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4 Rue de la dive We stayed at the other Normandy destination with Toddlerholiday. A beautiful gite in the quadrangle of a chateau grounds. Tennis court,table tennis,childrens playroom with toys for all ages. Beautiful accomodation-huge fireplace! Our little boy loved the animals in the nearby fields and especially the friendly donkey-Nana. Deirdre and Peter (our hosts) were most welcoming and cooked lovely meals as well as babysitting for us. The Gite is near to Trun-there are plenty of interesting places to visit for halfday/daytrips. It is a good hour to the Normandy beaches but well worth it. I wish that we had booked two weeks so that we could combine sightseeing with relaxing at the gite and local walks/cycling. Highly recomended! Rachel,Ailsa and Tom
Rachel Wilkins
22/05/2006
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This gite has Cbeebies!! Need I say more? We stayed at La Cour in March 05 and rest assured all the previous comments still very much apply this year.
Another major plus for me is the pre-arrival shopping service (no stressy Carrefour experience after a long journey) and the food Sarah & Laurent served was simply delicious. The hosts are great, their children are lovely and make fantastic playmates. My 2 year old is still raving our time there.
The set-up really is a blueprint for how self-catering hols with tots should be. Just wish there were more of these places. Book it! Book it now!!
Janice Rooke
July 2005
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We stayed
at La Cour aux Bourgeois June/July 2004 and had a wonderful time. We brought
Sam, who was 17 months and he loved it too. He enjoyed the garden and the
playbarn and spent a few happy afternoons with Sarah and her two children while
we had some 'couple' time. In fact, on one occasion, he tried to get back in to
be with them after we came to collect him! We were really impressed with the
quality of accommodation. It was a real home from home (only much cleaner and
tidier than our home usually is!) It did rain a bit, but there were also sunny
days and as we were mainly there for a rest and recharge, it wasn't really a
problem as we definitely achieved that. The countryside is beautiful and
Falaise a pleasant spot to while away the afternoon. There are plenty of
attractions nearby too if you've got more energy than we had. We would
definitely recommend it (even though that means it will be booked up even
further in advance).
Rachael
Lonsdale 25/03/2005
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We
spent a wonderful week at la Cour aux Bourgeois, thanks to our friendly
hosts, Sarah and Laurent, and their treasure of a gite. When we first read
the description on the website, we thought it sounded too good to be true-a
child-friendly, charming gite in the middle of the French countryside with
babysitting services, sensible pricing, near many historic places of
interest, and with a playbarn so full of toys it could easily be mistaken
for a Toys R Us. Then, we arrived and had the pleasure of discovering
firsthand just why this gite is so popular. It was love at first sight for
all of us. The property is exactly how you would imagine a rambling stone
French farmhouse to be. Set in a few acres of grounds, including an orchard,
it was originally a part of the domain of the nearby abbey. Inside, it's a
well-furnished, attractive and comfortable mix of old and new, French and
English. I was drawn to the lovely décor, the pretty curtains and quilts
throughout and the beautiful stone floors and tiles. As the mother of a
crawling baby, I was so relieved to find that the gite is spotlessly clean -
our daughter gave the floors an extensive road-test - and as child-proof as
any house can be. Most importantly, it's equipped with everything you might
possibly need while away from home with small children. There is no need to
clog your car up with pushchairs, sterilisers, baby monitors or any of the
other usual baggage of a family holiday abroad as it's all provided for you.
Thoughtfully, the gite has also been stocked with a selection of DVD's,
movies and books for when the parents get to relax and unwind - and yes, you
can actually do that here. As our children played happily with Sarah and
Laurent's adorable toddlers, we pinched each other to make sure we weren't
actually dreaming and toasted our success in finding an alternative to Euro
Disney. The joy of this gite is that it is able to cope with babies and
active toddlers alike - which in turn means that parents get to enjoy far
more of a holiday than at other cottage destinations. It's also well located
for sightseeing across Normandy - whether you want to visit the uncrowded
beaches, some medieval castles, fashionable Deauville, WWII sites or perhaps
bring your children face-to-face with their history lessons at Bayeux. On a
more practical note, the gite is less than ten minutes walk away from the local
boulangerie and a five minute drive takes you to a large supermarket
on the northern edge of Falaise. Caen is only 30 minutes away on an
excellent road, offering all the amenities and great shopping of a major
French city. We left the gite after one week having only visited half the
places on our "wish-list" and regretting that we hadn't booked for a
fortnight. We'll be going back and would strongly recommend that you also
consider staying here - so long as it isn't for the same two weeks as we'll
be booking next year!
Emily
Rixinger 2004
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I've
been meaning to write this since we spent a lovely week at La Cour aux
Bourgeois in October of last year and reading Jamie Pearson's has prodded me to
do it. At the time of our visit, our little boy was 3 years old and our
baby was 5 months old and in our parenting lives, I'm not sure we'd ever had
a holiday that felt like a holiday and from which we'd returned refreshed
and without wishing for another holiday to get over the holiday - if you
know what I mean. Jamie's right in everything she says, especially about the
glorious treat that was the gourmet dinners delivered to the door. I took
photos of those dinners - that's how much I wanted to remember them. Sarah
and Laurent, the hosts, felt like old friends as we drove away at the end of
our week - they have a way of making you feel like you're not the same as
all the other people who come - we felt so welcomed by them and so
comfortable with them. Our 3 year old and their little girl had great fun in
the play barn - one thing which made our week all the better - you know that
if your kids are happy, so are you. And pretty much as soon as we'd arived
home, we booked to go back again in the summer. Am counting the weeks...
Jill Shepherd Feb 2004
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Let
me tell you about our last holiday, the one before La Cour aux
Bourgeois. It may sound familiar. Having smugly secured what appeared to be
child-friendly self-catering accommodations some months before, I began to
pack for the entire family. Luckily we would be driving and not flying, so I
could fill the car with reckless abandon. Since we would have no access to
laundry facilities, I had no choice but to pack our entire wardrobes. Every
last tiny little jumper and sock went into the car. Next, the kitchen. With
children 2 and 4, we'd need plastic plates, plastic cups, bibs, booster
seats, special foods unavailable at our destination. I wasn't half
finished - the car was full to bursting. The prospect of a week without
playthings was chilling, so I threw in about 150 pounds of toys, books,
crayons, paper, and DVDs. Almost done now, I tossed in nappies, swim
nappies, armbands, goggles, two baby gates, a travel cot, baby blankets, a
baby monitor, a changing mat, and every medicine either of my children had
ever taken for any reason whatsoever. The holiday itself was exactly as
expected. At the end of each long day spent chasing children with sunscreen
and attempting to stop them beating on glass-top tables, I would have rather
eaten toothpaste than cooked a nice dinner for my husband and myself. So we
usually just did the washing up (again), ate bowls of cereal, and collapsed
into bed. God only knows why I continued to consent to these so-called
"holidays". But as we all know, the only thing worse than traveling with
small children is staying home with them. So I tried again. This time we
booked a post-Christmas week at La Cour aux Bourgeois. I literally cannot
imagine how charming this place must be in spring and summer. We were there in
the dead of winter (and were incidentally rewarded for our bravery with
snow on New Year's Day), and still it was absolutely lovely. Here are some
of the things that set this 17th-century farmhouse gite apart from the usual
self-catering holiday:
1. It's all on one floor. No stairs for your kids to fall down. No possibility
of their being out of earshot.
2. Very spacious. Tastefully, yet casually furnished. The whole gite is set up
for families. It's indestructible and pretty at the same time.
3. Playbarn, complete with safety-netted trampoline and oodles of toys.
4. Full-sized wooden crib, changing table, and booster seat. They've got
plastic cups and plates, bibs, a baby monitor, and much more.
5. Location convenient to all the attractions of Normandy: Honfleur, Deauville,
Trouville, the Bayeux tapestry, Mont St. Michel, countless chateaux, war
memorials, military cemeteries, and of course the Normandy beaches.
6. Young, fun, friendly, non-intrusive hosts on site. Sarah and Laurent are
very accommodating and generous with their time and advice.
7. Laundry, housekeeping, and babysitting services available. The antidote for
everything you've ever hated about self-catering holidays!
8. Read this one slowly. Absorb the implications. Gourmet three-course
dinners delivered to you at extremely reasonable cost. Wine included. Words
are wholly inadequate to tell you how much we loved this. During the late
spring and summer months, I imagine the enormous garden and orchard must
offer endless opportunity for al fresco play and dining. They have a paddling
pool, swings, a hammock, and a sandpit. There are planned improvements for next
season as well. A dishwasher, some landscaping, new kitchen cupboards, the
possible addition of sheep and chickens (which your
kids will love).in short it will be perfect. Sarah and Laurent have already
taken several repeat bookings for next summer - a resounding endorsement if
ever there was one. I urge you to make a reservation now while they still
have availability. You won't regret it.
Jamie
Pearson
03/01/2004
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Our
experience at La Cour aux Bourgeois was as memorable as others who have
reviewed it. We had to wait until October until the property was available
but even so we had a deliciously sunny week and the roads and ferries were
quiet which was an added bonus. Sarah and Laurant made us feel extremely
welcome and our children are still talking about them, weeks after returning
home. Their attitude and approach to life makes for a happy, relaxing and
unique holiday experience.
Nicola Cox
16/10/2004
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