Location
The village
Saint Benoit du Sault is a medieval village in central France, 300km south of Paris. It is just to the north of the Limousin region, in the département of Indre. The nearest cities – it lies between them – are Limoges, Poitiers and Chateauroux. The closest town is Argenton sur Creuse.
The Old Coach House
The house is situated in the old town on a promontory overlooking the valley of the Portefeuille.
Getting there
By car: St Benoit is about 5 hours from Caen, 5hr30mins from St Malo, or 6hr30mins from Calais. It is very close to the A20 motorway.
By plane: The village is within easy reach of Limoges’s Bellegarde airport (50 minutes’ drive). Flybe has services to Limoges from Manchester, Edinburgh, Southampton, Leeds-Bradford, Newcastle, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin and the Channel Islands. Ryanair flies there from Stansted, Liverpool, Bristol, Leeds and East Midlands. Other French airports worth considering are: Poitiers (1hr 20mins drive) with Ryanair; Orleans (2hr 10 mins) with Flybe; Bergerac (2hr 45 mins) with Flybe or Ryanair; La Rochelle (3hr 20 mins) with Easyjet.
By train: There are two main routes. Eurostar from London St Pancras to Paris, cross town on the Metro, take a train from Paris Austerlitz to Chateauroux (40 mins drive from St Benoit). On the same line, getting off a stop or two later, Limoges’s architecturally interesting Benedictin station ( 55 mins drive) has fairly regular trains from Austerlitz. Once or twice a day the train stops at Argenton sur Creuse (20 minutes from St Benoit). Or take the Eurostar to Lille Europe and pick up a TGV to Poitiers (1 hr 20 mins drive). There is car rental at most, perhaps all, of these stations.