La Tour de Côtebrune

😊: I’m not sure where to start my review of this delightful, and sometimes quirky, ’Tour’. As six long time friends meeting up we had plenty of spaces to gather for meals or take time out to enjoy the surroundings. For us it was the perfect place to cook and share meals with a glass of wine and local cheeses, read, feed Gaspard the donkey, or just watch the swallows darting around the building. We were very warmly greeted with a generous welcome pack and given a tour of the ’Tour’ by the Barrand family. The village has no shops but we were able to buy delicious fresh bread/patisserie in Gonsans a five minute drive. Other than that we arrived with enough provisions or bought any extras when we visited Besancon and other local towns. The three bedrooms are large and the beds comfortable and we slept soundly after our hiking and cycling expeditions in the local area. The bedroom on the first floor has a free standing bath and wash basin, (although being 'shower' people, we never actually used the bath), with a toilet at the foot of the stairs on the ground floor. The two bedrooms on the second floor share a large shower room with basin and separate toilet. The large laundry is in a separate building a few meters away across the garden with an outdoor clothes line and collapsable clothes rack and where we were pleased to find recycling bins to sort & deposit any waste. We also appreciated that our hosts offered us the opportunity to check out later as they had no other guests arriving that day. Now back in Australia and the UK we have very fond memories of the Tour and our hosts.. 😢: Very minor points. For the five days we stayed we needed more toilet paper but I’m certain we'd have been given more if we'd asked! There was a limited supply of dishwasher tablets and none for the washing machine. Fortunately I’ve now learned to travel in France with both as often they are not provided. Being a unique historic converted building it can be difficult to ensure adequate sound proofing, but that was also part of the charm..