Chateau de Baradot
Marambat, 32190 Vic-Fézensac, Gers, France
Sleeps 11
"Chateau de Baradot". Looking through the entrance gates towards the Tower
The Location And Setting
The magnificent, mainly 19th century "Chateau de Baradot" is set in 12 hectares (30 acres), and surrounds a spacious, square courtyard. All around is the peace and quiet of some of France's most magnificent countryside
The 3-storey Main House stands on one side of the courtyard's entrance gates and faces south and east, whilst on the other side of these gates is the Caretaker's Cottage.
The Main House, the Guest Wing, and part of the Courtyard
Opening off the Main House, and running the entire length of the southern side of the square is a single-storey Guest Wing (known, architecturally speaking, as a 'Chartreuse').
The Courtyard is dominated by a massive Tower (originally intended for grain storage and tobacco drying), whilst the other buildings that surround it are the Caretaker's Cottage, as well as those used for car-parking, for general storage and for wine-making.
The Chateau is 2 kms from the hamlet of Marambat with, 1 km further away, the bustling small town of Vic-Fézensac with its excellent shopping including 2 supermarkets, a once weekly open-air market (plus a twice-monthly night market in July and August), a well-attended Latin American dance festival each July, as well as a bull ring staging Courses Landaises where the bull is not killed (see under other facilities and information below), plus the occasional Spanish-style fights when the bull is killed. Most other local towns and villages have a weekly market - there's one somewhere or other on every day of the week.
Stretching along the horizon 80 kms to the south are the formidable Pyrénées, whilst the landscape surrounding the Chateau is dotted with picturesque villages and small towns (some of them fortified in the Hundred Years' War and known as 'bastides'), Roman ruins, ancient abbeys, churches, chateaux, and many other distinctive buildings of all shapes and sizes.
The international airports of Toulouse (called Blagnac) and Pau are both 1½ hours' drive, whilst those of Biarritz and Carcassonne are 2 hours away. The express train, the TGV, stops at Toulouse and Agen, whilst at Toulouse you can also load your car aboard a train and travel with it to Calais (and vice versa, of course).
The Accommodation
A noble 500-metre drive lined by cedars leads through the entrance gates into the Courtyard.
The accommodation in the Main House comprises:
The Entrance Hall
Ground Floor
- The Main Entrance Hall. Off which are:
- The elegant Dining Room. With a table seating 12, a working fireplace, and windows facing east.
- The Sitting Room. With comfortable sofas and armchairs, a working fireplace, and windows on 2 sides. Plus a radio/CD player.
The Main Entrance Hall also leads to:
- The Kithen/Breakfast Room. With 5 gas burners, 2 electric wall ovens, a microwave, a hot cupboard, a fridge/freezer, a walk-in fridge, a dishwasher, a rice cooker, a slicer, a bread oven, a toaster, an electrical kettle, a TV with English language satellite reception etc.
The breakfast table seats 10. - A Cloakroom with a W.C.
- The Library/Tv Room. With a working fireplace, a TV with English language satellite reception, video and DVD and CD players, as well as some DVD's and CD's, English language videos, and an extensive English language library.
The Sitting Room
The Kitchen/Breakfast Room
Off the Library/Tv Room is:
- Utility Room with a separate washer and dryer.
- An elegant, traditional spiral staircase ascends from the Main Entrance Hall to:
First Floor
- Bedroom 4. With a 5ft-wide bed, and a window facing east:
- Bathroom 3. With a bath plus an overhead shower, and a W.C.
- Bedroom 5. With twin beds, and a window looking east.
- Office/Workroom. With an occasional single bed, plus a telephone/fax/internet connection. The window overlooks the Courtyard.
- Bathroom 4. With a bath, a separate shower, and a W.C.
The Stairs then ascend to the Attic Floor which is used only for storage.
A passage off the Kitchen/Breakfast Room leads to:
The Guest Wing (also known as 'The Chartreuse')
- Bedroom 1. With a 5ft-wide bed, and a window looking south.
- Ensuite Bathroom (Bathroom 1). With a shower and a W.C.
- Bedroom 2. With twin beds, and a window looking south.
- Bedroom 3. With twin beds, and a window looking south.
- Bathroom 2. With a bath, a bidet and a W.C.
- A second Entrance Hall which opens onto the Courtyard.
- A second Sitting Room. With a door opening onto the garden on the south side, a comfortable sofa and an armchair, a TV with English language satellite reception, a CD player, and a:
- Kitchen/Dining Area. With 5 gas burners, an oven, a fridge/freezer, a dishwasher, a blender, an electric kettle, a toaster, etc. The table seats 6.
Bedroom 1
The Dining Room
The Grounds
- In the centre of the vast Courtyard is a Croquet Lawn. Hoops, mallets and balls are kept in the Main Entrance Hall.
- Overlooking the garden on the south side of the Main House is an attractive Verandah from which stairs descend to:
- A pergola-covered, stone-flagged Dining Terrace with a table seating up to 10.
- A second Terrace accessed from the Sitting Room in the Guest Wing has a table and chairs, and is shaded by a sun umbrella.
The large lawn on this south side is flanked by a fine variety of mature trees - chestnut, plane, walnut, cedar, willow, magnolia grandi flora, catalpa, etc. The Gazebo at the foot of the garden is constructed from the wood sawn from a giant wellingtonia which fell at this very spot.
At one corner of the garden is a small, children's adventure playground.
The arch at the base of the Tower on the west side of the Courtyard leads to:
- An orchard with apple, pear, plum, apricot, peach, fig and walnut trees.
Bedroom 5
And also to:
- The filtered Swimming Pool (12 x 6 metres x 2 metres deep) with Roman steps at one end, a ledge at a depth of 1 metre running round all 4 sides of the pool, and a children's slide.
The water is slightly saline (approximately the strength of human tears), thus avoiding the use of chlorine.
There is a good range of pool furniture, including 2 sun umbrellas.
NB1 The electrically operated pool cover (which is designed to bear the weight of an average 5 year old) must be closed at night both for safety's sake and in order to retain the water temperature.
NB2 The entire pool area as well as the south-facing garden and the Courtyard can be floodlit.
The Massive Barn is in the Background
- Housed in the magnificent open-fronted BARN which stands on one side of the Pool are.
- A Dining Table seating 10, plus additional tables and chairs.
- A big gas-fired Barbecue, plus a fridge, an electric cooker, and a full set of crockery, cutlery, glasses, etc.
- A Shower Room, and a separate W.C.
- A table tennis table, a badminton court and a dart board. Plus bats and balls, racquets and shuttlecocks, darts, pool accessories, etc. 'Boule' balls are kept in a stone pot at the base of the Tower.
- The North Side of the property is bounded by a wood with a small lake at its foot. If requested, this lake can be fenced.
Nearby is the Chateau's small vineyard which grows both red and white grapes.
Other Facilities And Information
- Unless otherwise agreed, there should not be more than 11 people (including children and babies) staying in the Main House and the Guest Wing at any one time.
- The owners also have a fully furnished Farm House sleeping 8 with its own Swimming Pool. It is located about 10 kms from "Baradot", and it could, if required and if free, accommodate an overflow. Further details (including the rent per week) are available on demand.
Bedroom 4
- The owners' insurance policy requires that all windows, shutters and outside doors in both the Main House and the Guest Wing are secured when tenants are away from the property for short periods of time. Please advise the Caretaker, Andy Chandler, if intending to leave the property for an entire day or more, as he may wish to set the alarm.
- Bed linen, bath and pool towels are provided free of charge, and will be changed on a weekly basis.
- Andy Chandler lives in the Cottage in one corner of the Courtyard. He is responsible for the maintenance of the Pool and the Grounds, and is paid by the owners for doing so. He is also hugely helpful, and a mine of local information.
- The Cleaner is employed by the owners to clean the house (including the kitchen and bathrooms) and to tidy bedrooms whenever possible for 2 hours per day on 2 days per week. She should be paid by tenants at Euros 10 per hour for any agreed extra hours of work.
- As long as sufficient notice is given, the services of a caterer, a part-time cook and/or a babysitter can probably also be arranged. His/her/their wage/s will be the tenants' responsibility, and will be ascertained prior to the start of a rental should a tenant so wish.
- Tenants should advise both the Caretaker, Andy Chandler, and Anglo French Properties Ltd at the end of each rental of any losses, breakages or damages. This is in lieu of an inventory.
- The Main House and the Guest Wing are centrally heated throughout.
The Library/T.V. Room
- There are fans in all the Bedrooms, and most have hair-dryers.
- There is a cot with bedding, and a high chair. More can probably be installed if sufficient notice is given.
- The Chateau has a most useful folder listing telephone numbers of the local doctor, dentist, hairdresser, etc, plus facts on shopping, restaurants and markets in the immediate vicinity. It also has details on the area's festivals and fairs, its sporting, cultural and recreational activities, and a great deal else. A mass of other information can be obtained from the Tourist Office in Vic-Fézensac.
- There are a number of puzzles and board games, as well as packs of playing cards, and a wide selection of children's toys.
- There are tennis courts at Vic-Fézensac which can be floodlit. Information is contained in the folder as above.
- The nearest 18-hole golf courses (20 minutes' drive) are Golf de Guinlet outside Eauze (which also has tennis, a pool, and a good restaurant) and Golf d'Auch Embats (also with a fine restaurant, and close to Auch). The best is probably Golf du Chateau de Pallanne - the course surrounds the fine, eponymous 18th century Chateau. Details are in the folder as above.
- This is a landscape of flora and fauna, whose multitude of lakes and rivers offer swimming, canoeing, kayaking, sailing, wind-surfing, water-skiing, river excursions and fishing in abundance. Some of the nearby lakes have patrolled, sandy beaches, as well as picnicking spots, restaurants and cafés. Details are in the information folder.
- Adults' and children's bicycles can be hired in Vic-Fézensac or, given sufficient notice, via Andy Chandler.
- There are magnificent walks in all directions, including 'randonées' (organised rambles) from and around the local villages. Further afield are the Pyrénées where hiking and walking (and climbing) can be as exhilarating and as challenging as one could wish. Here, too, is some early-spring ski-ing.
- South west of St Gaudens are the Grottes de Gargas, the site of some of the world's oldest cave paintings.
Wildlife abounds in the surrounding countryside, whilst the Pyrénées are the habitat of some of Europe's rarest creatures - the bearded vulture (the lammergeier), the eagle owl, the lynx and the brown bear to name but four. - Irresistible to enthusiastic artists are the spectacular scenery, the sunflowers, the stunning churches and chateaux, and the bustling village squares and markets.
- For those willing to make the 1½ hour journey, the seemingly endless and arrow-straight coastline between Arcachon and Biarritz offers some of the finest (and least crowded) beaches and sand dunes in Europe.
- There are stables near Aignan offering pony trekking, as well as riding in the surrounding forests. Other similar establishments are to be found at Vic-Fézensac, Plaisance and on the road to Nogaro. There are show jumping events at Vic-Fézensac, and race meetings at Auch.
A small racecourse about 500 metres from the foot of "Baradot's" drive has meetings every September which feature both trotting and flat racing. - 'Courses Landaises', the bloodless version of the 'corrida' (where horned cows replace fighting bulls and acrobats take the place of 'matadors') are held at weekends in many local towns and villages. (See also under The Location And Setting for Spanish-style bullfights in Vic-Fézensac.)
- Gastronomy is a very serious affair in the Gers, and features foie gras, magret de canard, fresh water fish of many kinds, some excellent local wines and, of course, armagnac. Further afield are the superb seafood restaurants of Biarritz, St Jean-de-Luz, and San Sebastian (just across the Spanish border).
- Both Gelas, the wine merchants in Vic-Fézensac, and the co-operative in Aignan stock a wide variety of wines and armagnacs, whilst many growers encourage both visits and sampling - and on-the-spot purchases, of course.
- The local airport at Nogaro offers light aircraft flights for a bird's-eye view of the countryside.
The Dining Terrace on the south side
- This is the land of "bastides", the fortified villages and small towns built by both the English and the French from the late 12th century onwards, and to which the local population fled in troubled times.
- Here too, are some of France's most remarkable towns and villages:
- Auch, the 'département's' capital, with its beautiful cathedral boasting some of Europe's finest Renaissance stained glass.
- Pau, a retreat of the British middle/upper classes in Victorian and Edwardian times, with its spa, its Anglican church, the oldest golf club on the continent of Europe and, at one time, its pack of fox hounds whose most dashing Master was surely "Colonel Burnaby of the Blues" - fox hunting continues to this day.
- Lourdes, the goal of tens of thousands of pilgrims each year.
- Lupiac and its privately-owned Chateau de Castelmore in which Charles de Batz was born (and on whom Alexandre Dumas modelled the legendary d'Artagnan).
- Apart from Vic-Fézensac with its Latin American music spectacular at the end of each July (see the location and setting above), Mirande hosts a lively Country and Western music week earlier that month, whilst Marciac has an acclaimed international jazz festival every August.
- Biarritz, the seaside resort (and golfing Mecca) which rivalled Monte Carlo in the latter half of the 19th century.
- And many others, of course.
The Rents In 2008
| Month | Price |
|---|---|
| April, May and June | £1,990 |
| July and August | £3,050 per week |
| September and October | £1,990 per week |
Unless otherwise agreed, all lets will be for a minimum of 1 week, and with the exception of Easter Week (as above), will begin and end on a Saturday.
Tenants should arrive as soon as possible after 5 pm on the commencement day (not earlier), and should leave by 10 am on the agreed day of departure. They will be met on arrival by the Caretaker.
The Deposit
A deposit of 25% of the rent will be payable to Anglo French Properties Ltd on signing a Rental Agreement, with the balance to be paid 6 weeks prior to the commencement of the tenancy.
The Booking And Security Deposit
A Booking and Security Deposit of £350 will also be payable to Anglo French Properties Ltd on signing a Rental Agreement. This will secure the booking and will cover: (a) the cost of telephone and fax calls made during the tenancy, (b) the cost of replacing/making good any losses, breakages and/or damages incurred during the rental, (c) a charge of Euros 100 per week should the central heating be turned on and (d) the cost of any exceptional cleaning work which may be required at the end of the tenancy.
This Booking and Security Deposit will be refunded (less any deductions as outlined above) within 8 weeks of the conclusion of the tenancy.
