French Leave
An extract from London Evening Standard Article on 13.9.06
Caroline Phillips took her family to a traditional French farmhouse to enjoy the summer in rural Tarn.
Tarn is a prosperous and lively area that possesses a wealth of fortified villages, castles and churches. This departement of France takes its name from the river that winds through it and is well known for its hilltop retreat of Cordes sur Ciel and the county town of Albi…….
The region is now beautifully peaceful, and full of rolling hills that offer visitors a huge choice of areas in which to walk, cycle, fish and canoe. To discover the area fully, we rented La Poujoulie, near Montirat. This charming 1830's corps-de-ferme comprises a house with bathrooms the size of Brittany, separate cottage for irksome teenagers, central courtyard with nightly stellar show in the sky, barn converted into a games room, satellite TV, solar-heated swimming pool and American fridge-freezer. It sleeps 10 and costs from £800-£1350 a week.
"It had been empty for 40 years when we bought it six years ago," says Chrissie Davidson, formerly an interior decorator. It is her second home: she and her husband, Tim, a retired financial consultant, also have a place near Winchester.
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