Monflanquin area holiday house: Montaut

This gite is a beautiful, large farmhouse with excellent facilities. The master bedroom, with en-suite, has a single bedroom next to it, ideal for a child. Two further large bedrooms are on the ground floor, with their own bathroom. The beamed lounge is very comfortably furnished and leads into a large farmhouse kitchen area with dining table. The kitchen is fully equipped with dishwasher and all other essentials. The property has a patio at the back, leading of off of the kitchen and a covered veranda with patio furniture at the front. This looks out over well maintained gardens and the pool. This is surrounded by a gated wall and is therefore safe for young children.

The English owners live in another property on site and provide a very friendly, discreet and professional service. In the nine years that we have been visiting they have helped us with everything from the occasional doctors visit, local travel advice and recommendations (or not) for eating out.

The gites are set 1/2 mile back from a local country road, and are therefore very peaceful. The nearest town, Villereal, is about 2 miles away and provides a small supermarket, plenty of small shops, including chemists, papershop and post office, several bars and places to eat. About 30 minutes away to the North is Bergerac and the same distance to the South is Villneuve-sur-Lot. Both have very large supermarkets and plenty to do and see. The surrounding area has many picturesque villages (with markets) and is close to the river Dordogne.

Bergerac has a small airport with flights from several UK airports and last year we used this method of travel rather than travelling by car. The flight, from Southampton, only took about an hour and the hire car we had booked through the gite owners, was waiting for us on arrival. We would certainly recommend this as the way to travel, although the route, by car, was not difficult to follow.