We were very much looking forward to our week together as a family, having had to cancel this booking two years running because of the pandemic.
The property is as described online, modern, secure and compact; good beds and a lovely covered area where we could eat outside. There are only 4 loungers outside though and as there were 7 adults in the party, we fought over these! What we were surprised about was that the only thing in the villa were 4 dishwasher tablets and ant killer. No dishcloth, washing up liquid, cleaner for spills, basic herbs or oil, soap or welcome basket. In our 14 years of renting family villas, we have not come across this before. It meant many trips to the supermarket!
I found the owners slow to respond to emails or did not respond fully which made me very anxious about the rental. We were annoyed that there was no cot bedding when I had specifically asked if we needed bring our own. Some plastic glasses (we bought some after a couple of breakages) for outside and plastic plates for the children would also have been useful, otherwise it was well equipped.
We didn’t particularly like Rivedoux. We had apparently arrived on a bank holiday weekend and the roads for two days were full, bumper to bumper, of traffic ALL day. As the town is next to the bridge to La Rochelle, there was a constant stream of traffic all week.
We had a real issue getting to the villa as the number the owners gave us for a taxi did not respond/was unobtainable and no other taxi firm replied. There were no taxis at the rank when we arrived and again, none responded to calls. I’d advise anyone arriving by plane to sort this out beforehand. When texting the owners of the villa that we were stranded, they replied to let them know when we arrived at the villa and they would bring the key. My son and daughter arrived first and they sent over their teenage daughter who gave them basic instructions.
Overall, we enjoyed our holiday - we had waited so long for it - but it could have been so much better.