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Villa Tamerza, Haute Pyrénées, France
All-year-round family and group holidays in the French Pyrénées.
Available to rent from only £650 per week, including linen & services. Sleeps 10-12 people.
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Your ideal Pyrénées holiday location.
Villa Tamerza is a luxurious, 5 bedroom chalet-style house, 2km outside Bagneres de Bigorre, right in the heart of the French Pyrénées and only 10 minutes drive from the Col du Tourmalet and the Col d'Aspin. It's a fantastic location for cycling, skiing and activity holidays in the Pyrénées or sports club training camps.
The area caters for every possible sporting pursuit for those who enjoy action holidays including cycling, walking, fishing, climbing, skiing, horse-riding, touring, tennis and golf - or just a great place to chill out quietly with your family and absorb the wonderfully pure mountain air and staggeringly scenic surroundings.
If you're looking for a villa with pool in the Pyrénées . . .
Villa Tamerza is situated in a typical Pyrenees village. It's built on three levels. Completely refurnished and redecorated in 2003 by its owners, it offers the ultimate in luxury with five bedrooms (four with super kingsize beds and one with four full adult-sized bunk beds), three bathrooms with baths and showers, fully fitted kitchen with all-new appliances including fridge, electric oven, electric and gas hob, microwave, kettle, toaster(s) and dishwasher. There is a large dining room to seat 12+ adults, big sitting room with two four-seater sofas, armchairs, cosy open-hearth log fire, hi-fi system, Sky satellite TV (with full sports and movie card), massive garage/cellar and laundry room with new washing machine and dryer.
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Top, left The sitting room with open fireplace. |
All the bedrooms have either a balcony or direct access onto the garden, with beautiful views all around. The house is set in about 4 acres of pretty, wooded grounds, with newly resurfaced tennis court. The garden has about 4 acres of lawns and some wooded and wilder parts. There are lots of lovely walks close by with the river Adour just a 100m or so away.
The sitting room is large and very cosy, with big open-hearth fireplace, comfortable sofas and arm chair, Sky satellite TV (Full Movies and Sport Package), hi-fi, DVD player. Four of the bedrooms have large, comfortable, super-kingsize, beds and beautiful views. The dining room seats 12+ around two big wooden tables.
Bagneres de Bigorre is a charming old spar and market town, set in the foothills of the Pic du Midi. Here you can find 20 or more restaurants and bars, the Thermes spar baths, swimming pools, lively tennis, rugby and football clubs and a large casino. Every Saturday the centre of town is transformeed into a street market where you can buy delicious local produce of every sort.
Just 5 minutes drive from the house there is a beautiful championship length golf course with astounding mountain views.
From early December through to early April the area is popular for skiing. The main resort is La Mongie-Bareges which has more than 65 lifts, serving over 125km of pistes and is approximately 20 minutes drive from the house.
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In the spring and summer, outdoor pursuits are very much to the fore. This part of the Pyrenees is a cycling mecca, with the Tour de France bringing hundreds of thousands of visitors each year to the mountain passes around Bagneres every July. Villa Tamerza is a popular location for racing and leisure cyclists who come from all over the world to experience these challenging mountain climbs first-hand. You can rent both Mountain and Road bikes locally quite cheaply too.
If you're less energetic there are beautiful mountain walks in abundance, with stunning scenery in every direction you care to glance. Much of the area is part of the vast Pyrenees National Park with its protected flora and fauna.
Trout fishing, horse riding, para-gliding, flying, moto-cross, go-karting, rock-climbing, canooing, sailing and rafting are also all catered for locally. Or you can take things more leisurely and visit the charming local French and Basque mountain villages, the beautiful Jurancon wine region near Pau or take a day trip over the mountains into Spain via the many passes or tunnels.
The 2002 Tour passed within 500 metres of the house, with Laurent Jalabert leading the peleton up towards the stage finish at La Mongie, near the top of the Tourmalet! Stage 15 of the 2003 Tour actually started in Bagneres itself - just 2 minutes drive from Villa Tamerza, and in September 2003 the Vuelta came past us too! The house also has its own tennis court and a beautiful new swimming pool which reached temperatures of 33 degrees C last summer - without heating !
Above, left: La Fontaine restaurant in Bagneres de Bigorre town centre.
Above, right: La vallee de Campan near the river Adour.
There are some fantastic walks around Bagneres. Try the hike to Lac Bleu. You drive or ride to Chiroulet - about ten minutes drive from Villa Tamerza - then hike. This is a serious trek with about 1000m of vertical climb. You need to be fit because it takes two and half hours each way - but the mountain views and scenery are spectacular. Other good day trips are Gavarnie, Hautacam and Cauterets.
Click here to see more pictures or Check Availability at Villa Tamerza
The observatory at the top of the Pic du Midi is now open during winter and summer and offers spectacular views for hundreds of miles in all directions. In the observatory itself there are some fascinating exhibits and a wealth of material for astronomy buffs.
Only 20 minutes drive from Villa Tamerza is Lourdes, the world famous centre for Christian tourists. Lourdes is important to Christians the world over because of what happened on 11th Feb 1858, when the Virgin Mary first appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in a cave by the Gave de Pau river. Now visited each year by over 6 million pilgrims from all over the world, Lourdes gets a bit hectic during the Christian religious festivals of Easter and the Nativity. Expect mega-activity in 2008 when Lourdes holds its 150 anniversary!
Click Here to visit the official Lourdes site.
Click here for more beautiful pictures of the area.
Click Here to Book at Villa Tamerza.
... and by the way ... we can now offer special deals on cycling equipment through bikist.co.uk
Copyright (c) 2003-2005 Villa Tamerza & Cycle Crazy
Villa Tamerza - the ultimate Pyrenees Location for your activity holidays