That time had come to plan a holiday for 2017 with our ‘bestie’ friends, two families together (8 children in total) for a holiday that was going to create lifelong memories. After many an evening of scouring the net looking at French holiday accommodation we stumbled across ‘La Vieille Ferme’ which was not only available at our required dates, but it was also within our budget. Andrew and Diana, the property owners, answered our questions quickly and we booked. Finally the day came to start our holiday - as we stepped out of the car and everyone started jumping for joy that the trip was finally complete, you instantly felt the warm air around, heard the crickets and looked up to the sky to see the most amazing star constellations including the Milky Way.
The Farmhouse is exactly as described on the web, although much larger than we expected (more than enough room for two families of 12) you could see first-hand the attention to detail that Andrew and Diana had undergone when restoring this beautiful rustic farmhouse. We had everything we needed including a lovely kitchen area, more than enough cutlery and all the usual gadgets. The bathrooms were perfect, tastefully finished with modern shower equipment (nice pressure). We had an amazing time visiting the local towns including ‘St Antonin’ where we spent a whole day Kayaking 10km along the river Aveyron taking in the beautiful gorge backdrop with huge limestone cliff faces that shoot up into the blue sky from crystal clear water teaming with fish.In Laguépie they have inflatables on the river that are free to use. Cap’Découverte, a 40 min drive away, really topped the holiday experience, great value for money offering water skiing, kayaking, toboggan, go karting, mountain biking, pedals, aerial runway etc. Najac and Albi were really pretty and there always seemed to be something going on which made for a nice surprise.You can walk to the two boulangeries in the local villages of Varen and Verfeil 1km and 3km away but will need a car to drive to St Antonin where there is a medium sized Carrefour which stocks most items you would expect to see in the UK.Getting to know Andrew and Diana was really nice and we all felt that they went out of their way to try and ensure we had a great time and on the morning we left Andrew, Diana and Twiglet (their gorgeous dog) came up to wave us off as they readied themselves for their next visitors. We do hope to see them again one of these days, perhaps back in Blighty.