Maison Moikeenah is located in Southwest France, department 64 Pyrenees Atlantiques.

We are in the Bearn region in the Aspe valley. Our Bearnaise house is in a small village on the Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle, surrounded by scenic mountains.

Maison Moikeenah is a traditional Bearnaise house with three floors. The top floor is the guest accommodation which comprises 2 bedrooms and one shower room and toilet. There are large gardens with a small summer pool (piscinette) which guests are welcome to share with our family. There is ample parking and outdoor eating spaces. Please respect our non-smoking policy.

Family/Group Suite:

Comprises of the bedrooms and shower room detailed below. You can either rent the whole suite or rooms can be rented out separately sharing the shower room.

Chambre 1:

Family room - sleeps family of up to 6 including baby. It has a double bed, a sofa bunk bed which can sleep 3 and a baby cot. It has matching furniture with ample storage. It has a kettle and tea selection, a CD player, books and games. It has a river view.

Chambre 2:

Double room - sleeps 2. It has a double bed and matching furniture with ample storage space. It has a mountain view.

Shower Room:

Modern shower, hand-basin and toilet.

Guests also have use of the ground floor lounge/dining room, either to read tourist literature and maps etc or to listen to CDs, read from our bookcase, play board games or to just relax with a coffee after breakfast or a glass of wine after dinner.

• Nearest City, Pau - 1 hour
• Spain and border ski stations - 30 minutes
• Nearest town, Oloron Sainte-Marie - 30 minutes
• Nearest village with market, tourist office, restaurants and all amenities - Bedous - 5 minutes
• Nearest airport, Pau Pyrenees - 1 hour 15 minutes (see www.ryanair.com for low cost flights)

Meals:

Breakfast is served each morning in the lounge/dining room. This is a typical French breakfast with coffee or a variety of teas and infusions, served with cereal, juice, croissants, pain au chocolat, breads and jams.

We offer a table d'hôtes service where guests can choose to take dinner with us by arrangement on Sundays to Thursdays. We offer a tasty variety of 3 course meals and vegetarians are catered for. (Vegetarian meals are often difficult to find in French restaurants.) Dinner includes coffee and a glass of wine.

We are happy to serve dinner on a half size plate for children at half price if required.

Your Hosts:

The Maison Moikeenah Mission is to...

provide a memorable, unique holiday experience for our guests so that they will return and recommend us to others. To provide accurate, beneficial language services to clients so that they will return and recommend us to others.

We are an English/Mauritian Christian family who moved from the UK to the French Pyrenees to "live the dream." We want to share our corner of the Pyrenees with others , as we cannot describe its beauty in words alone.

Comment from a previous customer: "green space, fresh air, good food and a pool... my son has never slept so well!"

Sonya and Jean-Noel Moikeenah will give you a warm welcome into their home. Jean-Noel is an experienced cook who enjoys sharing his Mauritian specialties and local Bearn dishes with our guests.

Sonya is a CELTA qualified English teacher with a background in international copy writing and proof reading.

Activities:

Here are just a selection of the outdoor activities available. More are available from the local tourist office in Bedous. If language is a problem we are happy to book you on to any activity you wish. Don't forget the 'non-active' activities and places to visit below.

Activities:

• Spain
• Fishing
• Biarritz
• Lourdes
• Vineyards
• Paragliding
• Vulture site
• Places to visit
• Pony trekking
• Bird watching
• Llama walking
• Mountain biking
• Bee/honey fields
• Prehistoric caves
• Bear/wildlife park
• White river rafting
• The Basque Country
• Skiing - piste and cross-country
• Tour de France and the Etape du Tour
• Hiking - near GR10, Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle, and the Tour de Vallon plus many other walking routes.

'Non-active' activities:

Don't forget you will be staying in a beautiful part of the world and so much is given free with little effort for those who would rather just relax and take it all in. Why not sit in the garden with a piece of Gateau Basque and a cup of herbal tea and admire the mountain beauty. If you look up you'll see the paragliders swooping over the mountain with the vultures. If you look down you'll see the river rushing over the rocks and the swallows swooping above it. Look closer to ground level and you'll see butterflies, grasshoppers and lizards.

By night look to heaven and your patience will be rewarded by a heart-jumping light show as shooting stars are thrown across the sky or some just fall to earth and disappear.

The Internet:

Guests have internet access by reservation Monday to Friday, from where you could:

• Email home
• Check your finances (French cashpoints don't show non-French account balances)
• Book flights
• Look up tourist information, weather reports etc

When you've surfed, why not sit outside with a drink and watch the vultures hover above the mountains.

You can also soak your tired feet in a relaxing peppermint footbath.

Directions from Pau Airport:

• Take the Pau ringroad South, following signs for Saragosse/Espagne.
• As you leave Pau you will join the RN134 to Oloron Sainte-Marie.
• From Oloron continue on the RN134 towards Saragosse/Col de Somport.
• You will drive through the village of Bedous, past Accous and then you take the next right signposted to Lees-Athas.
• This small road crosses the river.
• You then turn immediately right into our drive.
• Maison Moikeenah will be in front of you.