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We travelled to Fougere in June 2013.  This was week two, of our two week holiday in the worst weather France had had in June for some years. The less said about the weather the better. To see my original rant about the weather you can read my earlier post on Bernisson in Monsegur.

Our first impression of the closest village was super.  The sun was shining and hubby had found a bar to watch the Lions Tour in which also served lovely pizza for the girls.

 

The owner David knew we would be in that particular pizzeria as he had be liaising with my husband on the drive over to find a bar that would be showing an English rugby game.  David met us at the bar after the rugby and showed us the way to Fougere.  Very good service so far.

Our first impression was that the house was incredibly good value accommodation (not always a resounding accolade) in a beautiful part of the Dordogne. The photos on the website (see here) show the property exactly as it is. Yes it is basic  (it is not a rustic French farmhouse like Bernisson was) and on an initial glance it did feel a bit like the hostel it was developed as.  However even though it looks basic, you get an incredibly sized rental property (a 4 bed gite and a separate 2 bed gite attached) with amazing outdoor space and a beautiful safe pool for your money. The owners have also softened the outside appearance with vines and flowers and very snazzy shades over the large outside dining area.

We booked Fougere through the fantastic team at Tots to Travel who I can’t recommend highly enough.  Tots to Travel take the time to find out exactly what you need and make sure the holiday they recommend to you, ticks all your boxes.

We travelled to Fougere as 4 toddlers, a baby, 4 parents and 2 Grandparents and the owners provide everything we needed down to sterilisers, prams, bath chair, 3 high chairs, 4 cots/travel cots (in fact they purchased another travel cot to fit our family of multiples) stair gates, loads of books and toys and a fabulous playhouse all in a safely enclosed garden that the toddlers could be free to roam. And roam they did, up and down the large garden, into the playhouse, back to the first house, then the second, finally ending in the large garden room with sofa and pool table.

The piece de resistance was the huge swimming pool (which we did get to use once or twice when the rain stopped) as it had a really large toddler pool that the kids could paddle about in happily.

There is also a wonderful local restaurant in the vicinity Les Truffieres which serves home grown food (we had fantastic duck and an incredible flower salad) and Dave was kind enough to drive us there and back one evening so we could have a drink and enjoy the meal.  We made the most of the local towns and explored, and as with week one, drank copious amounts of very good (and cheap) French wine.  It was a fantastic week and perfect for a large family. It gave us that well needed family time and I would highly recommend this accommodation to anyone travelling with toddlers and an extended family.