About our home

Summer 2013 - we would love a house with a pool in France. We would drive there if somewhere between Cherbourg and La Rochelle therefore car exchange would not be possible, If other regions we would fly so car exchange could be discussed.

The House
Our well-appointed home is a 'one and a half storey' house, of over 3,000 sq. feet, (c. 220 sq. metres) built in a 'New Tudor' style in 1989. It is a solid house, built with bricks, which leaves it warm in winter and cool in summer. It is deceptively large, with 13 rooms, a garage and a summer house. There is also a self-contained apartment,next to the main house which sleeps 2 adults and up to three children. The property sits on a mature site of almost an acre (0.3 hectares).

The Neighbourhood
We are 1km from a village called Malin with a hotel, 2 pubs, restaurant, diner, supermarket, post office, hairdresser, beautician and butcher. It is situated on the Inishowen Peninsula in Co. Donegal, where you can enjoy the great outdoors – you can go walking or hillwalking, swimming in the sea (which is surprisingly warm due to the Gulf Stream), sailing, deep-sea and fresh water fishing, horse riding, surfing, mountain climbing, cycling, driving, painting and of course golf.

See this site in French http://www.terresceltes.net/Peninsule-d-Inishowen.html and scroll to the bottom of the page to see the wonderful photos.

See the official tourism site http://www.visitinishowen.com

The Golf
In fact, Inishowen is a golfer's paradise with 5 courses within 20km of our home. This area has been chosen as European Golf Destination of the Year for 2011. The closest one is Ballyliffin, a 36-hole championship links course regarded as the 6th best course in Ireland. It hosted the Irish Seniors Open in 2008, having previously hosted the European Women's Open. This links course was designed by Nick Faldo, who is still a very regular visitor - see www.ballyliffingolfclub.com for some stunning photographs. Ballyliffin was also home to the Swedish Golf Federation Training School for 6 years.

The Evenings
In the evenings you can take a ten-minute stroll to McClean's pub in Malin for a pint of Guinness and the “craic”, you can listen to traditional music in McGrory's of Culdaff, or tuck in to a great steak or fresh seafood in a plethora of local restaurants and hotels.

The Restaurants
All of our previous exchangers have commented on how good value Inishowen is, compared to the rest of Ireland. Eating out in Inishowen is a real pleasure on the pocket as well as the tastebuds, as all of the hotels and restaurants have a “specials” night, on a different night of the week, where two people can have a five course meal for less than €20 each, enabling you to eat out in a different venue seven nights of the week for less than €150 per person! Don’t worry, we’ll provide you with an up-to-date list!

The City
The historical city of Derry/Londonderry (pop. 130,000) is only 35km away, across the border in Northern Ireland. This ancient walled city has much to offer, including great shopping with all of the main UK chainstores, several large department stores, hypermarkets, museums, culture, history, pubs, nightclubs, live music venues, theatre, cinema and restaurants. It has been chosen as the first "UK City of Culture" for 2013, there will be loads of activities all summer. See http://www.cityofculture2013.com