Location

The house is situated in the La Vendée region of western France with the Atlantic on its western Coast, La Rochelle to the south and Nantes and Brittany to the north. The village of Saint Valérien is situated on the border between La Plaine and La Brocage, loosely translated it's between the flat land and green hills. The house is 30 km from the sea and close to the world heritage site of Marais Poitevin.

Getting there and away

There are plenty of options for getting to and from La Vendée with good rail and air connections both to the rest of France and internationally.

Road

The house is within 10-15 minutes of junctions 7 or 8 of the A83, the main west coast autoroute which runs from Nantes down to Spain. The main A87 autoroute from Paris joins the A83 about 20 km north of junction 7 making for quick connections to the rest of France. Nantes is about an hour to the north and La Rochelle about 40 minutes south west.

Ferry

There are many ferry options from southern England to northern France. The closest of those being from Portsmouth and Poole to St. Malo, Cherbourg and Caen operated by Brittany Ferries. There are also Condor ferries operating in the summer from Poole and Weymouth to St. Malo. Other more competitively priced options include LD ferries from Portsmouth to Le Havre and Transmanche ferries from Newhaven to Dieppe. Approximate journey times from ports to the house; St. Malo (3 hours), Caen/Cherbourg (4 hours), Le Havre (4.5 hours), Dieppe (5 hours).

Air

There are 3 airports within easy reach of the house. The closest being La Rochelle with daily flights from Stansted with Ryanair and Bristol with easyJet. Nantes is the next nearest with Ryanair flights from Stansted and EastMidlands, BA also fly daily from Gatwick. Finally Poitiers is about an hour and a half away with Ryanair flights from Stansted. All of these airports have car hire available.