text: L O'H