Buying, building and maintaining pools and swimming ponds in France.
I occasionally managed to rescue on or two mice before they drowned and felt a little better about that part. The highlight for me was when one set of visitors were complaining the pool was not warm enough for their little dears. Each day when I turned up to clean it they nagged me to increase the temperature. This was a fully enclosed pool that wasn't always exposed to wind, etc. I kept cranking up the temperature and the next day the pool was bright green! 82 degrees not only pleased the guests but absolutely delighted the algae. I had to shut it down, kill off the algae overnight, and vacuum the brown slime the following day. Then they moaned about the chlorine smell.Bayleaf wrote: ↑Wed Jan 18, 2023 8:17 amWe got wise after a while, and said "we're gardeners, not pool guys - find someone else to do the pool"! Utter headache, and one particular set of clients couldn't even agree with each other on the general maintenance, and both clashed with their "professional" pool guy (a rip-off merchant if ever I saw one!) - it was always someone else's fault! Non merci! After hoiking out dead mice from their filter several times, I thought "I'm better than this!"Hotrodder wrote: ↑Tue Jan 17, 2023 7:57 pm I haven't had a pool myself but when I first arrived in France I was in charge of looking after a pool for clients. Judging by the effort it took, and the issues mentioned above re: taxation, electricity costs, maintenance chemicals and breakdowns, etc. I wouldn't even consider having one myself. If I had money to burn I would jump at the chance of a simple hot tub which would be cheaper in every respect.
Mental note made. Never think running a gite is a good idea. Mucking out after holiday makers is no picnic either.
On the positive side, you have a pool that you can jump into as many times a day as you want, no having to schlepp into the nearest town or to the nearest beach. One that you don't have to share with la grande publique, that has lower chlorine level requirements precisely because of that. One that, dare I say it, doesn't require the use of swimwear if you prefer to swim without. One that is kept at a temperature to suit your own preferences....
