Our south facing longère is located in a quiet and peaceful hamlet called La Ville au Tady, near the village of Guegon. The hamlet consists of just four houses and is accessed via a five minute drive down scenic country lanes from the Village. The road becomes a track a short distance past our cottage, but you can continue on to loop back to the tarmac road. This track passes the old mill house, le Moulin de Panros, which is situated on the bank of the River Sedon (the owner of the Mill House is the local taxi/ambulance driver).

The property stands in over 1 acre of gardens, which are fenced at the rear and hedged at the front. The front and rear borders of the cottage are planted with a variety of climbing roses, shrubs, herbs, lavender and hydrangea. The rear boundaries are dotted with oak, chestnut and crab apple trees. A hardwood table and six chairs are provided for outdoor eating in the front garden where dappled shade is provided on sunny days by a Mimosa tree. 

In the rear garden there is a small orchard of mixed fruit trees including cherry, apple and plum. There is a very large old walnut tree, sweet chestnut and hazel nut trees. These trees can provide welcome shade from the sun in the mid-summer months. If holidaying in the autumn, you are welcome to help yourselves to any windfall. In October/November you can collect chestnuts from the garden and roast them on the open fire! This will help compensate for the weather, although you do get sunny days.

The quiet country lane past our cottage serves just two further properties, so traffic should not be a problem!

The longère was originally a small farmhouse tied to the Trégranteur Estate. It is constructed with granite walls, slate roof, and traditional wooden shutters. The exterior walls are almost one metre thick in the oldest part of the building, which helps keep the cottage cool in summer and warm in winter. The guest area of the cottage was originally a garage extension on the right end of the longère, and a few years ago was converted to provide a guest gite containing a bathroom, lounge and bedroom. A connecting door was knocked through at the ground floor level only, so this end of the cottage can be used as an area for friends or family offering some degree of independence from the main cottage.

There are only two close neighbours in the hamlet. The nearest neighbour is situated to the left of the cottage, about 10 metres away. Many years ago these two cottages were almost certainly part of the same building joined together by another building in the middle, which no longer exists, but you can still see the remains of an old fireplace on our outside left gable wall. The next door neighbour's house does not directly overlook our cottage, and our garden extends for a long distance beyond the neighbour's property boundary. Next door-but-one is Marthe, a friendly Breton lady who assists us in keeping an eye on the cottage (she speaks more Breton than French!).

The Longère is surrounded by farm fields to the front, right and rear. The fields are mostly used to grow crops such as wheat and sweetcorn.

The rear of the longère provides pleasant views over the garden, and is a peaceful place to sit and relax, read a book, enjoy a barbecue or an al-fresco lunch. We provide a hammock to string between the trees.

A gravel terrace at the rear is ideal for barbeques and meals, and is shaded during the height of hot summer days. A table and chairs for six, with parasol, are provided.

The rest of the garden is bathed in sunshine. A wrought iron dining set sits under under the shade of the fruit trees, and is a great spot for afternoon tea, or lunch on a hot day.

To the left of the garden, a mown path through the grass leads to another informal seating area with views over fields and rolling countryside. This is a great place to sit and read a book in splendid peace & quiet, or do a bit of sunbathing. Children can safely be left to play & explore the wilder limits of the rear garden which is fully fenced.

The garden provides lovely views over the local countryside from this vantage point, and this westerly view from the garden is ideal for watching the setting sun, or spot one of the many birds of prey that soar over the surrounding fields.

The garden extends for quite some distance, sloping gently downwards towards the River Sedon which is about 200 metres beyond our rear boundary (popular with locals for fishing, look out for the Otters). A bank of ancient bank of Sweet Chestnut trees form the rear boundary of our garden.

Due to the mild climate, the grass growing season is longer than in the UK. From March to November our gardener, Peter, will visit as required to cut the front, side and rear lawns. The garden is very large, and it is not feasible to cut all the grass, so the garden is not mown beyond the fruit trees, except for a loop of paths through the long grass. The far end of the garden, naturalised with grass, blackberries, oak saplings, and bracken, is left for the benefit of local wildlife. We intend to let this area naturalise into an oak woodland. It also makes for a great run-around area for children to play hide & seek and explore.