Nice garden, big swimming pool, covered terrace, cool inside the house. Everything you need to have a wonderful holiday ! A coffee machine would have been appreciated.
Le Soutenac is a generous and comfortable place to enjoy rural French life. The description of the house was very accurate and there were no hidden surprises! The kitchen is large and well-equipped, there are many places to sit, eat, drink or relax. The boulangerie was shut for the first half of our stay but Neuvic is an easy cycle away (I guess even Mme Boulanger needs a holiday!)
What a wonderful house in such a beautiful location.
We loved every minute of our stay! It is so peaceful, yet not too secluded that you feel cut off. Perfect!
The pool is fabulous; large and clean, and very welcoming on hot days.
The house is very well furnushed and has everything you'd ever need for cooking eyc.
Lots to do in the local area too - we loved visiting nearby towns and markets, as well as chateaux and vineyards, and of course, canoeing on the Dordogne.
Some fantastic restaurants nearby neant there was always a choice to be made.
We can highly recommend staying here!
The drive was worth it...well worth it! Hidden away from the rest of the world, Le Soutenac is a diamond within the Dordogne. The grounds itself are 'magnifique' and the differing levels create a variety of terraces from where to enjoy a meal, shelter in the shade or bathe in the sunlight. From morning coffees in the cool of the front of house, to evening meals at the top table overlooking the pool and valley beyond, the house offered so many different viewpoints to enjoy our week's stay. The pool itself was perfect - large enough for 5 of us (three older 'not-so-little children') and also a cool but pleasant temperature when the sun bathing became just too much! Inside the house, the stone walls meant that despite high temperatures outside, we were able to take refuge if needed. The downstairs bedroom that opens its doors onto the mid terrace and then down to the pool was cool throughout our stay. The middle floor is split wonderfully into 3 - a large 'farmhouse' kitchen with space to eat around a large table if required. That flowed beautifully into a middle room with armchairs and seat but then the feature fireplace that hung between this and the sitting room was modern yet perfectly in keeping with the feel of the older features of the building. Upstairs, three more rooms - two with double beds and one with 3 single beds meant that there was ample space for us all. An added bonus was that despite the heat, we seldom saw or heard and unwanted mosquitos. Just gorgeous!
This is a lovely large property with lots of space and is a great place for a family group to get together. It has a large pool and has plenty of seating areas outside and in.
Large utility room with good washing machine and condensing tumble dryer.
Plenty of crockery, cutlery and glasses, but a cracked cafetiĂšre on arrival meant had to resort to instant :(
Overall this is a lovely property and we had a great time, it just needs a bit of TLC in order to receive a full 5-star ratingâŠ
The wooden furniture in the lower seating area could do with renovating/replacing as it is a little tired, rickety and falling apart.
The swimming pool is a great size we all loved it, but there are a lot of paving that needs resetting as they are dangerously loose and wobbly, especially the pool edge ones. Two of the three umbrellas winding mechanisms need attention as one didnât stay up and another was very loose and awkward to erect.
There were also had a lot of wasps around the pool and around the roof which resulted in us not being able to open the velux windows - the roof might need checking for nests!
Unfortunately there was a bit of a downside, as we had not been informed there was a problem with a lack of fridge/freezer prior to our arrival. When we arrived there was just a small fridge without a freezer, so we had to buy a cool box to store ice so we could have cold drinks. The couple who look after the house did come to explain that a new one would be with us on the following Monday. Thanks to Donald this happened Tuesday, but four days without ice for drinks and ice lollies for the grandchildren was a bit tough in the heat.
The kitchen area and the upstairs bathroom needs some attention as does the carpet in the upstairs bedrooms. We all used the downstairs bathroom shower which was great.
The hot water boiler was a bit noisy at night if you were in the downstairs bedroom, which is probably why the previous visitors had turned the boiler off at the switch. I discovered this the first morning when there was no hot water.