Gites des Barres

The pool area was pleasant, even with the motorway nearby, but the Bergerie gîte itself fell short of the other gîtes. Some of the amenities weren’t very good, the bathroom and toilet felt cramped, and the bedroom light worked only when it felt like it. The sofa bed has a spring mattress that you can feel, so its bedding needs attention. We won’t stay in this gîte again.

The cottages worked well enough for a weekend, and the bedding was good. The pool was also very nice. But we rented all three for the weekend, and this was easily our least-liked gîte out of the large places we’ve rented with friends. Outside, the acidic smell from the nearby chicken coop really bothered us and spoiled the weekend. The highway traffic was also easy to hear from the terrace, especially the truck horns. Some rooms had no shutters, and the curtains didn’t keep the light out. Housekeeping supplies were useless, with a vacuum that didn’t clean and a broken broom. In summer, it’s a shame the pool closes at 8 p.m. The owner also said she might leave it open depending on our behavior, which felt very patronizing. We didn’t find her very welcoming either, which is disappointing for a place offering hotel service.

We booked all three cottages for a week, paying over €2000, and came away very disappointed. The owner’s welcome was extremely unpleasant, and she had access to a room in the cottage and came by regularly to check on things. Her manner was cold and impersonal, and she spoke to us as if we were five-year-olds. It felt contemptuous and disdainful. Avoid this place! There wasn’t an accessible grassy area because everything was fenced off for the horses. The amenities were very basic, including three broken parasols and broken chairs. There were no dish towels or bath mats. Was that because of Covid? I doubt it. I also kept quiet about the spiders, peeling paint, and piles of dust in every room. In response to “All this over a dog issue?”: if you don’t want dogs in the cottage, don’t list “pets allowed” in the rules. We paid the €45 supplement for our dog. We didn’t impose him on the owner, and did everything we could to keep him from leaving the yard. Unfortunately we had to close the yard, because keeping an animal on a leash for a whole week was out of the question.

We spent a week with friends across the three cottages, and were all surprised and outraged by how the owner behaved. Her way of speaking to us was especially unpleasant: cold and curt, with inappropriate remarks. She was very unaccommodating. It’s disappointing to be treated like that at a business where hospitality and friendliness should be part of everyday life.