This is a client review of a fantastic river-front holiday home ideal for a large family group or several families sharing a house.
See where this client stayed: Maison Mimosa in Roquebrun
'Our one week stay at Maison Mimosa, Roquebrun in July was
absolutely fantastic. We were a
two-family party of 9, with offspring
ranging in age from 14 to 23, and
parents of appropriate ages! Everybody
had a wonderful time.
We are all very keen wild swimmers and with children who would want some or lots of independence, we had deliberately chosen a house right on a river and right in a village. Good decision.
We had dreamy
mornings and evenings cooling off and swimming in the crystal clear water of
the River Orb against the gentle current right outside the house and also
really enjoyed being in the really spacious at atmospheric house looking at the
fantastic views of the bridge and mountains beyond and also of life on the other
side of the river where happy people and their dogs spend the day mucking about
in the river from the large natural river beach.
The river is safe and you can happily let
children from 12 years and up paddle and swim on their own.
In the house there is an indoor pool and sauna plus games room with table tennis table and bar in the cellar and the children enjoyed the swimming pool as a novelty a couple of times but the weather was so good and the river so beautiful that it was very under used. However, I can imagine that these facilities might be wonderful to have mid-winter or when the weather isn’t great.
Roquebrun is as charming as any tourist website tells you
but it feels properly lived-in and real and there is obviously a lot going
on.
The Mediterranean Garden right above the village is beautiful and testament to a lively community as it is run mainly by volunteers and there was a really well attended village party on our last night. We had a couple of great meals out in Roquebrun; Le Petit Nice does really good pizzas and the relatively new, I think, Cave de St Martin tapas bar (tapas bar as a description doesn’t really do the place justice I don’t think) was really superb and is making my mouth water just thinking about the meal we had there.
Everything fresh, everything melt-in-the-mouth delicious, every ingredient top quality and everything seasonal – plus great wine.
We came back to England enthused with the peach, tomato and basil salad we had there and I have served what I hope is a not-too-bad imitation of it four times since being home! Both Le Petit Nice and the Cave St Martin have fantastically friendly and helpful staff and wonderful views and it was such a treat being able to walk to both restaurants in less than 5 minutes.
The Mediterranean Garden right above the village is beautiful and testament to a lively community as it is run mainly by volunteers and there was a really well attended village party on our last night. We had a couple of great meals out in Roquebrun; Le Petit Nice does really good pizzas and the relatively new, I think, Cave de St Martin tapas bar (tapas bar as a description doesn’t really do the place justice I don’t think) was really superb and is making my mouth water just thinking about the meal we had there.
Everything fresh, everything melt-in-the-mouth delicious, every ingredient top quality and everything seasonal – plus great wine.
We came back to England enthused with the peach, tomato and basil salad we had there and I have served what I hope is a not-too-bad imitation of it four times since being home! Both Le Petit Nice and the Cave St Martin have fantastically friendly and helpful staff and wonderful views and it was such a treat being able to walk to both restaurants in less than 5 minutes.
Out of Roquebrun we spent a great day jumping into and
swimming in the beautiful deep clear-water pools in the Gorge d’Heric and
another day kayaking 10 and 15km back to Roquebrun, where some of our party
saw an otter and all of us loved the scenery and peace and quiet (except when
negotiating a rapid!). Also spent a day
at the Lac de Salagou, an amazingly atmospheric damn lake surrounded by
martian-like red sand and some really interesting villages and natural rock
formations. The journey cross country to
Salagou was beautiful too and a reminder of just how unpopulated and unspoilt
this part of France is.
Shopping was easy, with a village shop and a basic but
comprehensive selection of fresh bread plus tinned and fresh food and drinks in Roquebrun plus a fairly basic
twice-weekly market, and if you needed
to do a big shop, the big street market (weekly? twice-weekly?) and supermarket in St Chinian were
a pleasant 15 minute drive away. And of
course there’s a vineyard round every corner……..
We had to do an airport run to Montpelier near the end of
the week and it was extremely hot so we combined it with a trip to the beach on
La Corniche, just outside Sete. We had a
good swim in some great waves and it was perfect for a quick cool-off and to
dip into the Med quickly. Easy parking
and a nice freshwater shower was available.
But I know there are better beaches in Languedoc and, given a choice, I
wouldn’t have moved from the river Orb!
The South France Villas team were wonderful. Helped with travel arrangements, gave great advice and were generally as helpful as they could possibly have been. The fact that all their staff have lived in the area for a very long combined time really shows as they have brilliant local contacts and can answer almost any question you put to them. Thankyou all very much for a wonderful holiday.
Phyllida Barnes
20-27 July 2013
