La Maison du Petit Jacques

28/03/2026

28/03/2026

Spring has sprung here in the Charente-Maritime, and we're pleased to announce the addition of a new cottage, the Rose. Like our Mirabelle, it's also rated 4 stars, but we've gained an additional certification: the Marque "Tourisme & Handicap" due to our disabled-access ground floor. The Rose sleeps 6 and the Mirabelle sleeps 8. A 10% discount is available on our website for those booking both for a large family/friend group holiday. Doors open this April 🥰 🌷

🇫🇷 Le printemps est arrivé ici en Charente-Maritime, et on est ravis d'annoncer l'arrivée d'un nouveau gîte, « La Rose ». Tout comme notre « Mirabelle », il est classé 4 étoiles, mais on a obtenu une certification supplémentaire : la marque « Tourisme & Handicap », grâce à notre rez-de-chaussée accessible aux personnes à mobilité réduite. La Rose peut accueillir 6 personnes et la Mirabelle 8. Une réduction de 10 % est disponible sur notre site web pour ceux qui réservent les deux gîtes pour des vacances en famille nombreuse ou entre amis. Ouverture en avril

31/08/2025

Kicking goodbye to our summer season! Thank you to all our lovely guests, your kind reviews and your thoughtful cards 🥰. We loved hosting you. Oscar the cat appreciated the extra attention, and our pool and barn area were the hotbeds of activity in Aumagne! 🤣

We are open till end of October 2025 and then will be introducing a second guest cottage, the Rose, in 2026! Photos of the renovations to follow…😉

29/05/2025

Sun’s out, the pool is ready, and even Oscar and Felix the cats are waiting to welcome our guests this holiday weekend. ☀️🥂😽

27/02/2023

Very excited (and darned nervous) to see ourselves on Channel 4’s A New Life In The Sun this afternoon. 🫣

22/02/2023

East, West, Home is best! We’ve just returned from a 10-day trip to visit my parents in California. It was wonderful to see friends and family, especially after three years, but we have to say…there’s no place like home!

And we’d love to welcome you to our home, where we’ve converted our B&B to a guest cottage. You can catch all the details this Monday, 27 of February, at 4pm on Channel 4’s

And a huge thank you to for looking after our home and menagerie whilst we were away! ❤️🙏

06/09/2022

Zipping into autumn already?! Where did summer 2022 go? Well, when we weren’t discovering the wonderful, family-friendly activities just 30 minutes from our doorstep (pictured: one of the children’s zip lines at Abbaye de Fontdouce, inflatable amusement park at Île de Grenouillette) we were finishing converting our B&B to a gite. Biggest project: the pool, namely Alastair tiling in 41C heat (106F!) to finish just in time for our guests’ arrival. As you can see from the last video, someone else loved having the pool done! 🤣

18/06/2022

To anyone who has tried to contact us via our [email protected] email address, we sincerely apologise as there has been a problem with our email server and we were unaware till just now.

Please feel free to contact us via Facebook messenger or phone as we get our email technical problems solved!

Thank you!
Renée and Alastair

25/05/2022

Our welcome team is ready for you! We are happy to announce our new website is now live for bookings as we re-open 1st July after having closed the B&B at the end of last year.

We now have a lovely 4-bedroom, self-catering guest cottage ready for weekly rentals in July/August and stays of 3+ days in other months.

While we were blessed with amazing guests these past two years, we found that running a B&B left us no time as a family - which was one of the biggest drivers behind our move to France. We hope you’ll check out Version 2.0 of La Maison du Petit Jacques on our new website…and in person!!

03/10/2021

After a busy summer season with our B&B, we finally closed our doors and headed for the beach!

Our summer was super-charged not only with wonderful guests, but also with a bountiful harvest from our garden and orchard, resulting in half a dozen plum tarts, plenty of jams for next year’s guests, and about a hundred variations of zucchini bread! 🤣. Somehow, despite all those baked goods, James managed to keep his bikini body 🕶🩲😂

18/07/2021

Despite terrible April frosts which wiped out our peaches and cherries, our purple plum tree keeps on giving. This is the second plum tart I’ve made this week. (I’ve also made two batches of plum jam, but the French butter is so good I just can’t resist a homemade short crust pastry!). Next up: the mountain of courgettes (that’s zucchini to us Americans) to turn into baked goods before they become the size of baseball/cricket bats. Any and all recipes appreciated!