La Mamora

After a long day cycling, the excellent beds were especially welcome, and you can raise them with an electric system. Marie, the owner, was lovely and even drove us to a restaurant and picked us up afterward. The rooms at La Mamora are spacious and spotlessly clean. It's a charming, welcoming stop just outside St. Brevin, with plenty of space, a heated pool, and a jacuzzi. Breakfast the next day was a delight, with homemade jams, bread, pastries, and dairy products. The Nantes cyclists

For 100 euros a night, this was a very poor stay, and the customer service made it even worse. The owner wasn't there to greet guests, and when these problems were raised, she wouldn't acknowledge them and kept insisting this was a luxury rental. The jacuzzi costs extra, and you have to arrange it ahead of time because it takes two hours to heat. The pool was heated to 28°C but full of leaves. The garden was neglected, with untrimmed hedges, a lawnmower left under the ping-pong table, and a garden table missing its top after it broke in the wind. The room had two single beds pushed together to make a double, which was electric. The kettle's heating element was covered in limescale and barely submerged, the mug was dirty, and the shared kitchen smelled strongly of tobacco. The bin was overflowing and empty bottles were scattered on the floor. Breakfast was unhygienic, with butter cut up and served in a saucer that tasted as if it had been kept in the refrigerator. The cheapest, poor-quality supermarket juice was served in the common room, despite the advertisement saying the terrace. The amenities were unacceptable for the price.

We booked, arrived, and turned straight back around. The place felt awful and depressing: a cluster of 1970s houses in the middle of cornfields, nowhere near the Saint-Brévin-les-Pins seaside resort, yet right beside a noisy four-lane highway. There's no charm or appeal. The owners have squeezed five rooms side by side into a little house at the back of the garden. That might be good for business, but it's miles away from the feel of a bed and breakfast. You need a car to get around, and the beach can't be reached on foot. At €125 a night, it felt like a total rip-off. Avoid it.

The owner was attentive, and our room was nicely decorated. It's a beautiful, quiet spot with a swimming pool, but the creaky bed kept us from sleeping well.