Dear friends,
Our house is an old farm in a village, in the North of France, close to Lille (30 minutes) and close to Douai (5 minutes). Douai is a middle size town (40 000 inhabitants), with an historic town center. you can see this town on internet : www.ville-douai.fr.
Close to our home there is a public park with a big playground for children.
You've got all what you want in this town : brand new swimingpool, movies, theatres, restaurants, lot of shops in old streets, old monuments and sites to visit. Especially a XIII century "beffroi", an old tower with a 64 bells chimes, playing several times per day. 25 years ago, they worked a lot of mines, so there is things about mines to visit (especially "sterile mountains" you can climb - you can even ski on one of them, all along the year). watch the mine museum in Douai ; Your mines region is on the UNESCO World Heritage. You can discover the nature too, we'll leave you a lot of maps and guides.
There is a station in Douai, where stops a very fast train (TGV) so you can go directly to Paris (one hour), in Bruxelles (45 minutes), London (one hour and 30 minutes), Eurodisney (one hour and 15 minutes). Belgium is close to us too.
Lille is 25 minutes from here (by train or motorway). It's one of the biggest town in France, with a lot of History, Muséum (the biggest french Art Museum after "Le Louvre", in Paris), shops, and so on...  Art Museum ; City Break in Lille ...
http://www.louvrelens.fr/
http://www.lacoupole-france.com/en/
http://www.roubaix-lapiscine.com/
http://en.parisinfo.com/
http://www.inquest.fr/
http://www.tourcoinglesbains.fr/
http://www.calais-cotedopale.com/en.html
http://gb.lilletourism.com/
http://www.disneylandparis.fr/index.xhtml
http://translate.google.fr/translate?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http://www.ville-douai.fr/index.asp
Compare to Paris or other places in France, people from here are really nice and quiet. They are "cool", and smile easily.
Our house is well restaured, closed with walls, with a 2500 m2 (square m) garden. The house is quite big, about 240 m2, with 7 rooms, 2 baths rooms, 2 living rooms and a big kitchen. The kitchen is brand new since it will be replaced in february 2011 ! A lot of pieces of furniture is hand made from Morocco, since we lived there for 3 years. Very important : We have a very large in the parent's room : 2.00 meter x 2.00 meter ! Very confortable.

We've got a cat. And we will be glad if you take care of her. She is use to come and go out of the house as she want, but she can stay outside at everytime if you prefer.
We've got little football table, society games. You can use the piano and the drums. Oustide, you'll find 7 bicycles, swings, soccer goal, tennis table in a barn and a brand new 6 seats Jacuzzi (36°C)
 What about our family ? We arrived here 13 years ago, after some years around the world (in Morroco and USA). The parents are working on a golf course, which belongs to our family. We discovered golf working here, and like that sport more and more. If you are golfers, it is free for you ! watch the golf's website: www.merigniesgolf.com

Our children : Felix (26), Matthias (25), Basile (23), Celeste (21) and Gregoire (18) are quite nice and happy. Felix works now as an engineer. Matthias is still at home. Basile and Celeste are students in Paris.
Gregoire is the most loved of the family, because he's down syndrom. He's nice and quiet and is doing well in a regular school. He's more quiet than a regular child.

Last but not least, we have a familly car : it is a CITROEN C4 Grand Picasso 5+2 seats ! Nice for whole familly.
We can exchange it if necessary.
Expecting our offer will please to you. Don't hesitate to ask more questions.