Saint-Jean-de-Barrou holiday villa: st jean de barou

We stayed one week in August 2009 (4 adults, 3 child) in this house. Owner and house manager (contact in France) are both very nice and the house is very well furnished and has a nice design. Important is that nothing missed (barbecue, TV and DVD player, Games, ...) and in good state (pool is clean and someone took care of it during the week). We would recommend this place.

Minus:
Can be noisy if habitants are not disciplined
Pool is only protected by an alarm for children what implies to look after children at anytime
Beach is less charming than pool
No garden except the pool

Plus:
Very nice environment
Nice furnishing (not so often for rentals)
No need to bring anything (cleaning product were already there, barbecue ready to work, Games, ...)
Cleaning included in price
Frexibility for arrival time (not departure in our case)


Conclusion:Go for it !

June 10th-17th 2009.
5 of us (one male-4 female) aged 16-78 had a wonderful peaceful week where the sun favoured us with its rays.
Lovely villa with everything we needed in an idyllic little sleepy village where time stands still. Definitely far from the madding crowd. Roads are often narrow and winding but the scenery more than makes up for it.
Pool great to cool down in, and though it was still a little cold in June was warming by the day. Enough UK TV channels to keep the ladies up to date with all the soaps in the evenings. Vineyards all around the village with the produce on sale localy. The owner Jenny was a lady to deal with throughout and gave us very helpful tips on everything from eating to shopping.
Spent a few days nearby in one of the friendliest little city centres I've ever seen...Narbonne, drinking coffee by the canal watching boats and the world go by while the ladies shopped. Its about 25mins from villa.
There was plenty of choice for them and the Sunday morning clothes market was one of the best they had been at and you can drive right in and park in the middle of it too. Fresh food market there outstanding too.
All around the city perimiter are shopping centres with the Carrefour probably the best.
Narbonne Plage is huge with miles of clean sand plenty of parking but traffic was a little heavy leaving.
We went for the drive to the mountain kingdom of Andorra one day. It was about a 9 hour round trip with traffic on continuously twisting roads but both the drive and the country itself were quite simply stunning. I would recommend it to anybody that likes driving. Of course once there it is tax free on many items. We bought cigarettes by the carton as gifts which ranged from E12.50-E21.50. Drink of course was cheap too as were most perfumes etc. Easy parking in the main town of Andorra La Velle. Customs at both Spanish and French borders on leaving but seemed mainly disinterested in the normal tourist.
Carcasonne was the smallest and easiest airport to negotiate I've ever landed in. Again thanks to a tip from Jenny I left the ladies to colect the bags and slipped out quickly to Hertz as their queue grew very long and very quickly.
All in all one of the best holidays we've had and a place we would return to for sure.
Mike

My friend and I together with our four children stayed at La Madrague for the first week of the school summer holidays.
The drive from the airport is about 40-50 minutes and yu will need to concentrate and ensure that you follow the directions fully.
The house it set in a beautiful quiet village full of French Character there is a small shop which sells basic supplies and a lovely old bakers where you can buy breakfast each day if you get there early.
There are no restraunts/bars here but we did not find this a problem as we barbecued most nights at the villa. The children loved the tennis court which could be hired through the shop and spent several evenings playing here.There is also a little park where they joined in with the local boys playing football which was great fun to watch as neither nationallity could speak the others language.
The house is of a very high standard externally and internally , beautifully furnished with doors from the bedrooms opening out to the pool and the lounge area was very comfy with large soft sofas.
Satelite TV was a bonus for us as it kept the children happy whilst we got on with the cooking, you can also take dvd's as there is a dvd player.
The kitchen has all you need to cook meals with the added bonus of a dishwasher and there is also a fantastic chimonea barbeque outside which we did use alot.
The pool was fantastic , kept very clean and did not use chlorine which was great , for the children this was the best part of the holiday.
We drove to the local beaches most days mainly Le Cat which was about a 40minute drive but well worth it as the beach was stunning and not full of tourists so you were not cramped up close to everyone elses towels!!!
We also visited Le Franqui for crabbing which was great fun and also a local water park which is well worth a visit if you have children.
The local markets at Le Cat are great so take loads of money as you can find lovely local crafts for really good prices.
The overall holiday was one of the best I have been on and I would highly reccommend the villa to friends, family or anyone who wants to visit that part of France.
Clare ,Sam (11) Ben (9)