La Blinerie is a maison d'hôtes in open country on the boundary between Sambin and Fougères-sur-Bièvre, facing the bois de Saint Lomer with the Cheverny vineyards behind it. The house is a longère about thirty metres long, built of rubble stone and tuffeau quarried at Bourré, and the first written record of it is in the Napoleonic land register of 1809. It was two dwellings then, with the animals and the farm gear in the middle.
Five rooms are let, named after the beasts on the château carvings: Le Cygne, Le Dragon, La Licorne, La Salamandre and Le Porc-Épic. Breakfast is included. The sitting room has a stone fireplace with a wood stove in it, beams overhead and French windows onto the lawn.
Outside there is a pool, a garden laid out in the English manner and a beehive. Meal baskets can be ordered instead of going out. Blois, Chambord, Cheverny, Chaumont and Beauval are all within reach, and Paris is about two hours away.
