We have three young children (Eve, Agnès and Gilberto). We wanted to bring them up in beautiful surroundings with the freedom of the countryside. The children love the space we have and are always off having adventures. Eve and Agnès are more than happy showing other children around. We both liked the idea of the children knowing where and how food is produced, and they both love the chickens, ducks and the vegetable garden (although we suspect Eve loves the apricot trees rather more!).

Patrick’s background is Portuguese/French and he has the sweet tooth common to the Portuguese, so you will often find that he has concocted the dessert! Colette’s family is South African and enjoys the tradition of sharing a meal and good wine with family and friends. Patrick speaks French, Portuguese, Spanish and English and our interests are pretty wide. But our favourite pastime has got to be meeting people, so please do feel free to chat to us about whatever interests you most, or just pass on any gossip!

Our ideas have evolved over a long period, through talking to people about what they enjoyed about holidays, and our own experiences. We found that the places people most expected to be the least accommodating with children (for instance a safari in Tanzania) were often the best, since it was the attitude of the hosts that mattered most.