Le Pressoir

The house is called Le Pressoir, because it has a large, original grape press in the front garden. It is a Charentaise ‘Maison de Campagne’ (country cottage), with a lot of character, in a quiet rural hamlet, with a front garden, back sun terrace, separate pool garden (with private 10m x 4m pool), and a lovely little courtyard which is delightfully cool in the heat of the summer. The hamlet is not far from the market town of Chalais - 5 kms - and 10 kms to the attractive village of Aubeterre-sur-Dronne (one of the 100 prettiest villages in France), with its restaurants, bars, artists, potteries and lovely river beach.

The hamlet is a very peaceful location - it is just a few houses, surrounded by fields, with an abundance of wildlife, fields of corn and sunflowers, and some dairy farms. The area is covered in forests of oak, chestnut, boxwood and pine where many wild animals and birds such as roe deer, pygmy shrews, larks, finches and wild boar can be found. Also 25 different kinds of wild orchids. There are the gorges and rivers of the Sud Charente, lakes and meadows, fortified towns and villages, and wonderful Romanesque churches, many of which made up the historical pilgrims’ trail to Santiago de Compostela.
Kitchen and dining
Country kitchen with ceramic hob, electric oven, fridge-freezer, dishwasher, coffee-machine and microwave. Plentiful crockery, cutlery, pots, pans and dishes, plus all you'll need to barbecue on the sun terrace. Kitchen table for 6-8. Beautiful old dressers and logburner. Bi-fold doors out to the sun terrace, so you can open up the whole back wall of the kitchen directly on to the sun terrace.
Living room
Double height with exposed stone walls, high beams, and mezzanine level. Comfortable leather sofas, coffee-table, large antique dresser (with UK satellite TV and DVD player. Logburner. Doors onto side courtyard.
TV room
Sofabed and chairs, TV, DVD player, desk, coffee table, large collection of DVDs and CDs
Upstairs mezzanine has further desk and there is is wi-fi throughout the house.
Bedrooms
Master bedroom with king sized sleigh bed looks out over the sun terrace. Wooden floors with rugs, large wardrobe, rocking chair, dressing table and stool.
Bedroom 2 upstairs is a large double which looks out over the front garden - with antique French brass bed and ceiling fan.
Bedroom 3 downstairs has a double bed and a single bed - it's is the coolest room in the summer, and also has a cot, if needed.
Bathrooms
Spacious upstairs bathroom with claw-foot bath, separate shower enclosure, wash-hand-basin and wc. Downstairs shower-room with wc, wash-hand-basin and washing machine.
Heating
Two logburners - both in perfect working order, but never needed from June to September! Supply of wood always stocked beside the courtyard, in case of cooler nights at the very end of September.
Entertainment
Golf clubs, pool toys, badminton rackets, dvds, board games and, of course, boules! Tv with UK satellite programmes,dvd player, cd players inside and out on the sunterrace.