Two centre holidays

CAN'T CHOOSE WHERE TO STAY IN THE FRENCH PYRENEES? YOU DON'T HAVE TO!

It takes just over three hours to drive from the Ariège Pyrenees to the French Mediterranean Pyrenees yet they're a world apart ... they look different, they feel different, they are different. On a two week holiday, you can experience the best of both worlds by booking a week in L'Atelier d'Artiste and another week at Maison Leela, our Catalan holiday retreat in the neighbouring département of Pyrénées-Orientales.

WHERE YOU'LL STAY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN PYRENEES

Maison Leela is a charming stone-built village cottage in the Catalan village of Villelongue dels Monts, in the department of Pyrenees-Orientales. This is a wonderful part of the Pyrenees: the far eastern extremity, known as the Albères, where the mountains quite literally fall into the Mediterranean. Our village is one of a cluster of villages that sit right underneath the mountain range - just 15 minutes from the sea at Collioure, the same from the artists' town of Céret and from Spain.

Maison Leela is a typical example of a Catalan 'maison paysanne', with an external staircase leading up to the main front door; at one time there would have been no internal staircase and the functions of each floor would have been separate, the ground floor being devoted to work of some kind, usually wine-growing, while the first floor was the living area. Like L'Atelier d'Artiste, Maison Leela is a genuine home (complete with quirks and foibles!) and is furnished and equipped as such. There are two double bedrooms plus two bathrooms, but we feel she's happiest with and best suited to just two people so we take bookings on the same basis as L'Atelier d'Artiste, from couples. (Oh, and as you've probably realised by now, she's very much a 'she' and not an 'it'!).

The cottage isn't a commercial holiday let - she's our own Mediterranean retreat where we spend part of our year. She's only available to those who have previously stayed at Maison Grillou or to those booking two-centre holidays, and for a maximum of 6 weeks a year.

There's a quick overview of our Catalan cottage on this page, but you'll want to visit the Maison Leela website for the full story.

From a small 'landing' at the top of the outside staircase you'll come into a bright and well equipped kitchen, designed by cooks (us!) for cooks and recently fitted with solid wood painted units, granite work surfaces, a five ring gas hob, Siemens electric oven, a dishwasher and all the usual bits of cooking equipment. Walk through the open archway from the kitchen into the rather quirky sitting/dining room, with a high painted wood ceiling, lime-and-hair rendered walls, lots of painted furniture and modern artwork, comfy places to sit and eat, and a wood burner ... but the main interest for everyone are the French doors leading outside onto the terrace, where life is mostly lived from morning to night.

From the salon, a door leads to the main double bedroom, which has a small dressing room and rather larger bathroom en suite, as well as its own French door out onto the terrace. The terrace faces west, and overlooks the garden plus a rather large and lush plantation of trees that runs along a small stream; to the left are the Albères, and straight ahead is a full-frontal of Mont Canigou. It's shaded by a productive grapevine; in late summer you can just reach up from the dining table and pick a bunch!

A wooden staircase leads down from the sitting room into a large and cool ground floor area with chairs, sofa and TV plus a small desk. Off here is the second double bedroom, which has a door out to a covered terrace and beyond that, a small garden, planted with various Mediterranean shrubs and connected by a staircase with the terrace above. There's also a small second bathroom that has an original sitz bath; a utility room with washing machine and sink, and French doors out to the street.

HOW A TWO CENTRE HOLIDAY WORKS

It's very simple. You spend your first week in the Ariège at L'Atelier d'Artiste, then move on to the Mediteranean Pyrenees and Maison Leela for your second week. You can arrive on any day of the week you choose - just check out the availability calendar here for L'Atelier d'Artiste then get in touch with us to find out which dates are available at Maison Leela - we'll tell you exactly how to proceed from that point on. We do suggest that you book early: Maison Leela is only available for a very few weeks each year.

The drive from one house to another is a beautiful one, through the gorges of the upper Aude valley and the vineyards of the Fenouilledès. It takes us three and a quarter hours, so there's plenty of time to stop for lunch or a wander between checking out of one accommodation and into the next. If you want to explore en route and take a couple of days to do the journey, that may be possible too - we do our best to be as flexible as we can so just ask.