A carefully restored, 17th-century stone residence with a 4,000-m² garden, 30 minutes west of Reims, in the countryside of the Champagne region - ref
A carefully restored, 17th-century stone residence with a 4,000-m² garden, 30 minutes west of Reims, in the countryside of the Champagne region.
The picturesque village in which the edifice stands is located in the undulating Ardre Valley, also known as the 'coronation route', on the northwestern edge of the Marne area and at the meeting point of the Grand Est and Hauts-de-France regions. This sector plays home to many Romanesque as well as Gothic churches and is famous for witnessing many French kings pass through on their way to Reims Cathedral.
The largely unsullied landscape made up of fields, forests and parcelled Champagne vineyards is listed is a UNESCO world heritage site. Within this protected zone, the Montagne de Reims regional natural park can be reached in around 15 minutes by road. Lastly, the A4 motorway is 18 kilometres away, while Paris can be reached by high-speed TGV train in 45 minutes from the station in Reims.
All the buildings that make up this farm date back to the 17th century. The rectangular edifice was built in the middle of a slightly sloping garden and has now become an approximately 220-m² residence sheltered from the view of the discrete neighbourhood by lush vegetation.
To the right of the automatic gate, two vehicles can be parked in a first outbuilding, next to which there is a workshop and a store for gardening equipment.
The mainly south-facing residence can be found higher up in the garden and can be reached by a winding paved path punctuated by several steps. The two-storey edifice, espousing the slope in the land over its full length, stands above a cellar, is made of pointed rubble stone and is topped by a gabled roof made of flat tiles. Its facades are dotted by an irregular arrangement of rectangular windows, while its roof is punctuated by equidistantly spaced gabled dormers.
Inside, its architecture is dominated by stone and wood. The living rooms, including two lounges, are, in keeping with classic tradition, located on the ground floor. On the western gable wall, there is a covered patio, while upstairs there are three bedrooms, a shower room and a bathroom.
To the rear of the house, a small building houses the boiler room and woodstore. All the outbuildings are made of the same materials as the house.
Lastly, the carefully composed, slightly sloping garden includes an orchard to the rear.
The residenceIt is made of pointed rubble stone and topped by a roof of flat tiles. Its wooden-framed, double-glazed windows, glass doors and French windows are fitted with shutters and boast ashlar surrounds. Two awnings with whitewashed beams protect the entrance doors.
The gable wall opposite the garage features a wooden balcony, while at the opposite end of the house there is a covered patio with a tiled roof whose corbels come from a medieval bridge.
The ground floor
The main entrance leads into a large kitchen with whitewashed beams, a dining area and an imposing stone fireplace in which a wood-burning stove has been installed. A hallway with cupboards then leads to a large lounge bathed in light, which is separated from the dining room by a half-timbered wall from which the cob has been removed. The lounge boasts a masonry-work fireplace with a wood-burning stove, in which the opening of a stone and thin tiled bread oven can still be seen. A stone sink has also been repurposed into a window seat. A lavatory can be reached via a door in the dining room.
From the lounge, a flight of stone steps leads to an intermediate level with pointed rubble stone walls, in which there is a second lounge. Through wide, sliding patio doors, it opens onto the paved patio, whose roof rests on remarkable corbels that originate from a dismantled medieval bridge. A blazing fire can be enjoyed thanks to the recently installed cast-iron wood-burning stove, while the ...
