Reviews of Property: Beautifully restored country house in own grounds with large private pool

Maison Rose is tucked away in an idyllic setting and if you want to find somewhere you can really switch off, here it is! Built into the hill-side, the house offers great accommodation, especially sitting out on the patio; we managed to eat all our meals outside for the two weeks we were there, but beware of the midges and don't leave windows open at night!

The pool area is great, with good quality furniture and parasols. Don't worry about the pool not being heated - it is fine, but keep the cover on at night.

The surrounding area is lovely with plenty to do, if that is your bag. Mareuil will provide all your local needs, but the best supermarket by far is Super U at Vilbois de Lavelette, and only 20 minutes drive. Spend time in Brantome - it really has a lot to offer and if you are really brave, hire a canoe. There is loads to see on the water; we even managed the 8km route despite one of us being a novice. Riberac market is also good, but watch the cheese sellers - they like to sell you a lot more than you need. The fresh fish is fantastic, especially the sardines back on the BBQ!

We had a great time, and with the temperature ranging between 28 - 37 degrees celcius, it was perfect. We have already re-booked for our 2010 holiday.

Maison Rose is everything we hoped it would be and more. It is ideally situated, if peace and tranquility, along with beautiful countryside, is what you are looking for. The grounds are wonderful, and offer you the chance to some lovely wildlife, including more butterflies than I have ever seen!

The property itself is spacious, well furnished and well laid out. The bedrooms remained cool despite the outside temperatures, and the lounge was more than big enough for us to relax in. Both bathrooms contained hot, powerful showers, not something you are always guaranteed in French holiday homes. The kitchen is spacious and very well equipped. Our children (3 and 1) were able to move around the property freely, and loved the grounds, especially of course the pool; this was where we spent most of our holiday. It is well situated to catch the sun for virtually all of the day, and remained easily warm enough for us to fit in a couple of night swims.

When not relaxing by the pool in the evening, we were sitting on the terrace with the barbecue on, reading and relaxing.

There is plenty to do in the area, from the village of Mareuil nearby, which is convenient for bread and croissants every morning, to the beautiful Brantome, and the Foret de Double is well worth a visit.

Maison Rose is easily the best property we have stayed in over the years in France, and I have no hesitation recommending it to anyone... Book now, you won't be disappointed!!

We stayed at La Maison Rose in August 2009. We chose this property from a list of possibles based on the location, description and all the amenities. I can assure you it didn't disappoint. The cottage is very well equipped, especially the kitchen. It has a very interesting layout on several different levels, which adds to its character. The pool is private and not overlooked which adds to the whole 'away from it all' experience. We spent many enjoyable evenings sitting on the terrace with nice, locally bought, wine! We were fortunate enough to have excellent weather so we didn't venture far from the poolside very often.

We did drag ourselves away for a trip to Cognac, which included lunch on a terrace at a lovely Brasserie and then we found a tour of Remy Martin which included a very interesting tasting session at the end! Brantome is also well worth a visit. For the more energetic you can hire a kayak and row around the town. We chose the less energetic option and watched from a terrace restaurant!

The nearby village of Mareuil-sur-Belle, which has restaurants, boulangerie, Spar, banks and a Cave is excellent. Very pretty and with lots of character, and we enjoyed our daily trip to the Boulangerie! We have never enjoyed such delicious croissants!

There are a number of options for supermarkets - however, the only one we found open on a Sunday was the one based at Villebois-Lavalette (which is about 10 miles away). This was more than adequate and much closer than Soyaux, which has several large supermarkets.

Lesley and David provide a book which details lots of options for days out and local attractions and this is well worth perusing. We were grateful to Midge for doing some shopping for us before we arrived. If you don't arrive until 7pm it's nice to know that you will have everything you need for an evening meal and not have to worry about finding a shop until the next day. It's worth giving Lesley a small list before you set off and then settle up with Midge when you arrive.

Just a small thing, it is in the heart of rural France and so if sitting outside in the evening it might be sensible to take insect repellant.

The cottage and the grounds are very well cared for and it all makes for a relaxing and comfortable holiday. We travelled with three teenage girls, aged 13, 17 and 19. They were more than happy to spend the time by the pool and we didn't once get an 'I'm bored' so it was a great success all round!

My wife Irene and I enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing 4 weeks at Maison Rose during Sep/Oct 2008. Our months stay formed the cornerstone of a three month around-the-world trip and turned out to be all we could have hoped for and more. Describing Maison Rose as a cottage is something of a misnomer when one considers such a large, tri-levelled (+ cellar), well appointed and maintained building and surrounds, set in an idyllic secluded French rural location.

By the time we arrived, settling down into an environment where everything we might need to make life comfortable was on site - and just worked! - was brilliant. Midge, the cottage minder, had even laid in some fresh food/wine to get us started on the day of our arrival and there were plenty of written pointers on hand, not only regarding the cottage but also what was on offer locally, to help us get the most out of our stay.

Irene tells me you could cook a banquet - not that we ever got that energetic - with the vast array of equipment stowed away in the warm and inviting kitchen area. In fact, when some of Irene's family joined us from the UK for a week or so, the kitchen area quickly became the focal point of the cottage and we enjoyed some pretty good evenings around the kitchen table quaffing locally purchased fare. A BBQ and outside dining facilities provided another option.

The bedrooms were amply segregated within the cottage and allowed us to reluctantly retire each evening to the privacy of our "Master Suite", complete with ensuite.

I should mention the magnificent pool. Although it was late in the season we still found time to flop into it or just laze around the deck area with a good book. When we chose to get a bit bouncy we jumped onto the pushbikes (provided) and cycled into the local village or just meandered along some very relaxing local walking trails. The local animal life, deer spotting at the nearby reserve, and sheep wandering around the back were appealing distractions.

Taking in the local restaurants, markets and other regional centres was, for us, an important part of our stay along with plenty of golf - two courses (one north, one south) close by.

Its easy to rattle on about Maison Rose but to summarise, we just wanted to be up early each day to take it all in and we didn't want to go to bed at night. Great memories of our stay at the cottage will last us a lifetime.

We wish Lesley and David every success for the future.

Keith and Irene, Canberra, Australia

We have just returned from two weeks at La Maison Rose. This beautiful french house has everything you could wish for. The rooms are comfortable with plenty to keep everyone in the family amused. Very clean!

Our family comprises of Mum, who loves to relax and read, Dad who gets bored easily and likes to have things to do, 11yr old daughter who loves swimming and cycling plus 9yr old son who loves the simpsons and running mad!

The bikes were great being that they were practically new I was happy to let our daughter ride them. Lesley even provides cycle helmets!

Loads of books and video's to watch if the weather isn't great (or if you get too much sun!) The table tennis also keeps active bodies happy. The swimming pool is huge and clean with plenty of sun beds and umbrellas. With lots of garden to run around in, it was not difficult wearing out the children.

The kitchen has every possible time saving gadget you want, brilliant if you like to cook at home sometimes.

The only downside was the shower room and toilet in the cellar, it was really nice and clean, however the walk through the cellar put our children off (older children and adults would be fine with it). The shower and toilet upstairs were adequate for our needs though so it was not a problem for us.

The house was well placed for places to visit, one of the best we found was Brantomme (about 20 mins away). A lovely town with the river Dronne surrounding it. Really great for leisurely canoing. Plus an excellent patisserie.

The Spa super market in Mariuell was fine but for bigger shops we went to the Casino at Soyaux which was 20-30mins away.

This beautiful country house located not far from picturesque Brantome (where the canoeing was great fun even for beginners - and all the restaurants served wonderful food for every budget) gave us the best holiday we'd had in years. The drive up to the house through woodland and a deer sanctuary meant there was peace and quiet but you never felt isolated.

The close-by village of Mareuil had a couple of very good restaurants, both of which served excellent food at a reasonable price, a cafe-cum-bar, a weekly market, a well-stocked Spar and even better stocked off-licence, bank, 4 bakers, a butchers, fresh fruit and veg shops - plenty to keep you going.

Even better, we got full use of the pool for the first time ever - it was spotlessly clean, you could light it up at night and there was a complete absence of those annoying, biting flies that you can sometimes get when you're right on top of farming country.

The house itself was exceptionally well-equipped, clean and spacious - thankyou, Midge, for the shopping that was awaiting us on our arrival and the bottle of wine was much appreciated. To sit on the patio looking out over the trees and countryside either first thing in the morning (when we occasionally saw deer on the bottom lawn) or the cool of the evening was magical - and convenient, too, as it led just off the large kitchen/diner.

We took advantage of the four mountain bikes provided, along with the table tennis and gas BBQ and teenage son liked the vast selection of videos/DVDs while we preferred a dip into the well-stocked bookcase.

There was also plenty of info on where to go and what to see (caves/picturesque villages/chateaux etc) but I must admit we enjoyed the house and grounds so much that, apart from venturing into Brantome and a couple of other villages, we stuck close to home and the pretty local village of Mareuil.

If you need to chill, then this is definitely the place. And if you've got children/teenagers to amuse, then this will also do the trick. A magical combination and we would definitely recommend Maison Rose to everybody.

We can't thank the owners enough.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Maison Rose. The property was well maintained and clean. Set in over 12 acres with great views and a fabulous swimming pool the house lived up to its description. Our 14 year old especialy loved the table tennis and billiards and spent many an hour trying to beat his Dad, which he succeeded on a few occasions. In terms if attractions we visited Brantome (known as the Venice of the Dordogne) where we had a lovely lunch followed by a canoe on the river. The Grottes de Villars were incredible. We spent a very pleasant day at Aubeterre-s-Dronne which has the most amazing Monolith church and is definately worth a visit. The rest of our time was spent in and by the pool at Maison Rose as we were very fortunate with good weather. Having found the property by chance we would love to go back and would definitely recommend it to a friend.