Elegant centre of Saintes town house, 310m2 of living space, very sunny south facing walled garden, plus garage & off street parking and independent guest appartment of 50m2

See our website http://www.saintes-maison.com

The main house has six large bedrooms and four public rooms, built in 1841, it retains many authentic period features such as oak parquet floors, marble fireplaces and high ceilings with ornate cornicework. The guest appartment is very modern and like the main house has gas central heating.

Living here you are in the very heart of french town life - and yet you could imagine that you are in a village, as the house is quiet inside and the main reception rooms are sunny and look south onto serene and private gardens. The north facade (with high specification double glazing) looks onto the wide and tree lined pavements of the town centre with the bustle of cafe life, the cavalcades of New Year's eve and Bastille day, the regular street markets and all of the other colourful activity of a large provincial town in France.

We moved here from the UK with our four young children five years ago - we own several properties in Saintes and are moving (finally!) to a recently completed property of ours situated just 150 metres away. We love the centre of Saintes and are here to stay!

A good selection of both state and private schools are within less than 5 minutes walk, our children are now aged from 6 to 11 and have been happily educated here since 2004. The highly regarded private school - Jeanne D'Arc - is just 70 metres along a footpath from our back door, and accepts children from 2 through to 17 years old - with school fees of just 50 euros a month (yes that's right - fifty euros a month) you can see the attraction for a large family such as ours.

Recently installed metropolitan ethernet cabling promises extremely high internet access speeds, and as we are just 5 minutes from the peage junction on the N10, both Bordeaux and La Rochelle airports are within easy reach (plus Poitiers and Angouleme too). The newly completed dual carriageway towards Royan puts the Atlantic beaches even closer to hand - just 30 minutes away. Althought today the TGV from Paris stops at La Rochelle, plans are in place for it to extend to Saintes.

We have made many new French friends in this house, it is a great place to entertain and many comment on how good it is to see a British family in the centre of french town life - instead of living in splendid isolation in a countryside chateau or maison de maitre. Despite the many after school activities of our children we hardly drive any more, we walk everywhere.

The town of Saintes and the house have exceeded our expectations and we would love to find a similarly motivated family relocating to France - or someone seeking a large and easily maintained holiday home in this very popular town.