Manche holiday house: Gouville sur mer

We have just spent 2 wonderful weeks in La Brocanterie and cannot wait to return! The house is every bit as beautiful as it looks in the pictures, in fact, even more lovely. It is a superbly renovated farmhouse, very tastefully decorated and refurbished and extremely well appointed. Everything you need is already there - washing up liquid, handwash, pool towels, even a great cd player in the kitchen. It is a wonderfully spacious house - we went with four children aged 9 - 17 and two grandparents and we never once felt we were in each other's way. The bedrooms are arranged over three levels; the gorgeous sitting room has heaps of comfortable seating; there is a separate snug with internet access; a lovely dining room with huge refectory table, bench seating and wood burning stove - perfect for the relaxing end of day supper; a superb library of books for holiday reading; a good collection of dvd's; a wonderfully spacious kitchen with room to cook, sit and chat. The pool was a real boon - we paid extra for heating which was well worth it and being 10 metres long meant that you really could get some exercise. The pool was regularly inspected and cleaned by the owner which was very reassuring. In addition, there is a super enclosed courtyard for relaxing, reading, sunbathing, playing boules etc. The house is private but not isolated. The local village (just a few minutes by car) has a great supermarket with lovely fresh produce and there is a local market twice a week - you just don't get fresh produce markets like that in England. The location is ideal for exploring the D day landing beaches, Bayeux or the national stud at St Lo. The local beach is great for exploring and we enjoyed watching the trotting horses being exercised along the shore. We wish we had taken our bikes, as the lanes were great to cycle on.

The owners live close by and could not have been more helpful. There were plenty of ideas for things to do and visit and suggestions of places to eat. Leaflets, guides and maps were all provided. The house was absolutely immaculate and bedlinen, towels etc were all provided. A cleaner came after a week to provide fresh linen and a basic clean around which was great.

There was a very warm welcome from the owner and wine, fruit juice and nibbles were waiting for us on arrival.

The parking area was plenty for our two cars - off road and very safe.

We loved every bit of our time there and cannot recommend it highly enough.

We had a fantastic time staying in this house at the end of May 2009. there were 2 families in our party which consisted of 4 adults and 4 children aged from 6 to 14. The description of the house was very accurate in all respects and it even exceeded our expectation with regards to the size and facilities available. The kitchen was the most well equipped of any that we have ever experienced in a holiday home - everything that you could possibly want or need was there! The kitchen and dining area is very spacious and airy, and created a lovely family dining experience. The position of the kitchen is also ideal as it overlooks the pool, which meant that we could keep an eye on the children easily. The bathrooms were all extremely clean and modern with lovely showers in each one. Each bedroom is very spacious and comfortable. The large sitting room contains several comfortable sofa's and armchairs and the television has Sky connected with all the British freeview channels available. We also took our laptop and were able to connect to the internet which was very useful.
Our families made the most of the pool and the children spent most of their time in there! We took bikes with us and found plenty of quiet roads to ride on safely.
We visited several restaurants in the area. Our favourites were 'Les Flots Bleus' in Gouville by the beach, 'Le Pierrefeu' in Anneville and the pizzeria at Pirou-plage. We were less impressed with the Neptune restaurant in Coutainville - the service was extremely slow and the children had finished their meals at least half an hour before ours had even been served.
Despite a couple of days of poor weather, we were still able to make the most of the holiday and having such a wonderful place to stay helped a lot. Debbie was fantastic, helping us with any questions that we had and checking that everything was OK during the week. We would definitely recommend this house to anyone and we would consider going back ourselves in the future. Thanks to Debbie and James for providing such a wonderful place to stay!