My wife and I stayed at the Village de Menard for four nights in February on the second leg of our Guadeloupe, Marie Galante and Martinique holiday. We arrived mid-morning having caught the early express ferry from Point-a-Pitre. We received a warm welcome from the site manager - arriving so early we were unable to check in but we could store our luggage and go out to explore the island. We enjoyed lunch in the onsite restaurant - ‘L’Oceanite’ before returning to reception and having a brief tour of the facilities and our accommodation.

We had a traditional island one bedroom bungalow, brightly painted in orange and white. The internal space comprised a large living area with a kitchenette at the end. Furnishings were basic and not particularly comfortable - a bed settee with a day bed and a low table in the living area, and four tall stools at the breakfast bar. The kitchen had a three ring halogen stove with a full sized oven. There was a reasonably sized fridge / freezer, a microwave, coffee maker and a kettle. There were sufficient pots and pans, crockery and cutlery to prepare a meal. In the bedroom there was a double bed provided with a blanket, rather than a duvet, and pillows. It was a reasonably comfortable bed with a supportive mattress. The bed was surrounded by mosquito netting supported on a frame. There were shutters on most of the windows which did a good job in excluding the light. Outside there was a sun lounger as well as a table with four chairs for relaxing al fresco.

The shower room had a hand held and a rainfall shower head. The water was only tepid at best, relying on solar heating with the water stored in a tank on the roof meaning the pressure was low.

There was a safe in the wardrobe, operated by key, for which there was a 20 euro deposit. To cool the property there was a fan in the living area and an air conditioning unit in the bedroom.

We found the property to be rather idiosyncratic- there were minor inconveniences where there had been a lack of thorough maintenance, such as with a loose toilet seat. Disturbingly, there was no smoke detector in the property which worried us, although one was ultimately sourced for us the next day after it was brought to the attention of the site manager. There is very little usable wifi - none in the bungalows and only the weakest response (and sometimes none here either) by the reception office. We had intermittent power cuts on one day which meant we could not have hot drinks at breakfast.

It should be noted that the nearest shops are in Saint Louis, some 15 minutes drive away. There is a small supermarket which closes for a lengthy period in the middle of the day. We found it poorly stocked which made self-catering problematic.

The grounds are attractive and we made use of the swimming pool on a couple of occasions. The site management was always as helpful as possible within the limits of what could be done to assist us. I was particularly grateful to her when she let me phone my bank in the UK when I discovered my credit card had been used fraudulently. This enabled me to have peace of mind to know that the matter was resolved.