Maison coeur de St-Cirq-Lapopie Charme Jardin Clim

L’emplacement, un gîte atypique avec tout le charme de l’ancien et le confort et équipements modernes. Les deux toilettes et deux salles de bain sont un vrai plus pour une famille.

Location, view, comfort.

No washing machine, iron, ironing board, shower gel.

Location was fairy-tale beautiful, up a cobbled very narrow street, part of a historical monument type tourist village. The property was beautifully styled, like from a magazine, many elegant ornaments that we put all together so we couldn't break them and lose our deposit; and the upstairs bedroom had plenty of space. Shower rooms (up and downstairs) were well lit, great water pressure, all modern and clean. There were good restaurants serving wonderful local food, not as expensive as we feared given the location. The medieval village was fairly quiet as it was difficult for older, or less mobile tourists to walk up the paths. There was a wonderful shop "The Wine Museum" which sells local wines and deli products, not too expensive. There was an outside table and chairs and a barbecue although it was too hot when we went to sit out or use them; they were handy for drying our hand washed laundry from swimming.

We arrived on a heatwave evening after long travels. The host's messages said she'd meet us there but actually it was a lockbox arrangement. When we did contact her for washing up liquid etc, she explained that she lived 45 minutes away and we never heard anymore until it was time to go, when we got a list of instructions about putting away the washing up, putting the used linen in the bathroom and taking out the rubbish. The parking and access arrangements were only released after I gave a 300 euros deposit. It was clearly explained but involved driving up into a tiny steep narrow village where streets so narrow that it was difficult to make a u-turn to descend. We could not find the house for ages as it was not marked and had no distinguishing features. You have to get inside to get the parking ticket then drive back down to main road to find the parking place. There is a footpath between the parking and the house but again, many visitors might struggle with the steep steps. There was no welcoming water or wine in the fridge, and the booklet did not mention that the only walkable restaurant mentioned was closed. We did find lots of others though. The upstairs bed room has air con. The downstairs bedroom does not, nor a fan, and was terribly hot and noisy from car alarms that went on until early hours (obviously not the host's fault). There was a polythene cover over the table and no washing up liquid, no soap in the soap dispenser in the downstairs bathroom, nor any other welcome toiletries. There was a machine which after long inspection suggested it might have been a coffee maker though I've never seen one like it before, and there was no instruction and no coffee anyway and we didn't want to buy any for 3 nights so we always went out instead. There is a small garden with two loungers. These had not been used in a while and the garden was unkempt.