La Maison des Amis - Overview

La Maison des Amis is a holiday home, not just a holiday house, where our guests have all the comforts of home in a relaxed, calm and tranquil environment. La Maison des Amis is ideally suited for one or two family holidays, or groups of friends wanting to get away from it all.

With storage heating throughout, La Maison des Amis is also an ideal location for a quiet winter break or a long winter house-hunting expedition.

In its short existence as a holiday home, La Maison des Amis has welcomed single families, two families, and groups of friends, with guests from Ireland, England, New Zealand, Holland, Poland and the USA.

Especially during off-season, there are inexpensive flights into Toulouse(30 mins) and Carcassonne(65 mins), which make for a great and relaxing long weekend. The weather may be cooler but there is plenty to see and do. It is not unusual to be able to dine al fresco in even November and February, possibly even December and January if you are lucky.

At La Maison des Amis we will go out of our way to make it easy and comfortable for you. On request, we can do an initial shop, stocking you up with the best of local produce.

Setting

La Maison des Amis is situated in the heart of the rolling hills of the Tarn, driving from one local town to the next is a pleasure in itself. If you wish to get out in the evenings, Le Colvert is one of the finest (surprisingly inexpensive) restaurants in the region, and is only a couple of minutes away, down a quiet country road. If you are more adventurous, the vibrant city of Toulouse, France's 4th largest, is only 30 minutes, and Albi (smaller and quieter but stunningly attractive) is even closer. And don't discount Lavaur, a very pleasant french market town located just down the road.

The 5 acre property on which La Maison des Amis resides also includes a Maison de Maitre (our home) and a Pigeonnier (traditional ornamental pigeon house). Both houses were built in 1780. In 1997 the previous owner completely rebuilt La Maison des Amis. Although both houses are in close proximity they are both very private. Our goal is to be helpful, yet stay out of your way.

History

Since we moved to Giroussens, we have heard a number of stories about the history of the property.

In the first instance, we heard that Le Chateau de Giroussens was owned by the Singer family, of sewing machine fame. Over here that’s pronounced San-ger, not Sing-er. More interestingly however, one of its previous C18th owners was a gentleman who preferred a number of mistresses to a wife, five in fact! But being a generous fellow, he built a house for each which he would visit when the fancy took him. By all accounts, our Maison de Maitre was the finest and consequently became known as ‘Le Petit Chateau de Giroussens’.

An alternative version of events is centered on the original owner, M. Paeges, whose family continued in the house until the 1960s. M. Paeges' father was a well-known philanderer and fathered a number of half-brothers out of wedlock for his legitimate son. Although from reasonably wealthy stock, the half-brothers would never see any of the inheritance of their legitimate brother. In 1780 M. Paeges, allegedly found himself a large horde of gold, where or how has not yet been recounted to us. The benevolent M. Paeges, went on to use his horde to build a Maison de Maitre for each of his five bastard brothers. Just as well when you consider the french revolution was just around the corner!

We cannot vouch for either of these stories but as they say 'never let the truth get in the way of a good story'.