The Cottage
The cottage is situated in the centre of a small commune
called La Denilais, which consists of a central farm house and
about a dozen cottages and out buildings. The commune dates from
the early 18th century, with most of the buildings being constructed
around 1730, as we believe ours was.
As you will see from the photos there are actually two houses
joined together (via the extention that runs behind them) that
makes up the cottage. This gives two quite independent houses
both with a bathroom and sitting room of their own. They are
known as the old and new houses when we talk about each side.
The old house, on the left in this picture, is the original one
we bought in 1989, the new one (right) is the one that was bought
in 1998 and was finished in 2002.
The cottages are of traditional design, build of two foot thick
solid granite stone, particular to the region and supported on
large oak beams. Originally they would have been two floors with
the ground floor for the farm worker, family and some animals and the
top floor for storage, accessed by a temporary ladder. They now
both have three floors with proper stairs but we have been able
to keep most of the beams and exposed stone work.
Outline of facilities
In total there are five bedrooms which altogether will
sleep ten people. There are three bedrooms in the old house -
layed out as two doubles and one twin - and two very large bedrooms
in the new house - one twin and one double. Each side has it's
own bathroom, the old house having the bath with shower
attachment and the new one a modern shower. On the ground floor
of each is a sitting room with traditional stone fireplace.
Linking the two houses together is a long extention that has
the kitchen and dining area. This overlooks the garden through
four large french windows. At the far end of this extention there
is a separte utility room and a third loo.
The Commune
La Denilais lies about a mile outside the small village
of Aucaleuc, which has the nearest Tabac and telephone box, Aucaleuc
is in turn 5Ille et Villane and Cote de Emerald miles to the West of the medieval town of Dinan.
Dinan, is an attractive walled town with cobbled streets, churches,
and medieval fortifications, battlements and castle. The main
town overlooks a small port which sits at the end of the navigable
part of the Rance river, the boarder between Côtes-d'Armor [22] and Ille-et-Vilaine [35].
Dinan is about 30 minutes from the coast by road whilst La Denilais
itself is only about 25 minutes from the nearest beach.
Ferry Ports
The most convenient ferry port for the region and best
port for La Denilais is St Malo, directly 25 miles to the north,
which is only 30 minutes away on a typically fast and empty French
motorway.
This main road network now goes most of the way through
Brittany and Normandy and so the journey from Caen (2 1/2 hours), Cherbourge (3 hours)
Le Havre (3 1/2 hours) or Roscoff (1 1/2 hours) has been reduced considerably
in recent years.
See directions.
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