Marie

For parents of a certain age, ‘Little Houses on the Prairie’ may well bring to mind the iconic Sunday morning TV series, which opens with a happy little girl with pigtails, skipping through a wild flower meadow! Well these seven gorgeous ‘little houses’, surrounded by swaying fields of corn, maize, wheat and barley, certainly capture that spirit of carefree rural life with the bonus of being close to the great beaches, seaside towns and ‘Pink Granite’ coastline of Northern Brittany.
Even the owners’ story is a romantic one, as Liz fell in love with the place and her husband-to-be, over 18 years ago, when she came here from Ireland to work in the farm restaurant, which is still a flourishing family affair today. After finishing college, she hot-footed back to Brittany and married Corentin, beginning a new chapter for the couple and the farm. Liz and Corentin now live here with their four children and, over the last 10 years have been renovating and converting the farm buildings into 7 boutique gites where families can share a slice of their Breton good life.

As Liz and Corentin have renovated the cottages, they have affectionately named each one after their original occupant, so families will be staying in Rose, Louise, Marie, Josephine, Florence, Jeanne or Anne, which all have their own quirky character. The emphasis has been on creating romantic, cosy and highly individual cottages, which the couple have achieved with wow factor results. Original features, natural materials and warm colour schemes are complemented by bold and boutique-style interior design, whilst the furnishing and finishing touches are an eclectic mix of old and new, with wonderful bits and bobs picked up from bric-a-brac markets and car boots. Twinkling lights around a canopy bed; a big wicker rocking chair by a wood burner; a space-age age bathroom pod with pea-green walls – the cottages are straight from the pages of fairy stories which are sure to delight big and little kids alike.

Besides the cottages, the other hub of the farm revolves around the family restaurant and farm shop, just a couple of miles away. The family has been running ‘Le Char a Bancs’ since 1971, serving up their home grown, home reared and homemade produce in simply delicious dishes such as their famous Potee or Pot au feu, Breton crepes and gallettes, all washed down with home pressed apple juice and Corentin’s own Breton cider. Le Char a Bancs is much more than a restaurant too, and children of all ages will be quite happy spending the day here, thanks to the array of swings, slides, castles, pedal boats and pony rides, not forgetting meeting friendly farm animals including pigs, cows, hens and ducks. Besides eating here, families can arrange with Liz for a yummy breakfast basket of goodies to be delivered, which will magically appear each morning in a little glass house in front of the cottage. Because good food is such a feature on this farm, Liz also offers mini cookery classes for little ones in her own home.

Accommodation overview
Les Petites Maisons dans la Prairie consists of 2 x 1-bedroom gites, 4 x 2-bedroom gites and 1 x 3-bedroom gite.

La Mason de Marie (6 + baby) is large family cottage, providing 110m² of space, that’s brimming with traditional, rustic charm, from exposed walls and raftered ceilings to warm colour schemes, authentic furnishings and eclectic bric-a-brac. The comfy, cosy sitting room has 2 large sofas, a flat screen TV, DVD and CD players and free Wi FI, while the large farmhouse-style kitchen is equipped with all mod cons including a fridge freezer, dishwasher, gas hob, oven, microwave, filter coffee machine, Nespresso coffee machine and kettle. A basket of toys and books is provided and a library of more books and DVD’s can also be found in the farm’s ’cabine’, along with a wealth of local tourist information. Two washing machines, a dryer, iron, ironing board and two hair dryers are also in the cabine. The house washroom has an Italian shower and the WC is separate. A very cosy and romantic bedroom is on the ground floor with a king size canopy bed, decked in twinkling fairy lights. A second impressive bedroom with a king size bed and high raftered ceiling, is on the first floor, along with a charming children’s rooms with twin single beds and a feature, red-brick fireplace. La Maison de Marie opens onto a lawned garden, with garden furniture, deck chairs, sun umbrella and a barbecue, plus families can spill out into the shared garden which has a ‘chateau fort’ play house, sand pit and slide.