In the area you can play golf at 'La barouge', cycle on the old railway line 'voie verte', visit the caves in Courniou or swim at the waterfalls of les Gorges d'Héric. The beaches of Sérignan and Gruissan are an hour and fifteen minutes away, the road to them is winding, but still nice because of the beautiful views and the typical French villages you drive through.
Our house has almost 50 years of history and memories, we have not completely modernized it because we want to preserve the French peasant family atmosphere. This place is meant to retreat from the busy life, to enjoy the flowers, the sheep, the bees, the silence and the bright stars. When we are here, we swim in the pool, take a walk through the stream with rain boots, visit the market of Saint Pons and have lunch on the terrace overlooking the garden. Sometimes we visit one of the beautiful villages in the area. We would love to be able to share this with you!
Good to know: Our house is part of nature, we don't remove every spider and beetle from the house. Our neighbors are Jeannot and his wife, they sometimes let their sheep and horses graze in one of our pastures, so feel free to pet or feed the horses when you are here! Our terrace and garden have stairs and height differences, otherwise the region is seasonal, in winter many restaurants and sights are closed.
History of the house:
In 1973, a good friend of our family told us about a piece of land he had discovered in the south of France. The name was 'Le Pré du Moulin', the mill meadow. Our confidence in him was so great that we bought the land without ever having seen it. In the summer of 1973 we left by car to our piece of land and there we were welcomed by Mr. Senegas and his wife. They gave us a tour of the land and showed us the waterfall, the fruit trees and the old wine press, the rest was grass and bushes. It was a beautiful place. After camping on our land for a few summers, we decided to build a swimming pool in 1975. To achieve this, a hole had to be dug and a bridge had to be built over the river. When the pool was delivered, the whole village came to watch and help, after all, it was not so easy to get an eight by four pool down the small steep road. To this day, that swimming pool is still there. In 1976 we started building the house, almost the entire interior was transported from the Netherlands to France by car and trailer. Since then we have celebrated more than a hundred holidays in this special place. In 2010 a garage and a bedroom with second bathroom were added. In 2015, the piece of land on the other side of the river was for sale and a machine company was interested in establishing itself there. To protect the view and silence, we bought that piece ourselves, with accompanying fruit trees!
Things to do:
- Grotte de la Devèze (the caves of Courniou)
- Gorges d'Héric (A huge gorge made by the river Héric, great spot for hikes and swims)
- The market of Saint-Pons (and Saint-Chinian)
- Lac de La Raviège (A lake with lots of water sports)
- The beach at Valras, Sérignan or Gruissan
- Golfing at La Barouge in Mazamet
- Cycling over the old train tracks 'voie verte'
- Having dinner on the terrace of restaurant Fleurs d'Olargues
- Olargues
- Saint-Chinian
- La Salvetat-sur-Agout
- Minerve
- Aigne
- Assignan
- Montpellier
- Carcassonne
- Albi
- Sète
