On the plus side, Villa Caroline is indeed a lovely house filled with brilliantly eccentric furniture. I particularly covet the dresser in the sittingroom. The shady terrace on the side is a wonderful place to while away long lunchtime hours. The pool is elderly, having an old-fashioned pool ladder, and is therefore not suitable for older people - however, it is deep enough for diving and just about large enough to do some laps. The garden is lovely, with nice planting (albeit choked with weeds) and a pretty pond, and a BBQ as well as a pizza oven.
Judith & Keith were very helpful and kind.
But regrettably there is a fairly long list of minus points:
The beds are pretty antiques, but the mattresses are lumpy, and don't be over 5'7" or 5'8" at the most as you won't fit in them and, as in my 6'4" husband's case, you'll have to sleep on the sofa (which isn't long enough, either, but at least has upholstered armrests for your legs to rest on). The duvets were elderly and sported a lot of yellow staining.
There are a lot of nice Provencal dishes in an open zinc-topped sideboard in the kitchen, but there were all dirty. Similarly, the kitchen cupboards were all dirty with a number of dead bugs inside. I understand there are only a few hours on change-over day to get a house ready for the next lot, but we were the first of the season. So why the house wasn't spring-cleaned when there was time to do it, who knows.
From about 5pm stand by for an army of mozzies to descend on you. We tried every mosquito repellent in the supermarket, but were eaten alive anyway. The one thing that worked inside the house was the electrical plug-ins, meaning they stayed out of the bedrooms.
There's a potager/allotment next door which is dilligently (and noisely) worked most days, and you hear a surprising amount of traffic noise.
The slabs around the pool are loose and uneven - these should really be seen to.
Some of the French doors wouldn't close to lock.
However, despite the fact that it was much less tranquil than expected, Villa Caroline could still be a lovely holiday spot.
It seems to me that somewhere along the line there's been a loss of interest in the upkeep of the villa, and also that a love of antiques has superseded the requirements of the comfort and rest of the people who pay to stay there. Good, comfortable beds are crucial to having a good holiday.
And something must be done about the mosquitoes - investing a few hundred quid would sort that out.
