May came quickly. I discovered that in France it was dotted with many holidays, conducive to long weekends and which here were called “bridges”. The hotel attendance rate was more than satisfactory. The season was officially launched.
It made my job all the more difficult. With teams now much busier, they were less receptive to my attempts at change. While some admitted wholeheartedly that my actions were already bearing fruit, others still didn’t give me any credit. And some confrontations were quite stormy, like the one I had with the Chef:
“This is out of the question!” he yelled at me. “On my life, we’ll never serve tapas, like a cheap neighbourhood bar! I’m the Chef of a gourmet restaurant! Not one of your Taco Bells that you love so much!”
I didn’t belittle myself to say that I ha
