NB: Monday to Monday bookings preferred in mid to high-season.

Location: As you can see from many photos included in the images collection, El Cosme is in a beautiful unspoiled part of the world. This house is surrounded by fields and woods and you can hike up into the hills to the important modernist Sanctuary of Mare de Deu de Queralt right from your doorstep. El Cosme is located 12 kms southwest of Bergà, the historic provincial capital of the region. The nearest villages are Capolat and Esprunyola, about 4 kms away. There is a good restaurant, Cal Mayoral, about 1 km from the house, with a 14 Euros daily all included daily menu.. 3 km from here is Esprunyola, with a bakery, Cal Piu, and supermarket and a couple of restaurants, including one that does catering and sells prepared foods to take home, and there is a supermarket in lovely Montmayor village, 4 kms away, but the big supermarkets are in Berga.

The grounds: Three buildings make up El Cosme. In addition to the 330m2 restored farmhouse, there is also a 50m2 covered barn with a ping pong table and a basketball hoop, and the outdoor BBQ area right next to the pool, in front of the house, which has wooden planked seating for about 20, and a sink and counter for food prep and a refrigerator. Both the barn and the BBQ area have lights for night time activity. There is a grassy lawn with some shade trees separating the house from the pool area, and behind the barn there is a wide grassy area where the kids can kick around a football.

The main house: The front door opens on to the large ground floor living/dining/kitchen area. To the right you have the living room spread around the fireplace and 50" flat screen TV and stereo. The TV has a DVD player, and the little stereo has CD/radio/cassette and music can be pipped into all the rooms upstairs. Every bed room has a bedside knob for turning on and controlling the volume of the music being played on this stereo, so this place is wired for sound!

Around the fireplace there are 2 sofas seating 3 each, 1 smaller sofa for 2, and 3 easy chairs. On the other side of the room is the long wooden planked dining table seating about 20 guests. Around the staircase to the back of this large room is the kitchen, not a large kitchen but well-equipped, with fridge, glass ceramic hob, electric oven, extractor, microwave, dishwasher, juicer, toaster, expresso, stick mixer, etc.. The fridge is the normal 1.75 m variety, but there is a second fridge outdoors.

The kitchen is sort of tucked in under the staircase, but beyond the kitchen there is a hall leading to the two downstairs bedrooms and bathrooms:

• bedroom 1) has a big double bed (150 x 200cm)
• bathroom 1 is just across the hall, not in the room itself. This is so as to have a bathroom for everyone to use downstairs and this is the only bathroom that isn't en suite. It has a large bathtub.
• bedroom 2) is at the end of the hall, with 2 single beds (90x200cm) and a private bathroom with half bathtub/shower.

Upstairs the first floor has a large central sitting area with another 42" TV with DVD player, a sofa for 3, two easy chairs, and a card table with 6 chairs. There are a couple of large windows, one overlooking the pool area, and the other one with great views of the magnificent mountains directly behind the house. Just off this central room is

• bedroom 3) with double bed (150x200cm) and private bathroom with half bathtub/shower.

And then down the hall towards the back of the house there are four bedrooms:

• bedrooms 4) and 5) are somewhat larger rooms with double bed (150x200cm) and private bath with half bathtub/shower.
• bedrooms 6) and 7) have two single beds (90x200cm)with private bathroom and half bathtub/shower.

Some of these rooms have quite handsome exposed stone walls, and the bathrooms, while not large, all have nice tile work.

Upstairs the second floor of the house consists of a suite measuring about 50 m2, with a private salon with a central table seating 6.

• bedroom 8) is a large room with a double bed (150x200cm), and a bathroom beyond with half a bathtub/shower.

All rooms in the house are external with windows and have nice views, with double glazing, insect screens, and wooden shutters to keep out the light. The decoration is sparse (which is often desirable in a rental house) but the walls are painted with warm ochre and red colors, and the lighting is quite new and well done. All in all, this is just the sort of house many of you are looking for. Lots of room indoors and out, great views, and a very reasonable rental rate (between €17 and €27 per person per night). I think this one should be much in demand, and I look forward to getting a lot of positive feedback on El Cosme!