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Check out our official website at supergites.nl.

A gîte  is a French holiday home that is available for rent. Gîtes are usually fully furnished and equipped for self-catering. Many owners choose to handle their own rentals, and you can find these by searching online on the multitude of listing sites or by checking with the local tourist information office. [wikipedia]

A gîte is generally an old farmworkers’ cottage or converted outbuilding. This type of holiday accommodation is sometimes regarded as ‘basic’ in terms of facilities; however, some gîtes will have excellent facilities. Now that called a super gîte.

This blog tells the story behind the first Supergîte; on how we got there and how we’re doing today. Happy reading.

Learn how to apply polypropylene fabric the hard way…

Probably you do know people who don’t like gardening. I guess everybody does. So, so do we… the previous owners of our water mill. They neglected 90% of the garden because of this. They mowed a tiny lawn and planted fast growing perennials around it in the specific French manner.  This means; all as solitaires with no recognisable pattern. This also led to a ‘certain’ disregard of the rest of the garden and a prosperous growing nettle field.

When we bought the mill in 2009 over 4/5 of the garden was one big impenetrable bush of nettles and thorns. We seriously had some work to be done. (Read: Back to Basics) Still it was not till last year when we decided to move to some heavier methods. The nettles just kept coming back. We needed Weed Control! Polypropylene fabric was the answer. (Read: We Didn’t Start this War.) We placed it where we replanted the beds and covered it with woodchips. #fail. We learned how to apply polypropylene fabric the hard way… these are the 7 rules:

Water Service

Managing a remote house is not easy. You have bills coming in at your foreign address as well as in your mailbox at home. All of them are in French which makes it even harder to handle. Apart from that, the system is totally different. Tax for this, tax for that, national tax, local tax. And so on and so forth. 

To get an idea… France does have much the same taxes as other countries. However, there are three main differences between France and many other countries:

Wine tasting

The French like wine. But don’t be mistaken. They do not drink wine all the time. It’s only to accompany  food. That’s what we’ve learned when we gave our first reception.

Here in France opening a bottle for dinner is a big thing. You don’t just grab a bottle and be surprised about the taste. You have Merlot, Haute Medoc, Pouilly-Fumé, Sancerre, Touraine, Saumur etcetera etcetera. And they all taste different. That you know – right? If not, stop drinking Coca-Cola.

Every year the big hypermarchés like Casino, Cora and Carrefour, offer a wine tasting. And we love it. We go straight to the desk. Spend at least

Chartreuse du Mont-Dieu

Main gate still reflects its lost grandeur.

Driving around we discovered the magnificent monastery of Mont-Dieu. We’ve heard about it but never been there ourselves because it’s not visible from the main road. It’s still feels as remote as it must have been during its period.

Located in the heart of the Ardennes , the monastery of Mont-Dieu was built in an open field in the middle of an immense forest of 1123 hectares, and through which sources, feeding once numerous ponds.

This Carthusian monastery is founded in 1137 by Odo, abbot of Saint-Remi near Reims. Pope Innocent III recognised the new monastery in a bull, that same year on December 9, 1137. The inhabitant monks followed the Rule of Saint Bruno and it was used for live and pray until

“We didn’t start this war.”

It has been tough. We worked so hard to get the weeds under control but we didn’t succeed in most part of the garden. Every weekend that we spend in France we only had to work to get the flower garden ‘clean’. But as soon as we missed a weekend it all came back. Let’s call it green hell. It was very demotivating.

Only 6 weeks ago, when i was in Shanghai for a conference my partner and Hendrik Dekker (our friend & landscape architect) decided to take a dramatic step. They used the foil that was supposed to cover the paths and covered the squares of perennials and immediately topped it with chopped bark. I was in shock. “It’s so ugly.”

But looking at the first bed with groundcover last weekend i noticed one tiny needle trying to peek out. I killed it. “Hey, we didn’t start the war.” I drove by the garden centre in Reims to buy enough for two more squares. I truely want to enjoy the garden.

If you buy an old neglected garden do not hesitate to cover it all in March when everything is still ‘sleeping’. It saves you a lot of work in the years to come.

The Next Supergite?

Image by Supergites via Flickr

Have you ever looked for a house and found one that was so grand that, even though it was way over your capabilities, you just had to see the inside? It happened to us with this ‘Ferme Des Dames’ near Reims.

Accidentally we ran into this object online. Hugo send me the url and asked me what I would do with this Farm and Chapel. I fell instantly in love with the view, the stones and the atmosphere. These combined form this unique peaceful place to unwind. I could see myself gardening a little in the early morning overlooking the dewy valley. Or sit in the courtyard sipping wine made from the grapes over the terrace. Meanwhile the kids of our friends are running around with a ball. But *G*

Getting more fans than you could imagine …

Do you recognize this? You did something that became more successful than you ever imagined? Supergîtes is just that. We’re open, booked, and everybody is happy (well, almost everybody). We’re even seriously thinking of starting a second Supergîte.

To celebrate and thank our friends, fans and renters we are working on some extra benefits. With a subscription to our Supergîtes Updates you unlock these twice a year. Even though our list is over 270 people long, there’s still a reason why we call these Updates ‘Just for Friends‘.

Become a ‘Friend‘. Join our mailing list today …

Sign up for our Updates

The French Tawny Owl

Image via Wikipedia

Sleeping at the French country side especially in an area with small woodlands, the night sounds are exciting. Some say it’s scary and it gives this person the creeps. You can hear the Midwife Toad bleep and the moth hit the lights. But there’s even a bigger joy: the spooky cry of the Strix aluco or the Tawny Owl.

It starts just after sunset and around dawn when these birds are less afraid to be heard or ‘seen’ as you like. It’s when they make sure the rest of the night birds know their territory for the hunt. “IBU, I’m on this side of the valley.”UHU, I know.” They continue their cries for an hour or so before they chose the night for their soundless hunt. You can’t hear them fly at all. This is amazing since they can hold up to a meter in wingspan.

You can read all about these owls at Wikipedia. And you can hear them here and of course at our Supergite at Tourteron.

Related articles

• Owls turn brown as climate warms (news.bbc.co.uk)

Goat for Rent

Do you recognize this problem? You got a beautiful garden but there’s this one corner that is always a bit of a mess. It’s just too rocky, too weedy or too damp. As a good gardener you’re just about able to hide it behind the roses or some bush. But it’s there to irritate you every time you take that better look in your green paradise.

We have this problem too. It’s 4,000 m2

We own this enormous field. Walk out of the kitchen, through the orchard and pass through the flower garden, climb the dyke and there it is… one acre of weed. *Gosh* what to do with it? We cut it the first summer, tried to poison it the second but this year we lost the energy to even look at it until now. We have the perfect solution: Let’s Rent a Goat. This is the official call to our fellow denizen:

Chers amis de Tourteron,

Nous avons 4,000 mètre carré qui est inutilisé. Il est plein de mauvaises herbes.Connaissez-vous quelqu’un qui a une chèvre qui a besoin de plus d’espace?Nous aimerions apporter notre territoire de placer la chèvre. Elle peut mangertoutes les mauvaises herbes gratuitement.

Marco et Hugo

Hiking 79 in Les Ardennes 08

This is the walk we walked this weekend. It’s route 79 with a total length of 16.4 km (102 miles) .. the sky clear blue, the temperature a spring 13ºC (55ºF) … fantastic. BTW to make the tour complete I added some pictures that I’ve taken some other time along the same road.

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