Villa Caroline

We chose this place for a week over New Year's Eve, hoping for enough room for the whole family, four children, eight adults and two dogs, plus wellness facilities, things to do, and some peace and quiet. We were badly disappointed. The house had serious problems, the listing was wildly different from what we found, and the price did not match what was offered. Here is what we encountered: 1. The sauna could not be used. It had no control, no thermostat inside, and a broken bench with a screw sticking out. We asked the landlady to repair it, but she did not, citing the holidays. We contacted her on 29.12.2025. She apologized and said the previous tenants had not reported any problems. Later, we found that a review from October 2025 had already mentioned the broken sauna. 2. The advertised “fitness center” was just an old leftover punching bag and a few dumbbells, so there really was no fitness center. The room instead had a broken, unusable air hockey table and a foosball table, which at least worked. 3. The billiards table was in a room that was far too small. There was no proper way to position the cues along the narrow sides. 4. The garage barely fit four cars. We couldn't see how six cars were supposed to fit there. 5. The garden trampoline was unusable because its safety net was torn. 6. A fire alarm had gone off in one room and was left neither checked nor switched off. The central emergency system displayed a warning throughout our stay. 7. The stairs from the basement into the house, the route up from the cars with luggage, were very narrow. The door was also extremely hard to open, and the stairs were steep with a low ceiling. Even people who were only 1.68 m tall had to duck. Using them with luggage or a child in your arms felt precarious. 8. The house is beside a main road. With the windows poorly insulated, traffic noise from many trucks and agricultural vehicles made sleeping past six in the morning impossible in the rooms facing the road. The claimed “ideal location” may have meant it was easy to reach the city center. 9. Some rooms were so small there was barely space for a chair beside the bed and small wardrobe. Two rooms could only be accessed through the bathroom. The two larger rooms on the first floor were crowded with beds and felt more like a youth hostel than the “luxury in a warm atmosphere” promised in the listing. Two rooms on the second floor had no bathroom. That alone would have been fine if there had been one freely accessible on that floor or at least the floor below. There were also many problems that should have been easy to fix or replace, and that had already been mentioned in an earlier review. The coffee machine was falling apart. A wheel was missing from the dishwasher's lower rack. One cupboard door was completely missing and another would not stay open. A lamp cable in the dining area was exposed and unprotected. A shower door on the second floor was broken, and several loose toilet seats shifted when used. Villa Caroline is actually a very beautiful old house, with some charm in its creaking floorboards, rustic furnishings, and the wood-burning stove in the living room. The enormous garden is a dream, though at this time of year we could make little use of it, and, as mentioned, it had a broken trampoline. The bathrooms and beds were clean, and there were enough of both. The oven, however, was so dirty when we arrived that it needed a thorough cleaning. The shabby condition of the furnishings and the lack of wellness and fitness facilities led us to leave early. Unfortunately, the landlady did not offer any accommodation or compensation.

During this difficult time for everyone, with COVID-19, I try to be careful about the virus. But when I'm outside, I hear people urinating against the fence and see masks scattered around the garden. It's pretty unhealthy to find that right across my hedge. I feel sorry for whoever stays in the gîte next. Judging by some of the visitors, though, I'd call it a zoo.

We had a great stay in a very pleasant place. The rooms with private bathrooms are laid out really well. There's a big garden, a ping-pong room, and a billiards room downstairs in the basement.

The house is cozy and a bit dated, but that doesn't take away from it. The large attached garage is a big plus.