Villa with heated pool between Nîmes, Montpellier and the sea

My wife and I and two friends stayed for two weeks in Villa Bambou, which, on arrival appeared appeared be part of a house which had been divided into two. Unfortunately Villa Bambou was partly underneath Villa Vaunage, so with noises coming from above it was like being in an apartment. The layout was not ideal, with two bedrooms and the lounge room downstairs, and the kitchen/diner and another bedroom upstairs. The lounge room was equipped with a large TV , a sofa bed and two armchairs. The kitchen was very well equipped with all major appliances, but the refrigerator and cupboards were bare of all the minor kitchen consumables, not even a pot of salt. Our first job was to go out and buy all the basics, plus dishcloths and bin liners. We stayed in three other properties on this trip, and this was the only one where we experienced this miserly treatment. The outside area was excellent, with its heated pool, gas barbecue and five sun loungers. Langlade is well situated for the attractions of Nimes, Arles, Pont du Gard(not to be missed) and the Camargue, but the village itself is not very interesting. We would not recommend Villa Bambou, but Villa Vaunage may be better.

We stayed in Vaunage, which is the smaller of the two villas. Smaller maybe, it still felt very spacious - and it is the one that has that fantastic view over the valley you see in the pictures. I think these have both been recently renovated - you can't see it from Google Earth if you look at the moment - and they've done a stunning job. The inside of the villa is upstairs, and the aircon unit in the lounge keeps things cool during the scorching hot summers (keep the internal doors open). The balcony outside has that amazing view, then there are the stairs down to the pool. Again, this area is bigger than I expected - the large table, chairs and BBQ is round the corner and there's a huge shade. The pool itself is a good size and was the perfect temperature - for us usually between 28 and 30 degrees, on days that were 32-34 degrees. If you have kids, I recommend bringing a few inflatables, a lilo, ball and 4 sinkers provided a week's worth of fun for us. There's an outside kitchen with a hob, sink and fridge freezer. Langdale is in a great place, it's only 15 minutes into Nimes. There is an Intermarche in the neighbouring village and a Carrefour at the roundabout at the bottom of the village, which is a good size. Best of all - the village bakery is about 4 minutes walk and the bread and pastries divine - open mornings and early evenings. It's only a shame that there's nowhere to hire bikes in the village itself, because it would have been great to use the new Voie Verte cycle route that passes through the village and goes to the neighbouring towns. There is cycle hire on the route in Calvisson, but that's some way to get to. The area in general is great, amazing climate and loads of history on the doorstep. Very much recommend the TGV. Our journey down was excellent, under 2 hours from Kent to Paris, 2 stops on the RER and under 3 hours to Nimes, most of the way at 300kph (try to book a direct service to / from Paris if you can, we missed a connection in Lyon on our return because it ran a bit late - just made it to the Eurostar in time!). We used Sixt for Car rental outside the station, and they were great too - very quick, no hassle, spoke great English. The wifi is slow - fine for finding out information, but not for watching movies, so go outside :-) Mobile reception was great though. Christophe and Christelle the owners were very friendly and helpful. Would love to go back before too long.