We had heard that the Gers was the best-kept secret in France, and it is. Hardly a postcard to be found. Just gorgeous, never-ending countryside of sunflowers, rivers, vineyards, old villages, hilltop estates, and quiet sky-- all against the backdrop of the distant Pyrenees.
Les Chenes Verts is also a secret gem, a lovely 17th c. farmhouse estate that has been beautifully restored to pamper four sets of guests with everything one could want in a rural setting. Beautiful fresh breakfasts served in the summer dining area that looks out over the vineyards, a lovely pool with the same view, gorgeous bedrooms with the most comfortable bathrooms we've ever had in France, excellent beds and linens-- all are presided over by a warm and helpful English couple who will make your reservations, guide you with conversation, maps, and books, and match your enthusiasm for their home with their own. They will even prepare a table d'hotes for you the evening you arrive so that you and they can sit down together.
The other guests we met had all been here before, returning once a year for the perfect calm and beauty of the region and the excellent but reasonable restaurants in nearby villages. Two sets of guests return every year for the nearby music festivals, one come every year for a week of hiking in the vineyards and nearby mountains. And we loved visiting the bastides that sprinkle the countryside, eating a creperie dinner one evening at sunset inside the tiny, magical, medieval castle keep of Larresingle while we watched a falconry exhibition. As far from big city life as one could get.
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