Le Petit Manoir de Boussais
Quality Holiday Accommodation in the Deux-Sevres
Poitou-Charentes, France

Good news for those of you travelling from Scotland. Ryanair has announced new flights from Edinburgh, starting on 1 April, flying twice a week. Flights from Birmingham starting again in the spring and a winter service from Stansted is making the area very accessible and with flights being about an hour makes the Poitou-Charentes a good destination for a weekend break.

Happy New Year to everyone. I know that we are all hoping we can get this one under our belts without many more surprises in the world, especially of an economic nature. But amongst all the doom and gloom we all still need things to look forward to, which is why many of us seem to have still had a good christmas. Now is the time that many of us start to think about the better weather and hopefully a holiday abroad. 

For this reason we are still going ahead with our plans to install a new inground swimming pool and the two new bedrooms on the second floor are due to be finished by the end of January. We have also decided to make your holidays how you want them, so the house can be booked for your sole use on a self-catering basis, or if you fancy a night in with none of the hassle of cooking, and the cleaning up afterwards, we are happy to do that for you. Of course, you can also still book a room, or two for bed and breakfast and by the Spring we hope to have the one bedroomed annexe finished for couples. With all the turmoil with euro we have priced the whole house in pounds sterling, so you will know exactly what you are paying.

We had a good christrmas, relaxing, entertaining family and visiting some of the many christmas markets that are on throughout December. Parthenay had an ice rink for the first time this year and it was pretty busy. We had a variety of mushrooms in the garden and on the field this autumn, looking in books I am sure they are edible but next year I am determined to take them to the pharmacists for verification, so there are no nagging doubts. I am looking forward to spring and the bulbs all appearing and getting back into the garden to sort out the veg plot and start planting for summer.

Wishing you all the best for 2009

Ali & Dave

A long time since my last update but we have been busy with visitors, especially in August. We have met a wonderful assortment of people, all of whom have been highly complimentary of the work we have done and some asking for us to keep them updated on further progress on the property & pool.

We have really enjoyed our first summer and my first night nerves have definately passed. We have spent many evenings over dinner getting to know some very interesting guests and we have even been treated to an after dinner shows from some of our younger visitors.

The weather this summer has been good. Hardly any rain and lots of sunshine. The veg plot did suffer because I was too busy to water  and weed it. But I have managed to get out there this week and start taking control back. Despite the neglect we still had a plentiful supply of fruit & vegetables and I am still picking strawberries and the aubergines are still growing.

We have got mushrooms popping up in the garden and I am hoping to take some to the pharmacists to get them verified, which is the normal procedure in France. We appear to have two types but we won't be eating them until we know for sure what type they are.

We have started to get some enquiries for our Christmas & New Year Packages and the website is getting a lot of traffic from people looking for a winter break in France, so I need to start planning menus and sourcing some local supplies.

On the house front, the two second floor bedrooms are well underway and we bought the new flooring and chose the bathroom fittings last week. I have started researching the swimming pool and hope to start the work on that in the early spring. The outdoor ironwork is getting a makeover and a new colour and the walled front garden is going to be full of colour next year with lots of new planting.

Yesterday we were visited by Gites de France to be vetted for their highly regarded organisation. If you have not heard of them they are the equivalent of the RAC & AA bed & breakfast guides in the UK. Dave had to take my mum back to the airport, so I had to do the viewing alone. The representative was very nice and informative and made a thorough inspection of the bedrooms, facilities and outside.

She said that our bedrooms are a good 3 stars and was very impressed with the master room ensuite and the quality of the house throughout. After a little chat about our future plans are and how we could make some improvements to the garden and exterieur she finalised the contract by handing over a large Gites de France sign, which has been proudly put up on the outside wall already.

So Dave and I are very happy that all the hard work is starting to pay off and we are looking forward to hosting many guests in the coming months.

We still have some availabilty throughout the summer, so email or ring should you require a place to stay in the Deux Sevres.

Just recently we have had a lot of enquiries from people planning to visit the area to househunt. So it would appear that the property market is not as woeful as we are often lead to believe. As with most Brits when we bought our property we did a whole lot of research (on the internet), booked appointments, places to stay, researched the areas and had wads of info to bring with us. But we were advised by people who had done it before us to visit the area, go to the estate agents and visit houses that are still available (as many had been sold by the time we arrived). However, not wanting to arrive and see nothing we still decided to use our own plan.

So what happened? In the end we were shown some of the properties we had booked and some we hadn't. None of which were quite right. Walking down the street in Parthenay we passed the window of Thibaudet Immobilier and Dave spotted what was to become our future home. We were well recieved by the agents. Viewed that afternoon and the rest is history. So after all my planning, booking and telephoning in the UK, we bought a house we had seen in the estate agents window. 

If you are planning to buy in the area, we would be happy to welcome you to our B&B and share our experience (or not) of buying in France. 

We have recently had a good spell of dry weather which has allowed us to start on our new enlarged veg plot. A couple of weeks ago we got the area rotivated and last week we planted four long rows of potatoes and sowed vegetable seeds to give us lots of tasty home grown salads and vegetables for the summer and beyond.

The rear courtyard is taking shape and this weekend is forecast to be good weather, at least 20 degrees, so we should get the new lawn laid to the front of the house.

The vide greniers (car boot sales) have started in earnest. We have spotted a few nice items for the house and made a few truly french purchases. But you have to be quick to buy if the price is good.

We have just started advertising this week and have had a lot of interest already, so hopefully an opportunity to meet lots of nice visitors.

ali wells