LA PERGOLA

 
2 bedrooms

sleeps 4
Fully fitted kitchen
Stone dining table on the terrace

£525 pw July/August; £420  in June & Sept.
£320 in Spring  Autumn

2 chambres, sde/wc
cuisine bien equippee, terrasse

€580/semaine juillet-aout;
€460 juin, septembre
€350 printemps/automne


La Pergola is a Home from Home. Especially for summer, as this cottage is used and loved by its owner throughout the seasons.

But we have a few weeks each year, when our guests are invited to make themselves at home at La Pergola, in the ever sought-after Les Florentines of the Port Tabarka.

As our regular guests know, each house in this quarter is personalised to the taste of the owner, and this little cottage is a gem, with all the comforts of a home from home. On a small, private development, the house is situated in the Rive Gauche fishing port Tabarka and a short walk from the Port de Plaisance, the charming old town centre and the Marina, with private parking by the front door. Just around the corner from Les Hirondelles, Les Chaluts and the Saint Clair, this little hideaway is just a couple of hundred yards from the lakeside park.

You may park your car in the private courtyard right by the fhouse.

The front door opens on to the airy living room and kitchen. A dining table and four chairs and, by the windows, comfy seating and a sofa for flopping around the coffee table and catching up on the weather forecast - on one of three hundred days each year of Languedoc sunshine. This stylish room also has DVD and mp3 compatible hifi for those who like to make their own entertainment. Draw the curtains across the French windows and The world of the port quarter itself is safely screened away with just the occasional sounds of the outside world remind you that you are so close to the water: the chiding of a mallard, the boast of a seagull.


Settle down with a good holiday read here or outside in a comfy deck chair on the terrace on rue des Pecheurs with the round stone dining suite for dinner al fresco under the pergola that gives the house its name. Here, you may while away the sunset hours over freshly frilled seabass, chilled rose and delicious confections from Monsieur Servant's fabulous chocolaterie in Marseillan.

If you fancy working your way through a good recipe book (browse the selection before you travel at www.languedocbookshop.com), then you could make the most of the excellent kitchen, with its Siemens ceramic hob, electric oven, microwave, fridge and washing machine.

Upstairs, the master bedroom, with its double bed has a view out across the lagoon. The second bedroom has a pair of twin singles. And there is aalso shower room/wc on the first floor.

However cosy and enticing the house, Marseillan is forsurrendering to the great outdoors.

The Languedoc breezes do their bit, whatever the season - the Tramontagne breathing its crisp air from the arriere pays, through the village streets and down to your home in the port. On other days, the Mediterranean brings the ripe Marin air to the shores.Whatever the wind, whenever the season, the life of the port continues as usual.

Across the road, your neighbours take their fishing boats out to the lagoon. Fiftyyards away, two dozen ducks gossip and huddle by the slipway into the water. On Tuesday morning, boats queue quietly to replenish their tanks; on Thursday, the tooting greeting of the Anjodi hotel barge heading towards the quay. One summer Thursday evening in the height of the season, Les Quais d'Art sees artists from around the region setting up their easels on the quaysides; another evening, another barge brings Salsa musicians dancers to the waterfront. Every Wednesday afternoon during the year, when school closes early, the children of the village play in the park along the way;

And on the night pf the full moon, holidaying couples walk hand in hand around the corner to watch the silvery light trickle across the waters of the Etang de Thau, syncopated by the rythmic swaying slash of the Sete lighthouse across the bay.

Full moons come just once a month, but it is market day in Marseillan every Tuesday. The aromas around the central market hall are worth the five minute walk into the village.

Fantastic rich ripe tomatos from market gardens are a salad celebration.

And in August, melons peaches and nectarines are sold by the handful for just a few euros.

A rotisserie turns corn-fed chicken and a neighbouring stall sells the green and black olives, sun dried tomatos and tapenades that define the Midi.

Exoticism from further afield, as Marseillan housewives queue for home made spring rolls, delicious noodles, salads and other specialities from the Veitnamese delicatessen stall.

Decked in in the traditional smock and beret, the cheeseseller offers samples of his mountain specialities from Languedoc's own back country.

On any other weekday, we'll let you know the nearest street market.Perhaps Agde on a Thursday, Sete on Wednesday morning or the Saturday favourite in Pezenas.

Bienvenue a La Pergola

2 chambres (1 a grand lit, 1 avec deux lits simples), sde/wc a l’étage.

Au rdc, trouvez le salon-sejour avec TV, DVD et chaine hifi (compatible MP3).

Coin cuisine tres bien equippée avec plaque de cuisson vitroceramique Siemens, four electrique, micro-onde, refrigerateur et machine a laver. Parking privatif.

If you are lucky enough to be staying at La Pergola in mid-August, the sound of the tambour and hautbois, traditional fanfares here for centuries, announce that the annual Capelet or jousting tournament is taking place on the main quaysides just around the corner.