A holiday house in Normandy that sleeps 10 to 12

On paper, the house has 8 beds. In practice, they give 11 places, because three of them sleep two: the extra-large bed and the two double beds. Add the three single beds, the loft bed and the fold-away bed, and the sum comes out right. The 2 travel cots come on top, for the very youngest.

This count has a practical consequence: with 11 of you, every adult has their own bed, and nobody ends the night on the sofa. The beds are spread across four bedrooms, each with its own door that closes.

The house does not feel the same depending on how many of you there are. Three scenarios, then the limit, with no hidden margin.

A common miscalculation in groups: treating the 2 "baby" places as ordinary places. A travel cot is not a bed, and a child who has outgrown one needs to sleep elsewhere, so ask Idylliq about it beforehand. Count the adults and older children first, and only then the little ones.

For a house of 10 people or more, capacity only counts if everything else keeps up. The table seats 10 and the bar extends it: with 11 or 12, the last ones sit along that extension rather than squeezed onto a corner of the tablecloth. Crockery and utensils are provided for 12, so there is no washing up glasses between drinks and dinner.

Two bathrooms share the morning rush. Upstairs, twin basins, a shower and a bath; downstairs, the Master's shower room, with twin basins and a shower. That makes four basins for eleven, a detail that matters more than you might think when everyone is getting ready for a walk. Outside, the car park on the property takes 4 cars, enough for people arriving from different towns without hunting for a space.

One thing to plan for, though: the sitting room seats 7 to 8 around the wood stove. On film nights with eleven, a few people pull up a chair from the table. The washing machine and tumble dryer, for their part, make a full week possible without enormous suitcases.

The rule fits on one line: 11 people, plus 2 children or babies. It comes from the number of beds, not from an estimate of floor space. We would rather say so plainly than show a round number and let a group discover on arrival that two of its members are sleeping on the floor.

If your group is 12 adults, the house will not work, and it is better to know that now. If you are 10 or 11 with one or two babies, on the other hand, everyone has a place and there is still room to breathe.

The same frankness applies to how the house is used: no parties, and the outside goes quiet at 10 pm. To organise a group stay within those rules, our page on group accommodation in Normandy covers food shopping, cars and splitting the costs.

Anyone who has looked for a house in Normandy for 12 people knows how quickly the options narrow. You often end up with two neighbouring rentals, or a house whose "sleeping places" include the sofa bed in the lounge. Here, the 11 places are real beds, in separate bedrooms.

Add what large houses often lack: a hectare of enclosed land, so eleven people are not treading on each other's toes, end-of-stay cleaning included and the sea 10 minutes away at Veulettes-sur-Mer. The photos of the dormitory and bedrooms show the space, and the full description of the house lists every piece of equipment.

Because houses this size are few and far between, summer weeks are booked early. If your dates are set, check Idylliq's calendar before you even send round the poll to the group.