Click here to watch a video on this venue.

Vaux has become a firm favourite with Angling Lines customers – many return year after year. Take a look at the customer feedback and it’s not hard to see why. A stunning house that will sleep up to 10, sat on the banks of a prolific carp lake that you get all to yourself.

"Les Vaux" or the Etang du Moulin des Vaux, to give it it's full French name, is a superb stone built mill house that dates back to the 16th Century and is set in the lush green countryside on the borders between Brittany, Normandy and the Pays de la Loire. It is approximately 2 hours from the ferry port of Caen and 1½ hours from St. Malo. The very pretty private lake that lies next to the house dates back over 300 years and had never previously been used as a commercial fishery until it was purchased in 2002 by its English owners, Chas and Josie Cook, who have restored the lakeside house to a very high standard and stocked the lake with fish. The accommodation and venue has been specifically designed with the family in mind.

Just a few minutes walk from the venue is the well-stocked local village shop/boulangerie, where, in addition to groceries and provisions, you can buy bread and pastries fresh baked on the premises daily (closed Mondays). You will also find a tabac (for cigarettes) within the local garage and a pizza van arrives in the village main road each Thursday evening. Fougères and its supermarkets is a ten minute drive away.

Here’s some examples of feedback from 2009;

" We have been made to feel welcome. The lake and facilities were excellent, especially the matting around the swims. The fish were in excellent condition and we found Chas and Josie to be really nice people. Be back soon "
Ian Hemming, August 2009

" You have to come to Vaux to realise how good this venue really is, Chas is a great person to meet. Vaux is a venue you know you have to go back to "
Russell Jarvis, July 2009

Click here to read more feedback.

Click here to see an aerial view of this venue.

The lake is of approximately 3½ - 4 acres of open water with just over ¾ acre of marsh land at the top, where the Category 1 trout stream enters the venue. It varies in depth from 4.5 metres at the dam wall to 50 cms at the shallow top end. The average depth in the centre along the original river bed is around 2.7 to 3m, with margins averaging 1.4m to 1.7m.

Access is by foot around three quarters of the bank side, where there is ample space for anglers to set up rod pods and bivvies should they wish to do so. All the swims and access to them are suitable for the wheelchair bound angler. Portable barbeques are available for use in each swim. The bed of the lake varies a great deal, from stone to sand to gravel, with silt deposited along the stream bed, as would be expected.

The origin of the lake was as a quarry, with the extracted stone used to build the 500 years old church in the nearby village. This extraction has left a number of quite defined steps on the lake bed along the house side bank, whereas the far bank is predominately sand and gravel.

Adjacent to the lake is the old mill in which a lock-up is available to store tackle and bait and where there is also a bait freezer for anglers to keep their bait in top condition. The mill is available as a winter cold season hard bivvie. Fish from the dam wall and bivvie in the mill. You can be on your rods at all times (exterior lighting provided) and have the use of full cooking facilities by your side (cooker, microwave, kettle, toaster), with unlimited tea and coffee provided. Shower, toilet and washing up facilities will continue to be available only in the gîte. Optional heating can be provided in the mill at an extra charge.

As an alternative to the main lake, the stock lake of approximately 1 acre, containing carp from 10lb to mid twenties, is available to those anglers among a party who prefer to fish match-style for carp. It also contains roach, rudd, perch, pike and tench.

Bait can be obtained on-site and will be available on arrival. Also available on site are carp and trout pellets in bulk and a variety of ready prepared particles; hemp, maize, jumbo tiger nuts, mixed seed, wheat.

Show me local attractions.

The facilities on this venue are quite simply superb!

The totally renovated mill cottage is a magnificent building built from stone. It has been gutted from top to bottom by Chas and Josie and each room has been renovated, decorated and furnished to a very high standard.

The house has three upstairs bedrooms that comprise of one double room, one twin room and a third bedroom with two triple bunk beds (double beds underneath and single bunk above.) This room would be ideal for the kids. These bedrooms could accommodate up to ten people.

There is a large bathroom with toilet, washbasin, bath and shower upstairs, while the ground floor bathroom has toilet, shower and washbasin plus washer/drier. There is also a tumble drier located in the mill lock-up. Bed linen can be provided at a small charge- ask for details.

On the ground floor the kitchen is large and well equipped with everything one would need for a weeks holiday - electric hob and oven, microwave, fridge, free standing freezer, dishwasher plus all the crockery and cutlery one would expect. The living room is also big and comfortable with settees and armchairs arranged around two wooden coffee tables. The large screen television set in the corner is tuned in to receive English Sky satellite TV and in addition you will find a dvd player, for which you will be able to borrow a selection of dvds.

In the garden behind the gîte, you will find a masonry charcoal barbeque standing beside the lake, with a picnic table beneath an old apple tree – wonderful for al fresco eating on a warm summer’s evening. There is also a rotary line (pegs supplied).

For the disabled angler who does not always wish to bivvy, the gîte alongside the lake offers a comfortable alternative. It has a double door entrance which opens to 945mm width and internal doorways of 860mm into the WC/shower room and 810mm into the living room, all wide enough to allow wheelchairs full access throughout the ground floor. A toilet with adjacent handrail and raised toilet seat, plus washbasin facilities, is available in the ground floor shower room. We are not yet able to offer shower facilities for the disabled, but this is a future project. A single bed for the disabled angler with height raisers, plus another bed for a companion if required, is especially located in the ground floor living room during the week’s holiday. There is still plenty of room in the living room for socialising.

When the carp bask, but won’t bite on those hot summer days, what could be better than to laze away part of the day in water yourself? Children and adults alike have enjoyed cooling dips in the 15ft pool, new for Vaux in 2009, set up in the garden between the gîte and the mill.

Save Valuable Car Space!

Hire a Bivvie (Fox Euro Dome), erected and waiting for you, plus 2 bedchairs for 60 euros per week

Hire just a bedchair for 20 euros per week

Hire an Umbrella for 15 euros per week

To allow the lake to have everything ready and waiting for you on your arrival, please contact the Angling Lines office in advance of your holiday if you would like to hire any of these items.

Show me inside the house.

The lake was stocked in 2003 with around 280 carp... mirrors, commons and koi. The majority of carp now range from 20 to high 30’s, with the lake record currently standing at 47lb 10oz. Any small carp that may be caught will be from the original stock, or will have bred since the owners acquired the venue and will be removed to the stock lakes to grow The lake was stocked in 2003 with around 280 carp... mirrors, commons and koi. The majority of carp now range from 20 to high 30s and low 40s, with the lake record currently standing at 47lb 10oz. Any small carp that may be caught will be from the original stock, or will have bred since the owners acquired the venue and will be removed to the stock lakes to grow on.

Efforts were made to stock good quality fish, heavily scaled mirrors and linears, plus commons. All stock is of the fast growing Czech Royale strains.

Show me some recently caught carp.

Click here to read customer feedback from this venue.

This venue stocks Quest Bait

Boilies:
Irish Cream, Pineapple Crush, Liver B8, Fruity Trifle, Rahja Spice, Tigernut Crunch and Special Crab - Frozen, 20mm. New in 2010, Chilli Chocolate, Surf’n’Turf, Tigernut Crunch and Pineapple Crush – Frozen, 15mm

Prices as per Quest price list – www.questbaits.com

4 days fishing from £156 per angler

7 days fishing from £194 per angler

Offer available from 1st November to Mid March.

Based on 4 anglers + 2 non-anglers. Lake exclusive. Inc accommodation. Minibus crossing.

For a quote on other variations of this offer please call Bridget or Linda on 01246 857600 / 08448 117562.

Note: Vaux are doing a special reduced Winter rate for a bivvy only package. This includes limited use of the house facilities (access to kitchen/dining room and ground floor shower room). Please enquire for details.

Visit this lake 2 (or more) times this calendar year & get a 10% discount on the return visits!

We have lots of customers who make more than one trip with us and we want to reward that loyalty. Certain venues have agreed to participate in a discount scheme for return trips. This lake is one of those taking part… so book a return trip and get your 10% discount!

Angling Lines are grateful to the participating venues and to you, our customers, who give us such great support.

Conditions:

• Applies to fishing only & excludes accommodation (if normally booked separately), food, bait etc.
• Applies to ferry crossing for vehicle only (excludes trailers, cabins etc)
• Members of a group booking who have not visited twice will not be eligible for the discount
• This offer is only valid for return trips taken in the same calendar year

Click here to visit the Angling Lines forum where you can post questions & read other posts on this venue.