Although this accommodation looks impressive in Alastair Sawday guide book – beware - it is not anything like what is described in the book, or their own website. We were holidaying in Bordeaux and decided to spend some time close to La Rochelle as we were returning home from there. We rang a number of places in your guide with no response. Eventually we got through to Mme Chambonnet and she informed us she had a ‘suite’ that she could give us. We unfortunately booked for 4 nights. We left Bordeaux and arrived in La Sauvagerie on Friday afternoon. We met Mme Chambonnet and her husband Michel, and within a short time we had been verbally accosted by a rendition of both their life stories. On our way to and our room we noticed an unpleasant musty smell. The room was unclean with outdated décor and furnishings. There were houseflies everywhere – dead and alive. Beneath the radiator in our room appeared not to have been cleaned for decades – dead flies, leaves, cobwebs, etc. The bedclothes were old and worn and did not feel clean or fresh. The carpet was the same – we used our bedroom slippers to avoid walking on the carpet. This strange unpleasant musty smell was everywhere – we eventually bought a candle air freshener for our room to allow us some comfort. It took around two days to get rid of the smell – but it remained in the rest of the house. We considered booking out again but as we had only 3 days left of our holiday we didn’t think it worthwhile. We decided to have dinner with Mme Chambonnet and her husband Michel the first evening. Overall the dinner was OK apart from the ½ bottle of wine – between four people! At breakfast the next morning we were again fighting through the flies to gain access to our bread, etc. We were accompanied by two very pleasant American tourists. Mme Chambonnet later informed us that they had booked out after one night after originally booking for three nights – I wonder why! She subsequently told us that she believed the reason they gave for an early exit was a lie – we believed it was too! My wife also requested a hairdryer but there was none available. Mme Chambonnet informed us she believed it had been stolen. There was still no hairdryer available for our remaining stay. In addition to this every time we left or arrived at our accommodation, we had to pass by the proprietors sitting room, at which we were accosted by questions such as, where we were going, where we had been, where we had eaten, etc,etc, etc. The night before we left I fortunately asked Mme Chambonnet did she accept credit card and as I had suspected – the answer was no. If I had not the foresight to ask, we would have had to drive to Surgeres the following morning for cash – severely affecting our travel time to the airport. I could go on and on but what’s the point. Our advice – avoid at all costs!