VICHY - VERY HAPPY COMFORTABLE home in mountain village 25kmsVICHY

Dear Anne, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in your house in St Remy. Nadege was very helpful - and thank you for allowing us to have some heating on in the evenings for the first couple of days as it certainly didn't feel like summer at the time!! Fortunately the weather did pick up as the week progressed and we had some very enjoyable visits to the beautiful countryside. Our "highlights" were le Puy en Velay (well worth the drive), le Mont Dore and le Puy de Sancy (although I wasn't courageous enough to go up in the cable car!) and a very pleasant walk around the Parc de la Drosera and its miniature buildings. We also enjoyed walking around Thiers and bought a variety of kitchen knives. Thank you once again for all the helpful information - we will certainly recommend your house to friends if they are thinking of spending time in the Auvergne. Best wishes Ian and Veronica

Hello Anne Marie The Auvergne is now one of our favourite places in France. It is very scenic, very peaceful. The people are extremely friendly. The food was first class and cheeses were excellent and the Auvergne wine was very good also. Your home is of a very high standard and we were very pleased with the accommodation. Facilities and equipment and everything we needed was there. The market and the boulangerie were very good and for shopping we used the Champion in La Monnerie. Weather was very hot at the start but we got a couple of overcast days which were nearly welcome. Thank you for booking La Vielle Auberge. We went there Sunday which was exceptionally warm and we had a very good meal. We went to Vichy on two days and had an enjoyable day in Place du Dome. We ate in Table d’Antoine which was probably our best meal. There was a fish dish which we had which was called filet de maigre which seems to translate a lean fish. The best restaurant near the apartment by a long way was Auberge du Palais in Celles sur Durolle. We ate there two nights. This was recommended by an English couple in your notes and she was right when she said the description of the meals do not do justice to the dishes. The chef was very helpful in explaining the dishes. We also ate in Chez la Mere Depalle which was good but not as good as the Auberge du Palais. We had a couple of pizzas from the Pizzaoille which were very nice and the staff there were very friendly. There were some very pleasant walks at the Lac and also the Valle des Rouets. Also the view from Calvaire was excellent. We also visited Charroux which was very pleasant but quiet on the day we visited. The paper mill in Ambert was also enjoyable. For our first two nights we stayed near Sauxillanges in Auberge des Liards. We would strongly recommend this for someone looking for a stopover in the Southern Auvergne. Very good accommodation and the food is organic and very tasty. One suggestion that we might make would be to have a gite journal in St Remy for everybody to complete. Finally, thank you very much for all your assistance and all the details you sent us which were very helpful. We will certainly be recommending the apartment and the Auvergne as a place to visit. We hope to enjoy some indian summer in cannes during our next holiday this year. Regards, David & Máire