Americans visiting the Loire Valley.

We had a lovely couple from California last week at 'Les Balcons' here is their guestbook comment:

12/05/17

Jim & Pauline,Le Balcons is a charming tastefully decorated home. The gardens are lovely...thank you for the flowers and provisions, greatly appreciated. You have done a commendable job of restoring this property. Thanks for the market tips and advice. We visited several chateaux : Chambord & Villandry plus small gardens an dejeuner at Chateau du Rivau. We love la France!  Au revoir...      

The  Priestas family,

Monterey,California

USA

Returning to the Loire Valley and France...

We have started taking bookings for our vacation rental houses here in Southern Touraine and are delighted to report that we have returning guests in each of the houses, This is particularly pleasing as it confirms to us that the service we are offering must be along the right lines plus the area has so much to offer you just have to return. At 'Le Bourg' (which we manage) we have our 4 lovely american friends actually returning for their fourth time, having fallen in love with Barrou and the 'village' experience.

The houses:

'Old Walnut Mill'

The 'Old Walnut Mill' is a delightful 19th century 2 bedroom cottage in the village of Barrou in Indre-et-Loire, Centre-Val de Loire France. The village sits on the banks of the river Creuse surrounded by rolling countryside. It has welcomed guests from around the world who have enjoyed the ‘French village experience’. In 2016 we had the pleasure of receiving gifted painters who enjoyed the many opportunities to capture images of this very pretty part of France. The house is within walking distance of the village amenities, the restaurant, boulangerie, butcher and convenience store.

 Cottage website

'Les Balcons' 

Quality two storey 3 bedroom  Loire Valley house for rent in the popular village of Le Grand Pressigny in the department of Indre et Loire, France. The village’s location makes it an ideal base to explore the Loire Valley, its chateaux and other delights as well many of the attractions of the neighbouring department of Vienne such as Futuroscope. The village itself has a restaurant, two bars, boulangerie (baker) boucherie (butcher) and épicier (grocer) pharmacy and newsagent all within walking distance of the house.

House website

'Le Bourg'

Lovely riverside barn conversion with separate 'petite maison'. The house is in the village of Barrou, in the department of Indre et Loire, France and as the name suggests 'Le Bourg' is located in the centre of the village. Its situation means you have the benefits of experiencing a small French village but you are also ideally placed to visit all the major attractions of the Loire valley plus some of the highlights of the neighbouring department of 'Vienne'

Riverside house website

Bringing tourists to Touraine...

We like the fact that we do our little bit as far as bringing  tourists to Touraine...currently we are delighted to have, Australians in La Belle Vue

an American in the Old Walnut Mill,

a Swiss couple and an English friend in Les Balcons 

                             

plus two English couples in Le Bourg

Hi Ho, Hi Ho,it's off to work we go.

February has arrived and the runaway train is fast approaching the station.  After 3 months of down time we are having to think about the impending season.  It is very hard when it is cold and raining to motivate ourselves to leave the fire.

However, today the sun is shining and we have nearly finished some internal tidying up/work at Le Bourg in preparation for this year's guests. Miki, the owner has invested in a woodburner, for which Jim has had to build a raised plinth in the fireplace.


There is a small list of jobs to be done over at Les Balcons  in Le Grand Pressigny  to look forward to as well.

In addition to paying guests this year we are finding ourselves playing host to some family members and hopefully some of our friends, who despite the travel nightmare, are proposing to come visit us.

The booking calendar is looking fairly healthy so far with some previous guests returning and some new ones from as far afield as Australia and America.  We always enjoy meeting new people and have had many an entertaining evening swapping anecdotes over a meal or a glass or two of wine.