La Ferme de L'église
When we moved here to Vanzay in Poitou-Charentes in 2007 we realised, being just ordinary folk with limited means, that we would need to do something to generate an income. La Ferme de L’Eglise offered us a chance to provide gîte rental in sunny southwest France to those wishing to sample a piece of tranquil, rural France. Set in over an acre of gardens, but still in the centre of the village, the property is large by anyone’s standards and as such takes a lot of looking after. Setting aside the upkeep of an old building, the work in the gardens is time consuming but perfectly rewarding. With a bit of effort, the grass can be made to look like a “lawn” and the vegetable patch has been turned from a dormant, overgrown allotment into a potager to be proud of, yielding vegetables of a variety and size to show off to the expert French growers in Vanzay.
The lawn with stripes, with the church of St. Jacques in the background
The Vegetable Patch.......
......and the vegetables
We have two gîtes for hire: La Grange and La Petite Maison.
La Petite Maison is the original house, built around 1660 along with the adjacent barn, with the rest of the house – our quarters – added on about 100 years later.
La Petite Maison
La Grange
La Grange is a development of half of the huge barn at right angles to and detached from the main house, looking out onto the courtyard. Both gîtes offer about 85sqm of accommodation with La Grange being ground floor only. Click here for more detailed descriptions and booking information and click here to find out what other people think.
Our gîtes are available all year round:
spring …..
The 160 year old horse chestnut tree in the courtyard in full bloom
summer……
Late summer in the courtyard with classic cars from Circuit des Remparts weekend
autumn……
Autumn sunshine and shadows at the nearby Tumulus
winter…..
Blue sky and fresh snow outside.....
and…..
Roasting fire in La Petite Maison
There are many things to see and do in the area, not to mention some of the things of interest after dark:
A party enjoying dinner and son et lumière of the church
Nightime resident of the church belfry.....
...coming and going. Thanks to Paul Hemming for these photos, summer 2010.
If you are looking for a tranquil, relaxing gîte holiday in France then click here. If you want to make it a classic car tour with, or in, one of our Citroen DS or the Jaguar MK2 then click here.
