La Mathonière

The Domaine de La Mathonière is in Louroux-Bourbonnais, in the Allier, deep in the Bourbonnais countryside. It is run by a Dutch couple, Menno and Ingrid, and its official website is written in Dutch. The estate presents itself as a small enclosed site designed for families with children aged 0 to 10, and quotes an eight-hour drive from the Netherlands.

The accommodation includes luxury safari tents for 4 or 6 people, equipped with a kitchen, a stove and electricity, gîtes for 4 or 6 people, a detached villa and a few pitches for your own tent. The gîtes and the luxury tents have their own bathrooms; the safari lodges and the pitches use a private washroom nearby. Published rates start at about €800 a week for a safari tent, and bookings are made by the week.

Opening period: no opening or closing dates are published. The website mentions a season, special toddler weeks in June and September, and activities all summer long, which describes a summer stay. Nothing points to a winter welcome: you need to contact the estate directly to find out the dates and whether it accepts guests off-season.

Two heated pools, a large 5 by 14 m pool and a 5 by 3 m paddling pool for toddlers, are open every day from 10am to 7pm.

The two heated pools, one measuring 5 by 14 m and the other 5 by 3 m for the youngest guests, are available at no extra charge from 10am to 7pm. For food, the estate serves a table d’hôte-style meal on Sundays and Wednesdays, cooked with local or organic produce or vegetables from the garden; children and parents dine separately. Pizzas are baked twice a week in a stone oven, and a food truck offers wraps and chips. Fresh bread comes from a local baker. A children’s menu is available. Exact times and service periods are not published.

The estate does not run entertainment as such, but offers small activities for children throughout the season: crafts in the morning, a campfire with marshmallows, and special toddler weeks in June and September. The playground and the enclosed grounds, with no car traffic, let children play freely. Around the estate, several waymarked walking trails start from the grounds, and the medieval town of Hérisson, with the ruins of its castle, can be visited nearby.