Having unpacked bags, unloaded all the bikes, bought up what feels like half of the local InterMarche, we can finally relax and enjoy our surroundings.

The main part of the Farm House that makes up our gite consists of a lovely, atmospheric, big room with a large, circular dining table and a couple of sofas.  The front door leads out from here into a private garden area

with a dining table and chairs.  This in turn leads onto a large grassed area looking across to Usseau under the gaze of the chateau above.  The kitchen has a table and everything you need to cook, eat and drink!  Upstairs are two very large bedrooms and a third smaller twin – plenty of room for the six of us.  There are also three bathrooms.

Just outside the back door of the kitchen is what must have been an old bakery with a large stone oven – perfect for cooking pizzas, if you’re feeding a small army.  There is an old wooden door that leads through the stone wall linking the chateau to the farm house building.  A pathway leads up through a myriad of plants and flowers to an upper garden with another dining area under a gazebo and a further eating area under an old walnut tree.  Just above the stone wall the French countryside stretches away.  Behind honeysuckle covered trellis lies a bountiful, perfectly laid out kitchen garden.

This is where Marie-Andree gathers the produce for her candlelit dinners in the chateau.  Jean-Marie gives the Tribe handfuls of baby plum tomatoes and succulent ripe beef tomatoes as well as delicious plums from the old fruit trees in the orchard.

In the evenings, I sometimes wander in the quiet of the garden and pick herbs to add to our dinner – it is quite beautiful and I appreciate the calm.

Jean-Marie and Marie-Andree have also recreated an old Medieval herb garden.  At its centre is a fountain and it then works out in a geometric pattern, surrounded by high hedges.  Aromatic and medicinal herbs can be found here and the occasional plant once used in witchcraft – highly toxic!  The sound of the fountain can be heard from the dining areas at the back of the Farm House and just adds to the overall feeling of tranquility – now that’s pretty impressive when you have four boisterous members of the Tribe playing around!

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