“Why did you call it Le Petit Cochon? And why does the pig on your logo have wings?” When the visitor welcome team from the tourism office in Condom came to look around our Chambre d’hôtes near Condom, those were two of the first questions they asked. So, here’s what we told them…
To misquote T. S. Eliot:…”the naming of dreams is a difficult matter, it isn’t just one of your holiday games…” but you see, for us it was.
Long before we bought this beautiful house in Valence sur Baïse we spent many hours imagining what our Bed and Breakfast would look like. But we spent even more time talking about what our B&B would feel like. The minute you walked through the blue front door. What we wanted our guests to experience. And what atmosphere we wanted to create.
Many of those conversations took place in a hotel called ‘The Pig near Bath’. A firm favourite of ours and close enough to where we used to live in Bristol to pop in for coffee, treat ourselves to the occasional lunch and spend a few nights to celebrate a special occasion. And we came to realise that it was this particular Pig near Bath that inspired us. Effortless class, relaxation the minute you walked in through the doors, a style that made us feel at home, attentive staff for whom nothing was too much effort and delicious food at any time of the day. We dreamed of someday having a place that would echo all those things but on a much smaller scale. Not so much of a Pig, but more of a Piglet.
But we knew that ever owning a Bed and breakfast of our own was very unlikely. A lot of things were stacked against us. But then, as they say pigs might fly!
By chance, or maybe destiny, a small statue caught our eye in a coffee shop one day. A small statue of a little black pig. With wings outstretched. With an optimistically upturned nose. And a smile. We bought it and it reminded us of our idea to one day own a Bed and Breakfast and to make it a place where we could make people happy. And of course it also became the inspiration for our logo.
And then we did what so many people have done before us. We fell in love with France. Nowhere in particular at first. Just France, with its sunshine, slow living, good food, space, friendly people. That’s why holidays turned into house hunting trips and our search area narrowed to Gers in South West France. An area famous for many things, including black pigs.
The rest, as they say, is history. When it came to naming our Chambre d’hôtes and creating our logo there was only one thing it could be: The Little Pig. Das kleine Schweinchen. Le Petit Cochon.
