While our lovely Charentais barn was being renovated, we often camped out in an old stone outhouse - our daughter affectionately christened this the Hobo House, and the name has stuck. It was so nice in this friendly little cottage that we decided to convert it, and rent it out as a gîte - but only when there’s no-one in the barn. This is how you will have the whole acre of gardens - and the pool
- entirely to yourselves; a true get-away-from-it-all escape. As you will see from the pictures, we have carried out the conversion sympathetically, to a very high standard, providing everything we think is important; a local oak dining table, a dishwasher, Denby bone china, sharp knives, two types of corkscrew, a huge flat-screen TV with lots of good DVDs, a large firm and especially comfortable bed, a multi-jet “shower pod” like something out of Star Trek... and outside, a vast north-facing shady hangar with a large ceiling fan for those hot summer lunches, a choice of two barbecues and of course outdoor ping-pong, all sheltered from both sun and rain. Even down by the pool, so you can do a little casual surfing as you relax on the comfortable pillows of our hardwood sun-loungers, with an iced drink from the pool-side fridge and bar. Or in a deckchair under our small plantation of mature pine trees which provide a pretty spot to relax with a book in pine-scented shade. Not forgetting a cooling shower in the wet-room in our Pool House, converted from what is probably the finest stone-built chicken coop west of the Charente! After your lunch in the cool of the shaded hangar, another swim, and a 6km cycle-ride or drive into Ruffec, to the twice-weekly market or the spanking new branch of E.Leclerc, for vital supplies, you’ll be ready for an extremely leisurely al-fresco apéritif and barbecue; remember in the wonderful summer micro-climate of the Charente, it stays warm until 2am. And so to bed in that very comfortable bed in the old stone “hobogîte” ...
