Nicest Dordogne Rental Accommodation

After reviewing their web site www.fermedetayac.com( see review here ), it was time to see if the accommodation lived up to it’s reputation as being the nicest B&B in the Dordogne..

“Quote from their web site”

 B&B “Ferme de Tayac”.. Lovely 12th Century buildings, once monastery and farm. Its one meter thick walls, oak beam structures, and rooms carved out of the rock, make it a wonderful place to stay whilst you explore this fascinating part of the Vezere Valley. Your stay will be enhanced by the friendly hospitality and homely comfort offered by your hosts Suzanne and Mike.   </Quote>

After reviewing the web site, we were really looking forward to staying at Ferme de Tayac. We booked online for two nights for October 17 and 18th, price for the rooms was 60 Euro per night totaling 120 Euros we also included two four course evening meals  at 20 Euro each per meal, so the grand total was 200 Euro. The online bookings system was very easy to use, and we paid our 40% deposit. Within seconds of making the booking, we received a confirmation from both PayPal and Suzanne and Mike the hosts. Receiving a confirmation from Paypal and even more so from Suzanne and Mike was very comforting.We arrived at Ferme de Tayac at 17.15pm, and recognised the buildings immediately.
We were warmly welcomed by Suzanne, and were given the option to choose a room. What we really appreciated was that we were offered a drink, and were left alone to discuss which room we prefered. All the rooms are very spacious, cozy, freshly clean and some are massive. The choice was not easy, but any of the rooms would have been fine.
We chose the bedroom with a double view of the clifts, and a lovely old wrought iron bed, plenty of space to move around the bed, and store away the luggage, wooden floorboards that creaked a bit when walked on, but this just added to the whole former munks quarter feeling.

Dinner was served at 7.30pm which we had asked for, in the wonderful large dining room at a huge table, tonight we had 2 other couples sharing the table, and it was lovely to all sit around the table and enjoy this French dream.
We started with a delicious fresh homemade courgette soup with bread and a large jug of red wine, but we were asked if we prefered white or rose.
The soup was followed by another delicious starter which was a typical Perigordine Salade with in my case salmon instead of gizzards. Then came the main course which again was very..very nice, another local dish “Confit de Canard” (preserved duck leg) with “Sarladais Potatoes” and two vegatables. Thinking I could not take another bite, we had a cheese board put onto the table with about 5 local cheeses.. We were in France, and we enjoyed a piece (or two) of the cheeses. Now I started to worry that the 20 Euro I assumed this was costing was maybe a mistake.. the fact that when the cheese was removed after 15 minutes, it was replaced by a large bowl of “Creme Brulee” which meant we had past the 4 courses!!. The dessert was finished and the smell of fresh coffee entered the room, and that was served with some chocolate truffels. This meal was without doubt one of, if not THE most delicious meal we both had ever had.
When I mentioned that we thought it was a 4 course meal and not a 6 course meal, Suzanne laughed and said that the soup and coffee with truffels did not really count as a course…

The bedroom was very spacious, as was the bed, there is no problem at all with large pieces of luggage, plenty of space to store them away, and plenty of space to freely walk around both sides of the bed. Our bed was probably one of the most comfortable beds I had slept in, and if you read the “Guests Comment’s” book, quite a few people have commented about the comfy beds.

After a great nights sleep we started the day with a nice shower, again no complaints here, water was hot, pressure was high, and plenty of room to move around.
Still pretty full from last nights dinner, it was time to tackle the breakfast. We were warmly greeted by Suzanne as we came down the stairs, we were asked what we prefered to coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.. we both opted for coffee.
We were expecting a usuall and common “continental breakfast” dry bread and a choice of two jams… NOT HERE!!..
Fresh baguette, croissants, and chocolate rolls, real butter, about 6 homemade jams, local honey, fresh orange juice, milk, boiled eggs and some really delicious muesli… and the coffee was freshy made..

In the guests dining / living room there are plenty of nice books about the region, and Suzanne & Mike are more than willing to share their knowledge and advice of the area. Where to go, and when to go, what to do, and when to do it, knowing these things can make a huge difference.

Ferme de Tayac really is ideally situated, we walked into the very busy Les Eyzies which is a nice 10 minute stroll, and we visited all the main attractions and Towns & Villages, Sarlat, Domme,Roque Gageac, Beynac etc etc all within 20 minutes drive

Our Conclusion: We booked for 2 nights, and extended it to 4 nights. The stunning accommodation,  the genuine friendliness and warmth of the hosts and the location is without doubt second to none. We would highly reccommend Ferme de Tayac, and unreservedly give it the maximum rating.    

We have rated www.fermedetayac.com :
-

B&B Ferme de Tayac is hard to miss, just type in “Ferme de Tayac” in any of the major search engines, and you will be flooded by excellent comments about the B&B, or just do a search for a B&B or accommodation in the Dordogne, and you will probably see Ferme de Tayac in the top rankings.. So, the B&B itself has proven to be the top rated B&B in the Dordogne, but what about their web site? Well, read our review about www.fermedetayac.com

HOME PAGE

We clicked on a random link in google that took us to their homepage. It took 2 seconds to load which is very important. Now, we are familiar with the Dordogne, and noticed immediately that they have used “Local Colors” grey/blue and earth colors for their layout, they have created an oil painting from a panoramic photo, the reason probably being to enhance the colors, and change it to a picture rather than a photo. The navigation is easy to use, and they have made use of dhtml “drop down menu” , which is a very good idea if your site offers lots of information, this way it all gets hidden away nicely. Then the brief description of Ferme de Tayac is just enough to give you a good idea of what you are looking at, and enough to get you to want to know more. The 4 pictures added to the homepage gives you an excellent idea of what Ferme de Tayac looks like, and to top it off, a comment left by a happy guest.

The Home Page is the most important page of a web site, it is the doorway to all other sites, if the home page is not up to standard, most likely people will leave without even looking at another page. Ferme de Tayac’s homepage is an excellent example of how to keep  potential customers on your site.

B&B INFO

We easily found all the information we needed about the B&B Accommodation, the rooms, the prices, and lots of other additional information. What we really like is that you can actually see pictures / slideshow of the interior and exterior of the B&B.

AREA INFO

What a lot of web sites do, is they tell you about the accommodation, but not what the surrounding area has to offer…
We have never seen a web site offering accommodation, that offers you so much information about the area. they have thought of everything, and to make things easier, they even put the info into seperate catagories “Towns & Villages”, “Tourist Attractions” “Things to do” “Caves” etc. etc. This is an excellent way to keep  potential customers on your site, they have absolutely no need to leave it, everything is on their site.. Very well done.

EASE OF USE

www.fermedetayac.com is very easy to use, you would have trouble getting lost on this one, the only thing we found that could be problem for complete novices is the “Slide Show” but we can guarantee it is worth the time. There are no adds, or flashy bits that irritate a user, or slows down the site, navigation is clear and simple to use.

MAKE A BOOKING

Does not come easier than this, a fully automated online booking system. Some people could  rightfully be a bit cautious before giving out Credit Card details, but it is not Ferme de Tayac that gets your details, but PayPal, Ferme de Tayac never gets to see any card details at all.
We made an online booking using their system, once by using a credit card through PayPal, and once by using a PayPal account, both worked seamlessly, and within 60 seconds of booking, in both cases we received confirmation from both PayPal and Ferme de Tayac.

CONCLUSION

The chances are, that if you are interested in the area, and find yourself on www.fermedetayac.com you would probably book, or really want to book. the site is extremely user friendly, LOTS of useful information about both the accommodation and area.

EXTRA:

for another review ( not by us) of Ferme de Tayac’s website click HERE

The Dordogne is without doubt the nicest and most versatile region in France. It is the Dordogne that attracts about 4 million people from around the world. The (very) busy months are without doubt July and August, but more and more people are avoiding these periods, and coming “out  of season” which is extending the tourist season in the Dordogne to 7 months a year, this was only 4 months a year 5 years ago. This change is due to the fact that the Dordogne has lovely weather, and of course because the main tourist attraction is the Dordogne itself and not just a single attraction. Prehistoric Caves and shelters, castles & forts, Medieval towns and villages, Bastides, rolling hills, excellent food etc.etc.

Finding accommodation in the Dordogne is not so difficult, but finding nice accommodation in the Dordogne can be very difficult, the reason being, is that some of the nicest accommodation is not situated in the (very) busy towns, but just outside in the still rural parts. It is these accommodations that make your stay in the Dordogne worth it. The problem is, that most of these accommodations do not have the same advertising options as the ones in the towns, Internet is often very limited or not there at all.

This site is to promote the rural and the nicest accommodation the Dordogne has to offer. If you are staying in the nicest part of France, we want you to stay in the nicest accommodation in the Dordogne.