Hideaway in France - gîtes in the Pyrénées near Carcassonne

Please click on a picture to explore our gites :

Bordeaux

 'Bordeaux'

Burgundy

'Burgogone'

Languedoc

 'Languedoc'

Loire

 'Loire'

Contents

Please click on a book symbol to
expand or collapse the section, then
click the underlined text to view the
page.

Expand All |  Collapse All

 
  Seasons

Where we are

Click the map for details.

Holiday tips



View of Mirepoix

A few thoughts from the experience of holidaying in France...

Bring an empty cabin bag

Which sounds like a silly idea, but when you find out the price and the quality of the local wine, cheese, and other produce compared to the UK, you may wish you had!

Opening hours in France

France still runs on the traditional French values of an early start, a late finish and a long lunch!

  • Most shops, including supermarkets, will close for at least an hour between 12 and 2. Some close for 2 hours
  • Most shops will close all day on Sunday, those which open on Saturday often close on Monday instead!
  • Few manned petrol stations are open 24 hours, and the ones that say 24/24 can't be used without a french credit card
  • Everything is closed on French Public holidays, which are different to those in the UK
    The French public holidays in 2004 are:
    1 Jan, 12 Apr, 1,8,20 and 31 May, 14 Jul, 15 Aug, 1,11 Nov, 25 Dec - These are marked with red 'ticks' on our seasons page.

Car Hire

Although we link to the 'partner car hire' schemes for each of the airlines on our How to get here page, If you have the time it is often better to go with a car hire broker -

  • The broker is likely to offer a better price
  • The car you have will probably come from one of the major companies
  • You will avoid the queue to collect the car at the airport!

The last point sounds obvious, but (for example) when a Ryanair flight of 100 people lands at Carcassonne, most of the hire cars are booked from Hertz. This means a queue of 20 people at the Hertz desk, and very few at Avis. Our guests have had to wait 90 minutes for a hire car - that's longer than the flight itself!

The dreaded insurance

For better or worse, insurance is now a fact of everyday life worldwide :

  • Health insurance - The most critical in case of accident or illness. Fortunately, if you are covered under the NHS in the UK, there is a FREE card you can get which will provide equivalent cover in France. For more details click on this link which will take you to the details on the department of health website. There is an online application form, and the card could save you hundreds or thousands of pounds.
  • Car insurance - Most companies include a number of days of European cover in their policies, but you will need to bring the policy document or a "green card" with you - Check with your insurance company.
  • Travel insurance - Most companies recommend and will sell travel insurance to you. Alternately, Chez Nous provides an excellent travel booking/advice/insurance service which is available to anyone who stays at L'Enclos. Please ask us for the contact number and reference numbers when booking.

Download the booking form in word format

Download the booking form in PDF format

Download the 2008 half page summary of our facilities

Download the 2009 half page summary of our facilities

Download a free copy of Adobe acrobat reader