Your host runs home and B&B with effortless efficiency and you'll find shiny, spotless rooms to retreat to after a day's exploring

10 minutes from La Rochelle, a place of peace and style. From scrumptious breakfasts to a splash in the pool, your hosts are eager to please

Come for peace and quiet down a long lane, pretty buildings and big, beautifully-kept gardens with a secluded outdoor pool

A great spot for two plus two, with a decked area that gazes on copses, stream and treehouse. Wallow your cares away in the hot tub

A delightful mix of old and new in a conservation village with a four-acre garden that attracts all the local birds. Guests love it here

A bright, light newly built annexe flat adjoining a farmhouse and sitting on a hill looking out over a lake and fields beyond to the village

A vine-clad stone house hideaway for lovers, walkers, artists and hermits with a sweet veranda overlooking woodland down to the river

Chocolate-box cottages in deepest Normandy, owned by bright young things with a passion for organic cuisine and the good life

Built in the 1800s, a charming stone house on the Penicuik Estate with views over woodland and hills and calming, beautiful interiors

You'll find comfortable rooms, great food and a lovely bar at this friendly inn – Heartbeat country, Castle Howard and Whitby all wait

Gite retreats in château grounds - welcoming and wonderful for young families. Build castles in the sandpit, make friends around the pool

Lodge and gardens – superbly designed, immaculate, fresh, eco friendly – rest in unspoilt Picardy. Anglo-French hosts take turns to cook

Two lovely cottages with a fresh, modern style, private terrace, tranquil communal gardens with an orchard and pool

Eco-friendly B&B overlooking Lake Como with marvellous mountain and lake views. Heaps of space, generous hosts, a menagerie of animals

Perfect château B&B with pointy turrets and pale blue shutters, surrounded by gorgeous countryside, a cycle route and ancient villages

A fabulous old house filled with history, treasure and stories – now a colourful, larger-than-life hotel in the arty district of Belfast

A stunning château with huge rooms, pretty balconies with views, peaceful garden. Super owners, excellent dinners - and child-friendly too

The largest of three secluded cottages that share a gravel courtyard and a beautiful garden with cathedral views