As a young couple, we had never been on a holiday like this before, we planned to use Le Moulin de Boutineau as a base to explore the region, and weren't really sure how we would get on.
We had a fantastic time. On arrival we were welcomed, shown round (the hot tub, the swimming pool, the cottage and finally the gardens and lake) and offered a drink. It helped us immediately relax. We had pre-booked Jude's home cooked dinner (excellent value but an extra €15 for a bottle of wine) as well and it was a perfect way to start our holiday.
Julian and Jude were very friendly, chatty and able to give advice on where to visit in the region and despite doing this whilst serving us dinner always gave you the perfect amount of space and made it a really lovely romantic first night there.
We stayed in the bread oven cottage and whilst it is small it really doesn't need to be any bigger. There is a small tv, a selection of books and some board games but we spent our evenings drinking wine, chatting and planing our next day! The kitchen is small but we only cooked a couple of meals and so we found it to be perfectly adequate and there is a dishwasher! :-)
The complex, despite appearing isolated when you're there, is actually very close (a short drive) to two towns and the larger city of Loches so there are plenty of bakeries to sample nearby as well as supermarkets to stock up in. Loches itself was a surprisingly beautiful place for somewhere I'd not heard of before. It has its own long history, castle, keep and dungeons as well as a range of restaurants and shops within the cobbled medieval streets.
Further afield the long drives to the places we visited didn't seem long at all when you have stunning countryside and near empty country roads to enjoy on the way, and make sure you make time for a stop at a cave for wine tasting.
We finished our stay with another home cooked meal (and another bottle of wine!) and I should mention the delicious breakfast we enjoyed one day as well.
One final thing, as all prices are in euros, if you're coming from the UK (or another non € country) I'd recommend using transferwise to transfer your payment for the stay as they charge very low rates compared to the high street banks.
All in all we really enjoyed our stay and would definitely recommend it.