La Borie des Combes - Our Home Away from Home

The place we're renting is amazing. Even though it's a 15th century farmhouse, it has all the charm of a French country house and all the conveniences Americans love in their vacation places. I'll take you on a little tour.

The barn. Our bedroom is through the white door on the right and includes the small window left of the door. The rest of the building is unimproved storage right now.  

Right of our bedroom door is the main house, "La Maison". The owners, Jeri and Paul, live upstairs. The left window is our living room, the door and small window to its right is the kitchen and the last window is the guest bedroom.  3rd bedroom is beyond, but separate entry from the main house.

An additional bedroom with bath is in the works here. the round feature at the end is la borie - the bake ovens for the community in the 15th century. 

The entry to the 3rd bedroom with bath which we are also renting. It is to the right of the kitchen.

This was the working farm for the manor house in front of it. 

View toward Manor house from our bedroom door. 

We have a lovely terrasse and the weather has been so beautiful this week, that we've been able to sit out on the terrasse for aperos into the evening.  It does still get very cold here at night - in the 30s last night, but it warms to the high 60s or low 70s during the day. 

Aperos on the terrasse at La Borie - notice Evie's Badger hat. 

Our livingroom:

The door links to the kitchen.

Our living room is decorated in French country style and is really inviting. No TV or radio and no feeling of loss without it. The curtained arch leads down 3 steps to our bedroom. Some may regret the lack of door, but I was able to sleep without any disturbance while the 3 boys were streaming the NCAA final game on the computer at 3 am.

  Our bathroom and bedroom:

The shower on left is brand new. There's plenty of hot water and the floor is heated. Unbelievable luxury for a 14th century farm house.

Funny story about this feature of our bathroom: Jeri and Paul were going to change this old barn fireplace into a water feature, so created the fountain with fish in it. Then they realized that running water in the bathroom would just make everyone have to go to the bathroom more. So now it's just decorative.

French houses typically don't have closets, so we have an armoire for clothes. King size bed and behind me, out of the photo,  a writing desk. Plenty of light and storage. Tile floors require slippers, but there are rugs on each side of the bed. The fireplace is electric, but can also put out heat if requested. 

The first couple of days in the house were chilly. As the first guests of the season, the house was newly opened and scrubbed for our use and it takes a bit of time to warm it up with all those stone walls and tile floors. There are electric heaters in each room that do an adequate job of keeping the chill off and now that the weather is warmer and sunnier and the house has been lived in for several days, we find we are not using the heat at all. 

Our kitchen is really fun to use. We have a 5 burner gas stove with huge oven. The sink is new this year as is the stainless steel dishwasher. Our dishes are kept in a glass-doored wooden armoire. There is a small sideboard where we keep our food. The top is kept clear for our sommelier, Clark's use and for storing bread. There's an island in the middle for additional prep space and a small cabinet on the back wall for storage and coffee pot.

This kitchen is fully equipped with utensils and pots and pans. Microwave, toaster oven, and large refrigerator line this wall. The stove and side cupboard are installed inside the old farmhouse kitchen fireplace.

Our new sink and dishwasher and the door out to the terrace. We've already learned how to reset the electric panel which is hidden in the upper cabinet. You can't have all your electric stuff going at the same time! Notice the thick stone exterior walls.  They keep the house cool in the summer and can keep heat in in the winter.

Our table has a lovely feel of French country with its grey and white colors. Our dishes are stored in the cupboard behind Dave. The door in the back corner leads to the bathroom of the guest room which is behind the fireplace wall. Notice the exposed stone on the back wall.

Our food storage. Baskets on the left are for recycling (tall), trash (medium) and glass (empty - wine bottles all go on the fireplace which you can see just a bit looking through to the living room. Door to terrace is just off the left edge of this photo.

Pretty, isn't it?

Janis and Clark are staying in the blue guest bedroom which is part of the main house. Their room is also done in French country style with a queen sized bed and armoire. Chuck and Pat and Dennis and Karen will use this room when they stay with us in May. I didn't take photos of this room as it is Janis and Clark's. Clark said he'd take some photos for us to add later.

The "Chambre Gold" is the name of the 3rd bedroom we've rented. It is set up so that it can be rented separately from "La Maison" with it's own entrance, small patio, bath and coffee service. Friends and family coming for shorter periods of time will use this room. When I took these photos, Katie, Randy and Evie had already moved in and were recovering from a very long trans-atlantic flight. They hadn't even had time to unpack yet.

Coffee service. Their entry door is left of the coffee cupboard.

Bathroom of the Chambre Gold

Back wall of the Chambre Gold. The bed looks better when it is made up.

So this is where we are staying for 2 months. It has all the comforts of a French home and all the conveniences that we need for our exploration of this region.  We wish you could share a glass of wine with us on our terrace.

Randy and aperos

Janis at aperos with Manor house in background.