Chateau Grandoise

Chateau Grandoise has been featured in design and travel magazines all around the world for its blending of an ancient French chateau with trendy, chic interior design. With nine huge bedrooms and eight bathrooms, the chateau is ideal for families or group holidays. Each bedroom is individually designed and gorgeously furnished, and all come with a flat screen TV and DVD Player. The bathrooms are huge and decadent - many with two tubs. The restaurant standard kitchen - extensively equipped and perfect for letting your inner Jamie Oliver run riot - adjoins the dining hall with its vaulted ceiling and honey coloured exposed stone walls. A great dining experience.

The chateau also benefits from plenty of space to relax too. Three salons all for guest use - one with a baby grand piano for the musically inclined, one with a bar, and all opening onto the formal gardens and terrace. There is a guest office and library, a cinema with a DVD Library, and next to it a billiard room with full size US Pool table.

The 14.5m heated swimming pool is surrounded by a gated and walled terrace to keep children safe, and sits in five acres of private grounds with mature trees and plenty of areas for games or a barbecue. There's even a private football pitch for the very energetic.

And if all this relaxing gets too much, you can break out the chateau's table tennis bats and get busy, or use their racquets at the village tennis courts, or venture out of the village to one of the two local golf courses, the nearby Kayak Centre or try a wine tasting experience.

SLEEPS 26: 9 large bedrooms including a dorm-style room with four single beds, perfect for kids.

COOK + DINE: Completely flexible catering options, from full three meals per day to completely self catered. Restaurant-standard kitchen with extensive equipment to let your inner Jamie Oliver run riot. Beautifully decorated Dining Hall with enough space for everyone to eat together.

RELAX: Reception areas that include 3 large comfortable salons all opening onto the rear terrace with its table, chairs and parasols overlooking the formal garden. Guest Library, Billiard Room with US Pool Table and a private cinema with 9-foot screen, surround sound and DVD library.

BATHE: Eight enormous decadent bathrooms, some with two bathtubs and some incorporating the chateau turrets.

OUTSIDE: 14.5m x 6m heated swimming pool, walled for security. 5 acres of private grounds with lawns, mature trees, table tennis and picnic tables.

TECH: Free Broadband Wi-Fi. Flat screen TV and DVD player in every bedroom. Extensive DVD Library. Private cinema with 9' screen and surround sound. Sound systems in Bar Salon and Refectory for background music.

PLAY: Heated pool sloping from 1m to 2m with steps at the shallow end. Table tennis, badminton, boules, frisbee, croquet. Tennis rackets supplied for use in village tennis courts that are 500m from the chateau.

PETS: No pets

VENUE HIRE: Weddings a speciality, complete with in-house wedding planning. Corporate groups welcome.

LOCAL AREA: The village of Marthon is just a 400m walk from Chateau Grandoise. Marthon is a small village but boasts a baker, 2 bars, butcher, mini-market, newsagent, pharmacy, doctor and even a cinema. The Chateau is part of village life -as are its guests, and you will quickly be recognised when you collect your morning croissants and baguettes, still warm, from the local baker.

ACTIVITIES NEARBY: Just a 20-minute drive away will take you to a huge lake with a man-made sandy beach and backed by cafés where you can keep cool with ice creams and cold drinks. The Kayak Centre is just 20mins away. The river is slow flowing and only knee deep, so it's perfectly safe, even for the non-swimmers. Angouleme is just 20 mins away, a buzzing little city full of pavement cafes and restaurants, where you can hire electric boats to pootle up and down the river which runs around the city.

GETTING THERE: Nearest airport: Limoges, Poitiers, Bergerac or Bordeaux – all within a 2hr drive. Nearest station: Angouleme 20 minutes is a TGV Rail Terminus, where the new ultra-high-speed train will whisk you to Paris in just 1 hr 40mins. Bordeaux is 40minutes on the train form Angouleme, or 1hr 45 drive. English visitors can take the train from St. Pancras to Paris, then Paris to Angouleme. Marthon is 7-hour drive from the Channel Ports, 4 hours from Caen.