La Grave: House with character

"The description and photos had certainly raised our expectations (and expectations can be high when the going rate is €1200 per week!). The house itself lived up to those expectations, from an architectural point of view: it is a very successful blend of old and contemporary with a beautiful living room and kitchen. As a holiday rental is falls somewhat short of its promises:

- the place was not very clean: there is a lot of roughly finished concrete surfaces and recesses which were full of dust. The rolls of sticky paper with long-dead flies were not particularly attractive either...

- there are no wardrobes whatsoever: you''ll have to live out of your suitcase for the duration of your stay...

- the outside space was a let down with 1 broken comfy chair out of 3 (this place sleeps 8!) and most of the ground is very uneven/steep slope...

- the sauna did not work.

- the DVD player did not work.

- the beds, bed linen and pillows were of very average quality.

- last but not least: the photos don''t really enable you to understand how far or close to its neighbours the house actually is. Sadly, it is very close (less than 10m) to a house which is being entirely rebuilt! Which meant being woken up by building noise (including pneumatic drilling) at 7am, and having to put up with it most of the day... Very disappointing when all you wanted is peace and quiet.

The owner acknowledged being vaguely aware of the building works but only reluctantly agreed to a €200 rebate when asked.

It wouldn''t be difficult to put all the above things right: let''s hope the owner gets round to doing it and then this place will be really special."