Maisonnette de la Garde, Chemin du Lavoir/La Grande Chiminee,

Coulonges sur l’Autize, 79160 FRANCE (GPS 46.494549, -0.589301)

Picture from front

House viewed from the road

House from rear

House viewed from the rear garden

 

Getting there

It is possible to arrive and leave by public transport via Stansted to Poitiers, train to Niort and bus to Coulonges, then about a mile walk.  It is probably the cheapest way to come but not very convenient.

Assuming you don't do that, hire a car from Nantes, La Rochelle or Poitiers airports.

Alternatively by ferry.  The nearest is St Malo which is a three and a half hour drive from the house.  We usually go back via Caen which has better timings.  We are Club Members of Brittany Ferries so can offer you 10% off.

From Coulonges-sur-l’Autize: Go north out of the town towards l’Absie.  Follow the road down, briefly, and then uphill to the water tower on the right about half a mile.  Fork right on to the minor road immediately after the water tower.  Follow the road round, keep right at the next junction and down hill and the house is on the right.

Accommodation

150 year old railway crossing keeper’s cottage (railway gone 70 years ago).  Two double rooms, one with ensuite upstairs.  Third double room next to bathroom downstairs.  Kitchen and lounge.  Carpet is new so please no shoes on the stairs… etc.

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 1 with 'sleigh' 6ft bed - ensuite door shown

Bedroom 1 alternate view

Bedroom 1 alternate view

 

 

bedroom 1

Bedroom 2 with a 6ft bed (two singles pushed together)

bedroom 2 with closed curtains     bedroom 2 with curtains open and single and cot

Bedroom 2 has curtains (optional) to enclose a small children's sleeping area

 

Bedroom 3 or play room

Bedroom 3 with 6ft (or two singles) guest bed

 

Front room

The lounge, log fire, large sofa, books and videos, TV and DVD player, ROKU for internet TV, Wifi

Lounge alternate view

Alternate view of front room

 

Kitchen

Kitchen (with dishwasher etc.  Waching machine and dryer also in kitchen area)

 

Eating area

Eating area

 

Bathroom

Downstairs bathroom

Phone TV and Wifi

There is an excellent 4G signal to the house (the aerial is on the water tower).  There is a 4G Wifi unit with French Sim card and 100Gb of data per month.  Chromecast is also available.  A satellite dish is also available (see below), but is difficult to put up (it has to be mounted beyond the trees the other side of the old railway line.

Parking

You can park in the driveway, but please don’t go beyond the front door as the septic tank is then underneath and having yourself and car fished out of a septic tank would not be a good experience.  The drive into the gravel may be muddy, if it has rained, but .. can’t help that!

Arriving and opening up

There are a few security measures.  If a caretaker is available you won't have to do any of these, but if not, you may need to undo the shutter bars on the inside and keep the butterfly nuts for doing them up at the end.  The outside ones have keys hanging up in the kitchen by the door.  They are numbered.   Please read the electricity and water paragraphs below to find the handles to turn things on.  If you need to open the lower shed, you need to undo the four nuts and bolts around the edge.  The key to the top shed is in the kitchen.  Please don’t leave the doors open of the top shed because the wind blows the felt off the roof!  The nets in the windows are to stop the bees from making hives in the window space.  There are also mosquito nets for all the windows, though you may have to slip them in carefully and make sure there are no holes!

Please put a packet of dried bacteria down the loo once per week to stop the septic tank whiffing.  The tank drains to the railway cutting (underground) and is not a cesspit, so does not need emptying more often than once every ten years or so.

Garden

We have a couple who keep the garden for us.

Heating

This is a combination of electric convection heaters and a log-burner.  There are logs in the boxes outside the back door, and various other places. 

Swimming pool

There is a swimming pool in the top shed.  However it is a hassle to set it up.  Also, you will need to check on-line that you are allowed to fill it, first, as there are sometimes summer restrictions on pool filling.  You need to set up the filter to keep it clean and keep it topped up with clorine. 

There is a really great pool for children and adults in Coulonges.  We use that more than the one in the shed.

Electricity and water

Is already on, but only for one socket, namely the one that runs the dehumidifier in the kitchen.  Please leave it on when you go, and make sure the dehumidifier is plugged into the timer and the drain pipe from it is down the drain behind the washing machine.  Water is metered from the mains and is considered safe to drink.  The water stop cock is the lowest (near the floor) big red leaver in the airing cupboard.  You have to move it 90 degrees for on and off.  If the hot water seems to stop, there are instructions in the airing cupboard to sort out the air lock.

Rubbish and recycling

This is collected from outside the house at something like 5am Monday morning.  You have to have the bins outside the main gate and far enough away from the wall so that the van can automatically pick it up with a crane thing.  France has a good recycling system.  There are recycling bins for other things at SuperU and at the Magne end of our road.  Most stuff is recyclable.

Washing machine

DO NOT USE THIS UNTIL YOU HAVE TAKEN OUT THE PIPE FROM THE DEHUMIDIFIER FROM THE DRAIN AND REPLACED IT WITH THE PIPE FROM THE WASHING MACHING.  We have forgotten on two occasions and it makes a big wet mess.  It is an automatic and fairly self-explanatory.  We try to use green ecological powder – it is better for the sceptic tank.  Tumble drier exhausts to the exterior.

Washing line

Sometimes it no longer exists when we arrive, so hook one up from the hook in the wall, to the tree stump, to the zinc down-pipe on the extension or the hook in the wall.

Satellite dish television (inlcuding BBC ITV etc. channels - using the UK satellite)

We have a licence to watch television.  There is an art to setting up the dish which has to be on the edge of the field just beyond the railway cutting.  You will find the aerial wire hanging down by the back door.  That needs to go across the track (lasso-like) to the tree which has a rope around it.  You need to climb the side of the cutting (with the help of the rope), to the tree and you will see some nails in the back of it to wrap the wires around.  Venture further and you will see the field.  There may or may not be an iron rod driven into the ground on the edge of the trees before the field.  If not, there is a spare iron rod (blue) in the seat in the kitchen (and others in the lower shed on the floor on the right).  Bang a rod vertically into the ground.  Hammer is also in the seat in the kitchen.

Mount the dish on the rod, the dish needs tightening and pointing in the right direction.  In the corner cupboard in the lounge is a satellite direction finder which needs to been connected in line, with the LNR label on the direction finder, connected to the dish side.  You will need to have all the equipment switched on so that the direction finder can give you a reading of the strength of the signal.  Point the dish at the double electricity poles on the horizon.  That is almost exactly the right direction.  Tune it slightly using up down left right and secure it.  The tuner is set up for ASTRA, however there are two ASTRA satellites near each other.  Avoid the German/Pakistani/French/Spanish one, the tuner is set up for the UK one at the moment.    This all takes a bit of faffle to sort.  Sorry we can’t leave the aerial up.  

The dish needs to have a completely clear view of the sky.  If there are sweet corn plants that are high, there is no hope of a signal unless you can mount it higher than them.  Lots of channels and radio too if you can get the aerial up, if you can’t there are loads of DVDs to watch and the wifi tv using Roku is excellent (but only about 50 hours per month).

Good days out

·         Rowing on the canals at Coulon.

·         La Rochelle

·         Beach at Les Conches

·         Île de Ré

·         Saintes

·         Vouvant/Mervant

·         Sunday church at Puy de Serre

·         Puy de Fou (excellent/amazing get there early)

 

·         Futuroscope

Shopping

Super U in Coulonges is good.  Leclerc in Niort or Fontenay. 

Eating out

Lunch is from 12 to 2, and restaurants often won’t serve you after 2.  MacDonalds in Niort and Fontenay.  We like the creperie in Nieul sur l’Autize (15 mins), and there are two eating places in Coulonges.  Not many speak English. 

Checklist for leaving

Please make sure the water is off in the airing cupboard.  The big red leaver should point downwards.  The electricity is switched off by switching off all the small switches on the electricity bank in the front room except for the one that says don’t switch off which runs the dehumidifier.  The shutters are all secured with the bars and butterfly nuts, inside and out.  Upstairs the velux windows are clicked closed and the small shutters are in place with their bolts and the bigger shutters are bolted closed with the anti-bee nets – they are the chunky wood ones -  close to the shutters so that bees don’t start a beehive in there – try to seal up each hole with a bit of netting.

Kitchen cupboard doors and draws, please leave open.  Fridge is clean and both doors are left open.  There is nothing leaning up against the wall of the stairwell, please leave it leaning up against the banister instead – the walls get damp otherwise.  Retrieve the aerial (if it is up) and put in lounge, wire can stay outside.

Check both sheds are locked.  CHECK THAT THE DEHUMIDIFIER IS PLUGGED INTO THE TIMER (the timer may need rotating to the current time) AND THAT THE PIPE OF THE DEHUMIDIFIER IS STUCK WELL INTO THE DEHUMIDIFIER AND THE OTHER END IS DOWN THE DRAIN PIPE INSTEAD OF THE WASHING MACHING.

Many thanks and have a good time.

Optional DIY

Feel free to do any (or none) of the following:

·                                                                                                                                                                                 Blue Hammerite paint the metal shutters (particularly the lounge window).

·                                                                                                                                                                                 Clean the patio(s)/weed it.

·                                                                                                                                                                                 Cut the hedge.

Scrape bubbling paint off the kitchen walls and repaint it (paint in the top shed, probabl