Very Pretty Country Cottage in Manche, Normandy - Bumblebee Cottage

Bumblebee Cottage has been fully renovated to a high standard and offers a traditional taste of France with all its furnishings but also offers extreme coziness and practicality with all mod cons. It has a well equipped kitchen, two large shower rooms, a spacious lounge with a dining area together with a sitting room equipped with a selection of books.  If you’re in the middle of one at the end of your stay please take it with you, a good book should be read to the end.

In early 2016 we converted the old snug into a fourth bedroom to have a bedroom with ground floor access and the dining room became a sitting room. We also moved the dining area into the original lounge to be more in keeping with the rural french custom.  The pool is not heated, but ther solar cover warms it suprisingly well, although Easter would be a little early I think.

The TV has Freesat with most of the UK TV programmes available and a DVD player with a selection of DVD’s, and there’s another TV/DVD in the sitting room.  There's broadband available, it's slow and the bandwidth is limited (so please don’t download movies) as we're too far from the telephone exchange to have cable.  We're struggling to improve on this but as at January 2017 we're stuck with the system we have.  The joy of rural France.

The stone-built cottage was once a farmhouse and is attached to its barn, which is no longer in use, and gives it the air of a traditional French longère with its water pump in front – it works but we wouldn’t recommend drinking the water!

Situated at the end of a lane that only serves two other properties it is both private and quiet, and the garden, about three quarters of an acre, has lots of room for the children to run around in or play ball games. There are swings in the garden, an above ground pool and swing ball. We also have a football net if you fancy a game of football.  There are apple and pear trees and a ferocious bramble patch down at the bottom corner (help yourself if they are ripe).

Reall, this cottage is perfect for relaxation and chilling out, whether sitting under the awning on the decked BBQ area or relaxing in the evening with a glass of wine watching the swallows darting about, and if you are lucky, deer have been spotted at the bottom of the garden  We suspect there’s a fox or two about also and we’re fairly certain that there are a couple of bats living in the barn we think that we saw a badger once.  If it’s too cool to sit outside, the log fire is very cozy, there’s an ample supply of logs in the log store.

The village of Saint Clement is only a couple of minutes drive away and the small market town of Mortain is just five minutes away where there are bars, cafes, supermarkets and shops. In addition just two minutes down the road is a great Go-cart Track which is popular for both children and adults.

The area wasn’t so peaceful in 1944, there was a major battle at Mortain and the view from the hilltop above the town is huge, fading into the misty distance. There’s a pleasant walk and picnic area there.

Cyclists and walkers are well catered for, as two km from the cottage there is a disused railway line (ample parking there), which is now a cycleway/footpath and runs for miles.  The line originally ran to Vire via Sourdeval, but I'm not sure if it's open for all of the route