Staying at the Manor of l’Hermitage

A private nineteenth-century manor in the Vendée bocage, twenty minutes from the Puy du Fou, let to one family or party at a time, with the house fully serviced and the heated pool reserved for the exclusive use of guests in residence.

Reservations are made through Vrbo

The manor is listed and booked through Vrbo, which handles availability, payment, and the rental contract. Guests who book through the listing are covered by the platform’s protections, and the calendar shown there is live.

View the listing and check availability on Vrbo

What guests have said

Reviews are collected by Vrbo after each stay and are published unedited on the listing. The full set may be read there.

A fully serviced house

The manor is not let as a bare holiday rental. It is prepared for each arrival as a private house would be prepared for guests, and the standard is included in the rate rather than offered as an upgrade.

• Beds made on arrival. All bed linen and towels are provided, laundered, and in place before guests reach the house.
• The house prepared and cleaned. Rooms opened, kitchen stocked with the basics, and a full clean carried out before and after every stay.
• Exclusive use of the heated pool. The pool is private to the party in residence. It is never shared with other guests, and it is heated through the season rather than only in high summer.
• Exclusive use of the house and grounds. One party at a time. The enclosed park, the terraces, and the mature trees belong to the stay.
• Welcome and handover in person. Guests are met at the house, shown its workings, and given whatever local counsel is useful.

Options on request

Additional arrangements may be made in advance, at cost, for parties who would like them.

• Provisioning of the kitchen before arrival, to a list supplied by the party
• A caterer or a cook engaged for one evening or for the length of the stay
• Transfer from Nantes Atlantique airport or from the TGV station
• Assistance in securing Puy du Fou tickets and Cinéscénie seats, which sell out well ahead in high season
• Additional housekeeping or a midweek linen change for longer stays
• Cots, high chairs, and other provision for young children

The season, and why it runs as it does

The rental season is set to match the Puy du Fou, which is the reason most of our guests come to this part of the Vendée. The Grand Parc opens in early April and runs to early November, and the manor is available across that period.

Two points are worth noting for anyone planning around the park. The Cinéscénie, the large evening spectacle, runs on selected Friday and Saturday evenings from June through September only, and it finishes late, which is precisely when a house twenty minutes away is worth more than a hotel an hour off. The park has also added a Christmas season running into early January, so winter dates are occasionally available on request even though they fall outside our ordinary calendar.

Where the manor sits

Saint-Mesmin lies in the Vendée bocage, close to the border with the Deux-Sèvres, in the hilly country the Vendée calls its mountains.

• Puy du Fou: 21 km, about 20 minutes by road
• Pouzauges and the Vendée hills: a short drive, with marked walking through woods and along the Sèvre
• Nantes Atlantique airport: roughly an hour and a quarter
• The Atlantic coast and La Rochelle: reachable as a day out

The village itself has a bakery, a church, and the ordinary calm of a Vendée bourg. The manor stands at its southern edge, behind its own gates, on grounds enclosed since the 1870s.

The house

The manor was rebuilt in 1874 and has been a family home ever since. It sleeps up to fourteen across its bedrooms, which suits an extended family, two families traveling together, or a party gathered for an occasion. The rooms are those of a house rather than of a hotel, with a kitchen equipped for cooking at group scale and a principal room large enough to seat everyone at one table.

Guests who care for such things will find the house has a history worth an evening: a Legion of Honor recipient who rebuilt it, a grain merchant who filled it with servants, and Georges Simenon, who lived in the village during the war and dined here.

Check dates and reserve on Vrbo

Registered with the commune of Saint-Mesmin. The pool is fitted with a safety device conforming to French law.