The French Stargazing Company

Stargazing in a dark part of France

We are situated in North West France between Rennes, Brittany and Angers in the Pays de la Loire.

We are about midway between Rennes and Angers 

We live on a non-working farm of about 10 acres and have two gites. See the gites HERE. The local village lights go out at about 2200 and the nearest large town is Angers, about 45 miles away. Most nights the skies are clear and the milky way is very visible on good seeing nights. Apart from stargazing you will have a very restful week with almost total silence.

We are not a business and let the gites out to our car mad friends (see www.frenchblat.com) and, now, our astronomy friends. We charge sufficient to cover the cost of rates, electricity, water and the cleaning, washing and ironing of the bedding and towels. The winter rates are higher to cover the cost of heating.

We have only just started astronomy with the purchase of our first telescope in August 2014. We have built a DIY observatory which has power and is about 30 metres in front of the gites. We have a Celestron CPC 800 with the Celestron lens kit, and a Canon camera mount. You can see our Equipment HERE

We do not charge for breakages or take deposits. The gites are cleaned, have fresh BEDDING and TOWELS as well as tea, coffee and sugar, hand soap, washing up liquid, toilet and kitchen rolls.  The normal cutlery and crockery and, most importantly a wine rack are all included in the price. You only need bring clothes and a toothbrush. If you forget the toothbrush we have some in the gites.  The only rule we have is that we have no rules. We ask for folk not to smoke in the gites in respect of our non-smoking guests. 

We will send you a shopping check list when you book and directions from the ports to here*. We will get any provisions you may want on the morning of your arrival. This is to avoid you having to go shopping on the day of your arrival. Remember that all the shops are closed on Sunday's.

The prices are:

October 1st to May 31st ---------- £185 per week

June 1st to September 30th ----- £165 per week 

A week is Saturday to Friday nights, arrive and leave on Saturday.

To book email Norman@FrenchBlat.com quoting the week you want. We will answer with confirmation or, if fully booked that week, the dates which are available. We will supply our bank sort code and account number (UK bank) for payment. Of course we cannot guarantee clear skies and are more than happy to accept very late booking subject to availability.

Seven day astronomy forecast is HERE

* The nearest port is St Malo, Next would be Caen (Oustriham), then Le Havre all from Portsmouth. Cherbourg is from Poole and Portsmouth. Dieppe from Newhaven and lastly Calais from Dover and the train from Folkestone. The cheapest is the ferry from Dover-Calais but then you have a 5-6 hour drive. The dearest would be St Malo but only an hour and a half drive. When we had a 50 mpg Diesel it was cheapest Dover-Calais but now we have a 26 mpg Cooper S we go Caen-Portsmouth. Let us know which port and we'll send you directions. We wouldn't advise Sat Nav directions as one couple were taken through Paris and others are taken through Rouen, both can be avoided.