In England Vanessa and I led a hectic lifestyle. I was a Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Loss Adjuster. I played hockey on Saturdays and went to the gym to keep fit 3 times a week. I also took a scuba diving holiday each year. Vanessa was a French teacher at a high achieving girls school, she was a Guide Leader and one of the mainstays of the local, social, tennis club. We had had the same routines for a few decades and decided we needed a change. We took early retirement, me in 2014 and Vanessa in 2015, and embarked on creating our two businesses, Les Gîtes du Vigneron et Chambre d’hôte and Papillon École de Langue. I learnt many new skills while carrying out some of our major renovation works and Vanessa has learnt a whole new vocabulary, one that wasn’t taught in the classroom! We love our new lifestyles but, unfortunately, hockey has bypassed the Charente Maritime and the French only seem to play competitive league tennis. However, we have joined a local dance class, a new experience for me! Our village is very active and our neighbours have welcomed us into the village. We enjoy partaking in their various events which are usually accompanied by wine & cognac.

Vanessa and I bought our beautiful home in France in 2013. The property was an old distillery producing Pineau des Charentes & eau de vie for the production of Cognac. The main house, our home, was the old Maison Maître and the outbuildings were the vigneron's home (he was responsible for the management of the vineyards), barns, a stable and a cow shed. The last vigneron's daughter is still in the village and indeed is our neighbour! We started the renovations in July 2014. The goal being to convert the outbuildings into 4 gîtes, our chambre d'hôte, communal laundry & library, a games room and a classroom for our language school, Papillon École de Langue. And of course, not forgetting, our wonderful heated salt water swimming pool which is discreetly located in our large garden. The main works were completed in May 2016, in time for our first season. Come and stay with us. Enjoy what we have created here at Les Gîtes du Vigneron et Chambre d'hôte and even brush up on your French language skills while you are here!! So why not "Relax, recuperate and rejuvenate chez nous!" or, as the French would say, "Reposez-vous, récupérez et ressourcez-vous chez nous !"

We are in the heart of our village in the Petite Champagne and Haute Saintonge regions. We have several local ‘vignerons’ (wine growers) in the village producing wine for the cognac houses. There is also a small distillery, which produces ‘eau de vie’ for a leading cognac house. We are surrounded by vines and, in the summer, by fields of sunflowers. We are 6kms from Pons, a medieval fortified town on Le Chemin de Jacques de Compostelle. The medieval Hôpital des Pèlerins, built for the pilgrims, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area is teeming with sites to visit from the prehistoric Paleosite, just north of Saintes, the Roman amphitheatre in Saintes, medieval churches, Chateaux, the infamous Oradour sur Glane, the troglodyte caves at Meschers and more. The Charente meanders nearby with inviting walks. It runs through to Rochefort via nearby Cognac and Saintes. In Rochefort you can visit the old Arsenal and La Corderie Royale. The old dockyard is the home of L’Hermione, a working replica of Lafayette’s frigate that played a part in the American War of Independence. The sandy beaches of the Gironde Estuary and the Atlantic beaches of the Côte Sauvage are only 40 to 50 mins