La Bergerie

Rooms

The garden suites are the ones to go for: stone- and pisé-built bungalows spread around the gardens, with plenty of space for a couple, and just enough for a family. They're open-plan, with a double bed at one end and a good-sized sitting area at the other: L- or U-shaped sofas which can be made up as beds for 1 or 2 children. The look is colourful and very rustic. Whitewashed walls are offset by bright two-tone fabrics (teal and rust, or orange and burgundy) and mustard-coloured rugs on honeycomb-tiled floors; overhead, you'll find chunky wooden beams framing the ceiling and wall-posts. But there are also some delicate touches to welcome you: fresh roses in a green-glazed vase, 2 books in a cusped niche, perforated ceramic lampshades shaped like fan-corals, and a roaring log stove in winter. There's one long, thin bathroom with a walled-off shower compartment and twin basins so you don't have to queue with your toothbrush; and outside is a pretty terrace with curly wrought-iron furniture. Overall, it's a very liveable space for anything from a couple of days to a week.

At the bottom of the estate is the original Provençal-ochre auberge, with 8 standard rooms surrounding a leafy patio garden, and 2 more at the front. These last 2 bear a touch of the Flintstones, with their knobbly stone walls, metal window grilles and omnipresent chunks of knotted tree-trunk. But the 8 courtyard rooms have a kind of simple Med chic, with the same bright colour schemes set against white walls, and livened up by an engraved brass lamp or a painted tray on a hexagonal bedside table. Most have French doors to a small private terrace; three also have a cushioned stone ledge as an indoor sitting area, which is usable as a child's bed at a pinch. Bathrooms are basic, with curtained shower and no heating.

All rooms have ceiling fans but no air-con (walls are thick, and temperatures never reach the baking 40's of Marrakech); and either a fireplace or wood-burning stove for the winter. There are no TV's, but a communal TV-games room up at the new auberge. We're told that water temperature and pressure can fluctuate, though we didn't experience any problems; and that some mattresses are uneven or saggy, though since our visit all offending mattresses have apparently been replaced (plus pillows, duvets and bedlinen!).