In June 2017 my family spent a lovely month at Vincent’s house in Combleux, just outside of Orléans. We are a family of four (kids ages 10 and 8). The house was a good size for us – enough rooms to spread out and each have our space. The kitchen had everything we needed – pots pans, etc. My husband worked from a home office in one of the bedrooms. The wi-fi was good and he had a work space with a view of the Loire out the window. There were two heat waves when we were there. There’s no air conditioning, but we closed the windows and shutters in the morning and the house stayed cool.

We found a lot to do in the area. We discovered parks nearby and rented bicycles in Saint Jean de Braye. The immediate neighbourhood was quiet, quaint and very safe. It felt like we were staying at a cottage. We went into Paris a few times by taking the tram into Orléans then the SNCF into Paris. It worked out really well, although it was a long journey (2 hours one way). I hadn’t realized Combleux was 20 min away from the Orléans station.

Vincent was a good host. He was very responsive and thorough with correspondence before we arrived. He was not available when we arrived so arranged for a woman to meet us. He was very accommodating – even arranged to mail my daughter’s dresses to us when we realized she had forgotten them!