A Gorgeous Country Retreat

 Left on Sep 7, 2013 for a stay in Sep 2012

My 87 year old father, my two sisters, my brother and I visited La Maison du Loup in September of 2012. We spent a little over a week there -- kicking off a European vacation that ended in the Abruzzo region of Italy. We were SO pleasantly surprised by this beautiful area and villa. The house is large and comfortable and everything has been provided. We got a bit lost finding the place -- being unfamiliar with Emma, our GPS system -- but Nick waited for us patiently, even missing his French lesson to make sure he'd be there when we arrived. As others have pointed out, the driveway is a nightmare -- and involves driving down to the first landing and then having someone get out and direct the turnaround of the vehicle so the remaining drive down to the garage can be executed. We had a Peugeot Van to accommodate our large group, so that added the large vehicle challenge. But, we assigned everyone a task and we were pretty good at the whole thing by the end of our stay. Absolutely everything else was wonderful! My 87 year old father had no trouble getting in and out of the house and he had a bedroom on the first floor. He absolutely LOVED the scenery and the ability to be so near to the Cote d'Azur and still in the country. He was out on the terrace enjoying the sunshine and his morning plates of fresh fruit, cheeses, croissants, pain au chocolates and delicious French coffee each day. My sisters and brother had a wonderful time walking along the river, strolling to Greolieres, enjoying the ruins and taking many wonderful pictures. This was my 59 year old brother's first trip to Europe and he so enjoyed the area that he was looking for property to purchase in Greolieres before the week was over. We had been warned to shop at the Supermarche in Villeneuve-Loubet, so we were very prepared with wonderful groceries the whole time we were there. We also tried both of the restaurants in Greolieres (the pizzeria was closed the whole time we were there because the patron was en vacances) and the food was excellent. I lived and worked in Paris for three years in the 1980's and spent a lot of time in Southern France, and I can easily say that I had the best Soupe au Pistou in Greolieres this trip, that I have ever had. The upstairs bathroom with the overhead "rain" shower was just spectacular. And even with our large group, we never wanted for hot water. The stairs to the upper floor were a little dicey -- a tricky spiral staircase, but we all managed -- even with luggage. It just made the whole experience more folkloric. Everything worked wonderfully -- except that my brother had a challenge initially connecting to the Internet. We kept telling him that's not what we were doing in France, but he persisted -- and was finally successful -- with Nick's help. My brother's biggest challenge was when he discovered that -- even though he had purchased the European plan for his cell phone -- his cell phone, itself, was not equipped to operate overseas. We all got a good laugh out of that and were finally able to convince him to relax and enjoy this beautiful "coin" of the world! We TOTALLY enjoyed the thoughtfulness of having the stereo system wired to entertain the whole downstairs AND with speakers out on the terrace. Since we all had our iPhones with music (and booktapes), we were able to hook right into the Maison sound system and be entertained while reading, drawing, playing games, or just basking in the sun. We heard deer all week and the views were just magnificent. We often started the day with bright sunshine and then watched the clouds roll in over the river, refreshing the afternoon with a nice little rain shower. We spent a wonderful day in Gourdon (recommended by the proprietaires) and found it to be a lovely town -- just the right size -- even for my 87 year old father. This little town was a fabulous find, considering what a travesty St. Paul de Vence has become since the 80's. We weren't even able to find a parking place in St. Paul because of the tour buses. My father just wanted to turn around from St. Paul and go back to Maison du Loup. But Gourdon was beautiful. We took pictures, enjoyed a tasty repast of crepes and watched the hang gliders swoop over the valley. And -- my sisters and I got a little shopping done in the sweet little shops there. Another wonderful thing about this property is that once you get the directions down, you find that it is not that far from Villeneuve-Loubet and all of the other hot spots on the Cote d'Azur -- Nice, Antibes, Cagnes sur Mer. We had no problems at Maison du Loup, but when we did have questions, it was always very easy to contact Nick by cell phone and he always responded immediately. I can safely say that this was one of the highlights of our 6 week trip to France and we definitely much prefered this wonderful Villa to the one we rented in Italy. On our return from Italy on the way back to the USA, we unfortunately were "forced" to stay in Nice for a week because Hurricane Sandy had closed the airport we were flying into in the US. Our only regret, was that we weren't able to go back to Maison du Loup. I would recommend this wonderful place to anyone who wants a nice, peaceful sojourn in the lovely countryside of Southern France. Oh and PS -- when looking through the games there we found an Alaska version of Monopoly! Such an interesting surprise since I live in Alaska.

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.