Tourists who received stale croissants at their hotel in France have successfully sued over it.
Only croissants that are made with 100% butter are supposed to be straight, while crescent-shaped croissants (“ordinaire”) can be made with a mixture of fats. By French law, butter must have at least 82% butterfat.
There’s generally no reason to bother with croissants in most of the United States. I certainly don’t want to pick them up at the grocery store. As time passes since my last visit to France my standards might relax a little bit. And then I’ll visit again and I’ll become far pickier about pastries (as well as cheeses and chocolate).
So while I’m generally not sympathetic to most tort claims, I completely side with the lawyer and his wife who sued Club Med in Provence for providing them with a smelly room and stale croissants.
My only hesitation in making a full-throated endorsement of the decision is that they had expectations of Club Med, whose primary redeeming quality is their late-1970s and 1980s jingle that I can still hear from television: “a Club Med vacation… the antidote for civilization.”
A couple who claimed their luxury holiday at a French hotel was made miserable by a smelly room and stale breakfast croissants have been awarded nearly £4,000 [US$4,944]. …[They] sued the travel company Club Med over claims that “uneatable” food and a mouldy bedroom ruined a week-long family break in Provence.
…The couple told a judge at Central London county court that the family had been looking forward to a “gourmet” experience in a four-star setting. …But they told Judge Justin Althaus that after an “awful” dinner on the first night and “stale breakfast pastries” the next morning, the family left the resort each day for the rest of their stay and refused to eat another evening meal on site.
…Earlier, the lawyer had told the court that Club Med had assured the family that the hotel’s restaurants would provide a “gourmet” experience. Instead, he said, “everything about the food was poor”. …[The judge] ruled that charging the family for hotel parking was “inconsistent with the representation that they would enjoy an all-inclusive experience”
If a hotel in France advertises a gourmet experience, and they cannot deliver passable croissants, that is fraud and they should be held liable.
Well done. I can’t believe Club Med is still a thing. Pretty sure it’s owned by the Chinese these days, so even better.
The one great thing about France is the regulations on food and wine are so strict that 99 percent of the time it is impossible to get bad cheese, bad wine, etc. It’s nearly impossible to make a bad food or wine product if you follow the regulations. The exceptions come when the grapes are bad or the croissants go stale.
There are many hotels I would like to sue for the absolute crap they serve
Some of the management & service staff would be right there too in the lawsuit
Gary, look, your second picture has not been taken in France … There is a « Butter croissants » label ( in English!) by a tray of Croissants ordinaires !
Looking forward to your post on torte reform.
Who the hell would stay at club med?
Of course it was an ambulance chaser (aka attorney) that sued. God I hate civil lawsuits. Hopefully we get rid of this. People need to deal with what happens instead of looking for a handout. So sad
@AC
Sounds like you lost a case, hired a bad attorney, are a fool, or all the above. By the way, the post was about an incident in France, so good luck changing their laws (or ours, if you were thinking of the US, which is one of the most litigious societies on earth). As far as handouts are concerned, read the room. This points and miles hobby is all about handouts and gaming these silly programs. If you’re against good service, freebies, upgrades, etc., then why are you even here. Oh yeah, a fool. Got it.
A Club Med spokesperson said: “We recognise the recent court ruling in the case concerning a guest complaint about one of our resorts. While we always strive to provide the best possible experience for our guests, we do accept that on this occasion, there were issues that affected the guests’ enjoyment of their stay. That is why we offered a 20% reduction to them.
“It is worth noting that while the judge did identify some areas with issues, the awarded damages were substantially lower than the initial claim (150% of the package value), and much more in line with the initial offer Club Med made of 20% compensation. We remain committed to delivering high-quality holiday experiences and continuously strive to improve our resort standards.”
(From The Guardian – UK family awarded thousands over stale croissants and ‘mouldy’ hotel in France)
That Club Med insists that the 20% reduction offered was in line with the award of £3,945 on a total of £6,670 spent for the package tells me all I need to know. I assume that the hotel personnel are bad liars but I suppose they could be bad at math and always try to maximize their retained profits.