Spacious Gîte, Beautiful Grounds, Services and Heated Pool

Very comfortable and well equipped Gite, both indoors and outdoors. Convenient for lots of beautiful chateaux

What a gem! We had a wonderful week at ‘Les Glycines’ with our adult children and their partners. Phil and Sandrine are fantastic hosts and they have thought of absolutely everything for their guests - a beautiful gîte with both rustic charm and all mod cons, including lovely bathrooms, comfortable beds, high quality bed linen and towels and a wonderfully equipped kitchen. The outside space was excellent too - each of the three gîtes have their own private garden with barbecue and garden furniture and the large communal area has a beautiful pool, hammocks, table tennis, boulodrome and plenty of seating and parasols, as well as 10 bikes plus helmets and pumps. Excellent wi-fi, indoor games and TV added to the amenities, although the weather was kind enough for us not to use these. Thank you to both Phil and Sandrine for a wonderful stay.

Wir finden diese Unterkunft ist hervorragend für Familien mit Kindern geeignet, die alle sehenswerten Schloesser an der Loire entdecken wollen. Die Vermieter sind absolut zuvorkommend und sehr freundlich. Das Haus ist sehr nett und gemütlich eingerichtet und der Garten ist absolut romantisch! Eine sehr schoene Ruhe Oase, um sich nach den Schlossbesichtigungen zu erholen. Auch der große Pool lädt zum schwimmen und abkühlen ein. Wir würden auf jeden Fall mit unseren Kindern wieder kommen!

We stayed in Les Glycine as we wanted to space. Having read an earlier review we wondered if we had made a mistake, but we had not. The gite has had plenty of use and would benefit from a refurbishment to bring it up to date. The only real issue was the electricity cut out often but we put this down to the vagaries of French electricity rather than the gite. The good outweighed the bad, we were warmly welcomed with a bottle of wine, the washing machine and dishwasher worked fine, the gas BBQ was great and the wifi amongst the best we have experienced in France. The bedrooms were fine spacious and towels were fine. Not five star hotel standard but after all this is a gite! There were plenty of settees and chairs and outside access to ample eating area to complement the BBQ, plus a pool, and gardens. There was parking for our two cars and another could have been parked on the main drive. I would recommend this gite if you want a spacious gite convenient for the attractions of the Loire.

Some positives: 1. Julie and Jeremy (the owners) are very nice and helpful and even gave us a bottle of bubbly on arrival. Both speak perfect English (Julie is British). In fact, I would have rated service significantly higher if we didn't have the issues below. 2. The location works really well; being quite central to most of the prime locations. You need a car though! 3. Walking and running in the area is great; surrounded mostly by vineyards with barely any cars in sight. The negatives: 1. The cottage needs major renovations. Central heating, lights, showers etc do not work properly. Jeremy was in our cottage pretty much every day fixing a blocked toilet, a radiator (which didn't work properly all the stay) and the dining room lights not functioning. Also, using the dishwasher and bathroom heater at the same time results in the consumer unit for all the cottages tripping leaving everyone in darkness. 2. The kitchen is in dire state. Dishwasher is useless and overall lacking some utensils (e.g. colander and oven shelves) . Similarly, washing machine is so old that basically doesn't spin at all leaving you with soaking clothes. 3. Cottage was not particularly clean with towels actually quite smelly and very poor quality. 4. We complained about the lack of basic amenities such as toilet paper and garbage bags etc, but Julie gave us a few immediately. 5. Decor needs significant updating, though this is subjective I guess. You can decide from the pictures if 'The gîtes have been carefully restored and provide all the modern conveniences one would expect in the 21st centrury.' When we spoke to the owners about the issues, they were very bullish about it. We were even accused of putting sanitary towels down the toilet resulting in blocked drains and somehow damaging a number of items throughout the stay. They also accused us of matters supposedly happening in a different cottage where another party (which we knew) was staying. Their attitude is to just blame the customers of every problem. Pool was closed so cannot comment (we had missed the fact it opens at the end of May). Garden games ok. Kids enjoyed playing for an afternoon in the garden. I would not recommend to anyone until the whole cottage is renovated. The owners will claim we were destructive and unreasonable and that we shouldn't go to such cottages. I assure you that we stayed in numerous cottages, bed & breakfasts etc and never had any problems.

I would recommend highly. Excellent cooking facilities, good lounge, plenty of space. Beds are comfortable and bathrooms/showers are well equipped. Plenty of parking and lovely large gardens with swimming pool. Very helpful and knowledgeable hosts. Small village 2 mins down road (5 minutes walk) with shop/patisserie/bar. Plenty of things to do and see nearby and further afield.

We went on a family trip, grandmother and children.... we all loved this house. The place is wonderfully located near at least 6 chateaux. The town is small, yet it has the minimum service very easy to reach (baker, small grocery store and café). The house is very beautiful, with a very lovely garden. The rooms are spacious and the bedding comfortable. The kitchen is very well equipped, so if you want to cook, it is easy and pleasant. In case you decide to have one day off the tourism, you have a great pool, garden games, TV, DVDs, bikes,private bbq... Julie is a great host, always helpful and full of resources. I could not find any point I disliked about this place. I highly recommend it.

I was stumped in trying to find a feasible rental in the Loire that would accommodate my being wheelchair bound. I contacted dozens of places and struck out on every one, until I found Les Glycines. I have to say, this is one of the most awesome places I've stayed in my life. Including the time before I got paralyzed. This place is great for anyone. Located in a charming old farmhouse, it's cute, quiet, modern and large, with three bedrooms and a pull-out couch in the living room. But the real attraction is the location. It's in a tiny hamlet that is centrally located for all the attractions of the Loire. It's midway between Blois and Amboise and none of the important chateaux are more than 30 min away. In addition, there are all the stores and services you could want nearby in Onzain. For me, the most attractive aspect of this rental is that it's two minutes from almost endless farm fields separated by little paved roads that get almost no traffic. They are perfect for morning runs, evening strolls or walks any time. We saw deer, foxes, peacocks, wild boar, falcons, other birds and even a capybara. Oh, and I forgot the private backyard and swimming pool. (Guests in other apartments use the pool.) As for the wheelchair specifics, the ground floor bedroom has a double bed with an en suite bathroom that has a roll-in shower. It's incredibly convenient. As of 2012, there were no handrails in the shower, so it's not totally ADA compliant. But try to find another roll-in shower in the Loire. Good luck! Plus, it wouldn't surprise me if owners Jeremy and Julie Kolbe added them too. They are always improving the property. If you use a wheelchair, I can't imagine you'd find a better rental in the Loire.

We stayed in one of the other Gîtes mentioned in the listing - Les Hortensias - and it was better than the description on the website. Jeremy and Julie were lovely and welcoming, and the location was stunning. It is only ten minutes walk into the village of Monteaux, but at the Gîte you could be in an isolated farmhouse as it is so quiet and relaxing. This listing undersells the property - the pool is set in beautiful expansive grounds, with a fantastic garden, lots of space, and a great place to relax. The Gîte is well set up - with everything you need, including some cooking essentials, and is comfortable. The block out blinds in the bedrooms mean that you can really get a great nights sleep, and are not woken by the sun at dawn (which is early in the middle of summer, of course). The local restaurants recommended by the owners were excellent. My only suggestion to Jeremy and Julie would be to add their other Gîtes to VRBO as separate listings!

Although not as polished as some more expensive gîtes, Les Glycines was the perfect location for exploring the Loire Valley chateaux. In addition to motoring day trips to Chenonceau, Loches, Chinon, Azay le Rideau, Chambord, Cheverny, Le Clos Lucé, we also cycled to Chaumont-sur-Loire, which is very near the gîte. Julie and Jeremy are very knowledgeable about the area and made a great recommendation for lunch at L'Auberge de Launay. Be sure to have a 1:200,000 scale map for driving and cycling backroads -- a much prettier way to see the Loire Valley. The kitchen in the gîte was well outfitted and had the added bonus of a washing machine and dishwasher. We were able to enjoy the pool area after a day of excursions, despite the coolish weather in France this spring, as the hosts had the pool heated. We did not see the other two available accommodations, but I believe they have been more recently updated. It is quite magical to be out for an evening stroll near the property and see the hot air balloons landing in the surrounding fields. I also recommend lunch at the tea room (Les Hortensias Bleus?) in the village at Chaumont-sur-Loire if you like to be adventurous.