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The large (new) swimming pool is shared with the owners (family of four: kids aged 11 and 10). The views from the pool are panoramic: no other houses can be seen from the pool, or from the house. Impressive view of a ruined hilltop chateau. This is a proper pool in the ground, not one of those above-ground tanks.
There are only three households at Mas Fabre, which is on the outskirts of the village of Aumelas, one of only two villages in the vast, rural, Aumelas commune, which is simultaneously rural and within easy and quick (15 mins,dual carriageway) access of Montpellier.
The pool area has a cliff face to one side and many trees on three of its sides. The far end looks onto the chateau.
Barbecue dinners on the large poolside stone terrace. Underwater pool lights for evening swimming.
The hilltop location is in the 'garrigue' (Mediterranean moorland) landscape near the market town of Gignac (20 mins drive), whose Saturday morning market is a must.
The stone vaulted rooms, dating from the nineteenth century, are charming, and remain cool throughout the hot summer months. Small windows in the bedroom, loo and shower room (all with fitted mosquito nets) ensure a cool air current at night.
One of the stone vaulted rooms is a double bedroom with a chest of drawers. Babies welcome: a Mothercare cot, high chair and playpen are available.
The other stone vaulted room has a big chestnut dining table (accommodates 8 people), a sideboard for crockery and cutlery, an electric piano, many bookcases containing hundreds of books, and two couches which form a lounge area in front of the large fireplace. One of these is a fold-down couch which sleeps two. The room contains a small fridge and a four-ring flat-top gas cooker, sink and draining board. Lovely big fireplace with kindling and vinestocks provided, in the unlikely event that you will want to light the fire. If you have a laptop with wifi, you can normally connect to the internet from the poolside.
Both rooms are equipped with huge, thick, vaulted wooden shutters which guarantee protection from the summer heat.
Between the two vaulted rooms and the WC and shower room there is a small hall area with a dressing table and a small double wardrobe.
Immediately outside the two vaulted rooms is the ground-floor terrace. You can have dinner here, or on the terrace next to the pool, or at the chestnut dining table in the larger of the two vaulted rooms.
Babies can be bathed, and toddlers can paddle, on the large (1 metre wide) top step of the pool.
40 mins drive to Med beaches. Delightful medieval village (Saint Guilhem le Desert) around 30 mns drive from the house.
Parking on gravel just outside the accommodation, and also in the gravel car park next to our large (70 tree) olive grove.
Kids will enjoy the small frogpond, as well as the gang hut in the pinegrove.
The land around the house is extensive. It consists of the following:
a large pool area, surrounded by dwarf green oak, olive trees, fig trees, pomegranate trees, tall ash and elm trees.
a large olive grove, where the clothes line and gravel parking space are located.
a smaller olive grove on the hillside
a large pine grove (70 pines) on a hillside.
The centre of Montpellier, with its many attractions, is roughly a half-hour drive away (depending on traffic conditions).
There are many picturesque villages to visit (including the beautiful medieval village Saint-Ghuilhem-le- Desert with its splendid 11th century church.
Much good-value local wine. Wine-tasting sessions abound.
Superb restaurants in town, and excellent seafood restaurants on the coast, particularly at Bouzigues, a delightful fishing village.
There is much variation in the local beaches: large tourist beaches on the Med coast, smaller, a wilder beach with (optional) nude sunbathing, and a nice, small family beach at Mèze, on the big lagoon known as the Etang de Thau.
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