Belle villa en pierre avec tour, piscine chauffée d’eau salée

This is an absolutely brilliant villa and has everything you need for a great holiday.

It’s beautifully presented with modern bathrooms, nice furniture and lots of lighter coloured timbers, plus a wood burner for the cooler months. The outside space is good - the pool is heated and has a retractable cover which was a bonus as we were a party of eight including two small children.

We ate outside in the covered dining space most of the time and cooked barbie food on the gas griddle (there’s also a traditional BBQ if you don’t mind the faff).

But where it scores hands down - and we’ve stayed In quite a few holiday rentals - is the attention to detail. This includes: an abundance of soap powder and stain remover in the laundry room; a tumble dryer as well as washing machine if it’s too wet to dry stuff outside; a shoe cleaning kit (does anyone clean shoes on holiday?); a wooden sewing box; plastic picnic plates, beakers etc; and a couple of jars of chocolate coated caramels and nougats for guests to enjoy.

The kitchen is well equipped with lots of glasses, pans, serving dishes etc - there’s even a stick blender and yes, that oyster knife.

The owners Amar and Elena live relatively near - they used to run a small hotel in Scotland before heading to the sunnier climes of the Dordogne several years ago. They offer a home dining service whereby they cook delicious food, can provide the wines if requested, clear up and can offer some insights into French life if you are curious, as we were. It was 35 Euros per head and an extra 15 per bottle of good quality wine. Great tasting food beautifully presented and no driving required!

You have to be prepared to drive to local shops. There are some delightful towns and villages, including Montignac, within a 40 minute ride.

We couldn’t fault the villa but alas, we never did find any oysters nearby!

Had a lovely week at the end of August in this stunningly beautiful property. We were two families, 9 of us in all, and found the property to be in an ideal location to explore the area but also away from it all (ideal for the noise from the kids not to annoy any neighbours..!). The kids loved the pool, hard to actually keep them away from it. When we could drag them away, we managed to pay a visit to Sarlat and also did a canoe trip down the Dordogne, which can recommend to be done while there. So many other places to visit while there but we just didn't have the time to fit it all in. A special mention to our wonderful hosts Amar and Elena who were very helpful, giving us tips on where to visit and for just being generally nice all round! Had such a great time, we're hoping to plan another visit for next year :-)

This is the 4th year in a row we have stayed here.Why go anywhere else when you have this wonderful house, it's views, location, air conditioning and charming hosts in Amar & Elena. It is very family friendly and well equipped, with lots of things to do and see in the area. We highly recommend it.

We had a marvellous two weeks in this stunning house. The attention to detail is exceptional. It has everything - books, games, pool, enclosed garden, information on the area, the kitchen is very well equipped and the air conditioning in the bedrooms is a saviour in the hot weather. The house is ideally positioned for exploring this wonderful region. Amar and Elena were really helpful both before we arrived and during our stay and were always on hand if we needed anything.

We simply had a fantastic stay at La Tour de Genèbre. The house was not only beautiful inside and out but perfectly appointed with everything you could possibly need. Our two boys in particular loved the salt water pool which was a godsend when the weather turned hot. The house stays relatively cool even in warm weather and we only needed to use the air conditioning a few times at night which was a nice luxury. Elena and Amar were wonderful hosts and readily available if we needed anything. We very much hope to return to this lovely place again someday.