New flights to the Auvergne!

The first time I visited the Auvergne (back in 2004) we flew Ryanair to St Etienne. It was a slow and difficult 3 hour drive to La Bourboule. And Ryanairs short lived route to Clermont Ferrand had already been cancelled. The St Etienne flights also bit the dust a year or so later.

But all was not lost. The completion of the N89 suddenly meant that Limoge airport was an easy, and pleasant, two hour drive.

And that's how things stayed for a while. We heard rumours about the construction of Brive airport but it seemed it would never be finished. There was even a rumour that the Ryanair flights to Clermont Ferrand would start again.

Then a month or so ago we heard some great news with not one but two new flight options to the region. Don't expect an overnight property bubble (that's not how things work in the Auvergne) but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

www.Flybe.com are launching summer flights (May to September) from Southampton or Manchester to Clermont Ferrand. And the airport is just 45 minutes drive from our house.

And the long awaited Brive-La-Gaillarde Laroche (90 minutes drive from our house) is also in action. Jet2.com is operating flights from Manchester. And there are also flights to Brive from London City Airport. See www.travelsupermarket.com to check times and prices

airport is also in action.

Bort-Les-Orgues

I'm sorry to say that although we bought our house in Murat over 5 years ago we only visited Bort-Les-Orgues for the first time in August 2010. This is a shame because it's a scant 30 minutes drive from the house in Murat-le-Quaire and has a lot to offer.

For one thing it's a lot lower than Murat-le-Quaire temperatures and water temperatures tend to be higher. There is great swimming in the huge lake above the reservoir. There's also a large Aquapark which our kids loved. It's a kind of mini 'Total Wipeout' course with inflatable pontoons to slide down, run along and jump off. You can also hire canoes or pedaloes for trips around the lake. There's also a large boat offering guided tours around the lake and the picturesque Chateau de Val which overlooks the lake.

Highly recommended! See www.bort-artense.com for more information.

New Ventures

Some people call it downshifting. Anyway we sold our house in London and moved to Dartington, Devon. We used some of the proceeds to buy a flat in Queens Park, London. This was partly as an escape valve (if it all goes Pete Tong in Devon we will still have a toe hold in London) but also so we have somewhere to stay in London. However to make it pay for itself we are also doing holiday lets there. See our website for the flat at www.queensparkflat.co.uk. So far it's going pretty well. There is certainly plenty of demand for quality holiday lets in London. So far we've had bookings from Denmark, Canada, Australia, France, Italy, Spain and Holland. Surprisingly we haven't had a single enquiry from the States.

Down in Devon I am working on a couple of new businesses. However to get some quick cash in, we are also opening the annexe on the side of our house as a B & B. Week Meadow B & B Dartington will open in January 2011. And to keep the cost down I'm installing the new bathroom myself.

New House Website

I've finally got round to creating a website for the house. You'll find it at murat-le-quaire-gite.co.uk
. The total cost of putting it together was less than £50 but it remains to be seen if the bookings start pouring in! To get bookings from it I'll probably have to spend some time building up some links to it. And as the house is already quite well booked for 2010 it may not be my top priority. However I enjoyed putting the site together and it was surprisingly straightforward to do, mainly thanks to Eric's excellent widgets from holidaysitecentral.com

More Attractions in Murat-Le-Quaire

One of our guests was asking what there is for children in the summer at Murat-Le-Quaire. I did a quick Internet trawl & found a couple of new sites that are worth mentioning.
The amazing Parc Fenestre in La Bourboule, 2km from the house now has its own website.
parcfenestre.com

And Murat-le-Quaires own museum also has its own website too - toinette.com

The local goat farm (Chevrerie) doesn't quite have a website of its own but does have its page with lots of information.

And don't forget to check out sancy.com which has lots of local information including festivals and special events.

And due to open in Summer 2010 is the new Swimming Pool in La Bourboule. The old one was demolished in autumn 2006 so it's been a long wait but the pool complex looks spectacular.

2010 flies out of the door

Year 2 of our lettings are well up on our first year. I think when people see how booked up the house is they feel more inclined to crack on and book. If you look at our listing on holiday-rentals.co.uk/p410766 you'll see that most of the ski season & quite a lot of summer 2010 is already booked up. I'm sure adding things like Satellite TV and Wi-fi have helped too.


Pour-les-vacances is still the top performer for rentals closely followed by 1000gites.com. We dropped Chaletfinder.co.uk. I'm sure it works for Brit favourites like Val, Morzine & the Three Valleys just not for more obscure resorts.

Lettings progress

Letting the house has gone very well. I think there's a shortage of larger houses in the area. Certainly the local tourist board website sancy.fr doesn't list anywhere else that sleeps 14 people and many of the local rental properties look a bit tired and dated in photographs. We're now booked up until early May and most of the summer is booked too!
For up-to-date availability see pour-les-vacances.com/site/planning.php?id=4678. Incidentally Pour-les-vacances is also our top performing website by some distance! If you find this blog and want to enquire about availability & prices just email bentisdall1 at gmail.com. I can't put in an email link for fear of the spam-bots!