MonPetitCoeurBlog

Mervent Forest in the Autumn

Posted on by Dominic

We found this article about the forest of Mervent recently and it really struck a chord with us. The forest is a fantastic place to visit and the article.

The forest is a beautiful place to visit at any time of the year, a stroll amongst the trees in the summer can be a good way to exercise in a cool open space. The village of Mervent itself is also a great place to stop, it is perched high above the lake offering spectacular views of the surrounding countryside.

What we didn’t appreciate until reading this article is that the forest has 200 km of pathways offering plenty of scope to explore, either on foot or by bicycle.

Once you have wandered through the Forest a visit to the village of Mervent itself is worthwhile, there is a nice bar with outdoor seating where you can admire the view from on high whilst enjoying a glass of something refreshing. If you are feeling really adventurous why not take to the lake in a kayak or on a paddleboard?

Only 10?

Posted on by Dominic

France Today recently published an article entitled 10 reasons to visit the Vendee, maybe they were working to a deadline. It’s a great article to read but we can think of a lot more reasons to come visit the Vendee. Our Gite provides a great base from which to go and explore this beautiful department in France.

Explore the Mervent Forest

Posted on by Dominic

We found this article recently extolling the virtues of the Mervent Forest in the autumn. The forest is a beautiful place to visit and it is just 15 minutes drive from our Gite.

What we hadn’t appreciated is that it has 200km of tracks to follow, fantastic for those who enjoy a good walk or even for those who like to get out on their bikes.

Memories from la Plage

Posted on by Dominic

Last year two of our young guests, Noe and Ona, left us with a beautiful picture of a mermaid in appreciation of the great time they had staying with us.

This year one of our young guests called Amelie found a stone on the beach and made this little arrangement next to the entrance to the Gite.

We pride ourselves in saying that Happy Holidays Happen Here, these tributes from our young guests are a good sign that this is true.


Apart from being a lovely arrangement and very appropriate given our use of MonPetitCoeur as the name for our holiday home the heart motif also has significance given the name of our guest who assembled this lovely arrangement.

Our guest Amelie was named after the film of the same name starring Audrey Tautou so we think this scene is the perfect compliment and way to say thank you for the wonderful display created by our lovely guest Amelie!
Please note the YouTube video may not play in all territories.

parroted.lift.otters

Posted on by Dominic

No we haven’t lost the plot, if you use What Three Words these 3 will bring you to our door, easy.

If you haven’t heard of this App check them out at

https://what3words

They have divided the entire Globe in to a grid of 3 by 3 metres, every unique square can be located using just three words. In our case parroted.lift.otters will direct you to the parking in front of the Gite.

 

 

Save with this Liber-T tag promotion

Posted on by Dominic

We love our tags for the autoroutes, cruising through the tolls without the stress and hassle of having to find your ticket and then pay using cash or a card is a simple pleasure. More than once in the past we have been caught out by certain UK cards not being accepted at the toll booths.

Rhinocarhire.com have a special offer available that means you can avoid the €10 application fee and you don’t even have to hire a car through them to enjoy this discount.

Even if you will not be travelling the autoroutes this year getting a tag is still a good idea for future travels.

SVT do it again

Posted on by Dominic

Sud Vendée Tourism do a great job of promoting the region, their latest example can be viewed using this link.

You don’t have to rely upon Sud Vendée Tourism or ourselves, here is Lonely Planet’s view of the attractions of the Poitou-Charentes region.

Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel has listed Poitou-Charentes as one of the Top Ten Regions of the world to visit:

“What makes Poitou-Charentes so different from the rest of France is that it encapsulates the best of France in one small, easily digestible region. Put simply, Poitou-Charentes combines all the best clichés of the French countryside – the sleepy rural villages, the endless fields of sunflowers and the delicious food and drink – and this alone makes it different from every other region in the country.“

“Much more laid back than the Med (but with almost as much sunshine) and ideally suited to family holidays, this is a place where you can slow the pace right down, settle in and indulge in the finer things life has to offer.” 

Taken directly from Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel

10/10 – We’re making a habit of this

Posted on by Dominic

Back at the end of May we had written off 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Europe was in lockdown mode and no one was booking a holiday. That all changed in June and in a short space of time we went from no bookings to being booked for the whole season.

We appreciate that anyone booking a stay with us is making an act of faith and trusting that we will live up to their expectations. Our tag line is Happy Holidays Happen Here and we do all that we can to ensure that this happens.

Our Gite is well maintained, well equipped and always spotlessly clean. Due to Covid19 we are taking additional measures to ensure that our guests are provided with a clean and safe environment, sadly this has meant some homely touches have been sacrificed but their health and well-being is much more important.

We have had 3 families stay with us so far this summer and they have all been delighted with what they found and kind enough to leave us with 10/10 reviews on Gites.com which we have also added to our testimonials page. This continues our long standing high scoring amongst our guests. Having achieved this we do all that we can to ensure that we continue to score highly with our guests.

This feedback is not only enormously important to us but also confirmation that what we are doing is appreciated by those who have shown their faith in us by booking their family holiday here at la Ménantelière.

We are looking forward to keeping up this winning habit.

We believe in Mermaids

Posted on by Dominic

This picture has pride of place in our kitchen. It was created for us by Noe and Ona who stayed with us recently.

It is our first ever thank you picture and really made our day to think that our little guests would take the time to make this lovely picture during their holiday.

As you can see Noe and Ona loved the swimming pool.

We work hard to ensure that our guests have the best holiday experience with us and it looks like Noe and Ona certainly did.

It was lovely to be able to show them the gardens, to let them pick freshly grown fruit and vegetables and for them to feed our pigs and the chickens next door. We think that for little ones this kind of experience is invaluable in learning where food comes from.

They also liked seeing Ruby and Ada, our two outdoor cats who like being close to humans and really want to be indoors cats.

Best of all was hearing the shrieks of delight and laughter as they enjoyed their time in the pool. Is it any wonder that that they drew us a mermaid?

We say that Happy Holidays Happen Here and for Noe and Ona it looks like we kept our promise.