The House on the Vineyard in Lectoure, Gers department, Gascony

I loved my stay at the House in the Orchards with my husband and a friend. This was a workation for us and it was a perfect place to do some writing while enjoying walks in the beautiful vineyards and nearby town of Lectoure. We particularly enjoyed the tennis court which is in excellent condition. We already booked another stay and look forward to returning!

It looks very traditional on the outside but has a cool loft-style interior. Very easy 5 minutes by car into Lectoure or to the nearest supermarket. The owners were easy to communicate with, and very welcoming and helpful if we had any problems.

The house is pleasant and equipped to a reasonable standard. It is situated on the courtyard of the chateau but the outside space faces away from the courtyard so is not really overlooked. The owners were in any case away for much of our stay. The location is very peaceful and it was nice to watch the hot air balloons rising from the valley as we enjoyed a drink round the pool in the evenings. The upstairs lounge is comfortable, as are the bedrooms. We appreciated the air conditioning in our room which worked well and was quiet. As a previous reviewer has noted, the outside dining furniture and parasol are old and damaged although functional. This did not affect our enjoyment of the property but perhaps does not live up to the luxury billing the owner is trying to suggest. The pool is good although electrical problems on the estate at the end of our stay meant that we could not use it on our last day. The house is a little further from Lectoure than we expected. It's a brisk 30 minute walk into town with some rough tracks by the shortest route we found, 5km by car or road bike and we were a little disappointed that it was therefore not really practical for us to walk into Lectoure for dinner. Lectoure itself is a bustling small town, quite touristy, with several restaurants, bakeries and butchers etc. The restaurants are a bit more expensive than those in the surrounding villages. Overall, we had a good holiday and enjoyed our stay.

The property is as depicted on the site, except for the outdoor patio furniture which is very old: umbrella/parasol missing its whinch - it needs to be opened by pulling on the rope by hand and tying it somewhere, the outdoor table has a broken plank in its middle and gave us splinters, the BBQ is at least 10 years old. On the first night my 2 year old sat on a patio chair, the set of chairs being as old as the rest of the funiture. Simply by sitting on it he broke a piece of wood making the seat. We thought nothing of it, seeing the state of the rest of the patio furniture, and unfortunately did not report it. The broken piece was small and did not prevent us from using the chair the rest of the week. On the last day of our stay the owner toured the property before we left and told us everything was fine. The next day she refunded our damage deposit less 69 euros to cover the cost of a brand new chair.... After I contacted her and explained that I saw it as normal wear and tear and that we should not be charged, she agreed that the patio furniture is old but went on by saying that the money also compensated for several 'special requests' we apparently made. Those were: 1) a refund for one night as there was a problem with the software when I booked and it was only allowing me to book 7 nights when we only needed 6; the owner and I agreed 3 months prior to our stay, and at her request, that she would pay me back in person for the extra night once we arrived as it was easier than trying to correct the computer glitch; once there however she seem to have forgotten why we needed a refund and repeatadly mentionned that she was doing us a huge favor by reimbursing the extra night; and 2) a week before our arrival we asked if we could arrive earlier than the check-in time of 3pm, to which she agreed, which we really appreciated since we were flying in with three young children. The owner finally complained that we left 30 minutes late on check-out, which is true, but fails to recognize that part of our late departure was due to her asking us to gather all bedsheets/towels and to start doing the laundry before we left (we have never been asked to start a wash of laundry in 10 years of homeaway rental...) - we actually started two loads and dried one of them...She also failed to recognize the late noise (past 11pm) from their house party on our last night. You be the judge as to wether we or the owners were unreasonable. Rent at your own risk...