Family-friendly farm house, pool & tennis court, with large garden, near Loire

La Chapelle is a renovated stone farmhouse with heated private pool, tennis court and six adult bikes. You are only 40 mins drive from the famous Loire chateaux but you will find plenty of chateaux, vineyards, gardens, troglodyte caves and other attractions around Montoire and Vendome. The house sits in a large private garden, part of 4.5 acres of orchards and woods. The 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms can easily accommodate 12 adults and children. It works well for two families plus grandparents or other relatives. The house is very family friendly with lots of things to do outside.

La Chapelle is a long low building (80 by 20 ft). Originally only one third of the building was habitable. The other parts were for storage and animals. The previous owners converted the building to make a family-friendly holiday house.

Before conversion the spacious living room (450 sq ft) was the old hay barn so it has a high ceiling with wonderful exposed beams. Luckily stone and matching windows were found to fill in the barn door and old quarry tiles were collected to redo the flooring throughout the house. A large stone fireplace was installed, so that with a coffee table, sofas and armchairs there is a comfy space around the fire. You are welcome to light the fire with logs from by the garden shed. This is especially nice if you are having an evening meal at the magnificent 9 ft oak table which can seat 12. WiFi and a music CD are available, but, despite no TV, we have never had any complaints.

Bedroom layout suits two families. Because of the high ceiling there are no bedrooms above the living space. As you can see from the photo of the floor plan the house is neatly divided into two parts. There is a double bedroom, a twin room, bathroom and toilet upstairs at the west end of the house. Equally, at the other end, there is a double bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor, and four single beds upstairs. All the bedrooms upstairs have oak parquet flooring. Finally, if grandparents, or other friends, are staying there is an en-suite twin bedroom on the ground floor at the west end. The two main bathrooms each have a shower over the bath. The ensuite bathroom has a shower enclosure.

As you will see there is a converted barn beside the main house. It has a twin and a double bed room and is fully equipped with central heating. However, it can only be booked by special arrangement, and no-one stays there when there are guests in the main house.

We clearly know the importance of an efficient and well equipped kitchen with a lot of family and friends visiting every year. New cupboards with more storage were installed in 2014 as well as new equipment – electric oven with five ring gas hob, fridge/freezer, dishwasher and microwave. The stone BBQ sits outside conveniently close to the backdoor into the kitchen. There is a small laundry room off the kitchen which includes a clothes washing machine, tumble dryer, iron/ironing board, cool boxes for picnics and a raclette set.

Eating well is important in France. Unfortunately many village boulangeries are closing but we have several excellent boulangeries in the neighbourhood the closest in Lavardin at 10 minutes by car. We also have Patrick just 10 minutes away who does home cooking. He will bring meals to the house and he is used to coming to the house regularly every summer. There is also a very simple restaurant (snackbar ) at the camping site in Prunay just 3 km away. Bigger restaurants can be found in Lavardin, Montoire and Vendome.

But of course families come to rural France to do things outside and we have excellent outdoor features. First the heated swimming pool – you will see from the photos that it is close to the house and surrounded by a hedge. The secure fence is embedded in the hedge with gates for the safety of children.

As you go through the hedge it feels as though you are stepping into a large garden room. This feeling is heightened as the level of the pool, in the centre of the space, is slightly lower than ground level. Also there are trees and shrubs around the edge of the ‘room’ and the paved terrace is indented with flower beds and grass verges. On warm nights you can dine out by the pool and turn on the pool lights as it gets dark. Magic!

The garden captures the sun all day long and the house is set back from the single track road which has very little traffic. The garden is looked after by Albert our caretaker. His house is just a 150 yards away on the other side of the road. We are lucky that he is a retired gardener. As a result the whole landscape is well maintained. It’s a pleasure to stay at La Chapelle for the whole day!

The second outdoor feature is the hard tennis court just 60 yards from the house. Like the pool it has its own attractive space surrounded by hedges and planted with shrubs. The court is proving very popular and, if you need a tennis teacher do not hesitate to contact Stephane Lequimbre (00 33 6 5087 3592).

Third, we keep six quality bikes in the shed behind the house which you are welcome to use. They are fully equipped with kids’ seats so you can all bike to visit a neighbouring farm or wood. The bikes were bought through our caretaker Albert. He and his son are keen cyclists, so he can help if required.

In the cupboard under the stairs you will also find a croquet set, a set of boules, a small tent and several hammocks. There are also some inflatable pool items and an inflatable paddling pool for the very young.