CasaGiga 2025 (Hérisson)

The house was perfect for our group, great spaces for both indoor and outdoor dining plus large living room for people to congregate. The courtyard is spacious and private and had parts both in and out of the sun so everyone was happy. The pool was ideal for a cooling dip too! The medieval village of Herisson is charming: locals very friendly and the food and coffee delicious: such a treat to step out of the door into the heart of a community with lots of events and food markets twice a week.

This is a wonderful old house in Herisson, which is a beautiful small mediaeval town by the delightful river Aumance in gentle hills. It is on the main street and built against the old walls of the town. There is a turret with a bedroom at the top and the other bedrooms are in the main part of the house, with one on the ground floor. The town looks like a Disney recreation of a perfect old village, but it is real: unchanged except that the dominant old castle of the Bourbons was ruined at the end of the civil wars so it could not be used again. The kitchen is very well equipped for cooking with the wonderful ingredients from the market in Herisson (Friday morning and Tuesday afternoon), and the local towns and villages. There is a good Carrefour about 10 minutes away at Cosne D'Allier with a good butcher and very good bakers. Bread is available from a depot de pain three doors up from the house. Two small restaurants with simple menus are within a couple of minutes' walk from the front door. You can drive to Saint Pourcain sur Sioule or Chateaumeillant to buy wine from the vineyards. Moulins, Vichy and Montlucon are all worth a visit. Clermont Ferrand and the mountains of the Auvergne are a little further away. The region nearby has lots to see, including Roman remains, and a spa town at Neris-les-bains. You can swim at lakes in the forest of Troncais just a little way to the north. The house has been modernised in a very sensitive way and is extremely comfortable. We congregated mainly in the kitchen and the courtyard because the weather was so good, but the first floor salon is very elegant for gathering indoors. It was perfect for our family of three generations, 2 grandparents, 5 adults and 3 grandchildren. We all had a really wonderful time.

We had a lovely week at Gite d’lancien College. The house was a perfect size for our party of 9. All the rooms are comfortable and en suite. The kitchen has all you need and the sitting room is a great place to relax. Herisson is a very pretty village with good places to visit and some good walks from the house. Highly recommended