A large, elegant and comfortable house and its neighbouring building in need of restoration, in a beautiful dry-stone village in the upper Sèvre valle
A large, elegant and comfortable house and its neighbouring building in need of restoration, in a beautiful dry-stone village in the upper Sèvre valley.
The property is located approximately fifteen kilometres from the high-speed rail train station in Saint-Maixent-l'Ecole as well as the A10 motorway, while the city of Niort, the prefecture of the Deux-Sèvres department, and the airport in Poitiers can be reached by car in 30 minutes and 50 minutes, respectively. A large village, 4 kilometres away, has all essential shops and services, while the region's rolling landscape - predominantly agricultural and economically healthy - is mostly wooded. The Sèvre Niortaise River, whose distinct meanders, further downstream, encircle the department's administrative centre, divides the hilltop village in two. The river continues its trajectory by first irrigating the enchanting Poitevin Marsh before flowing into the Atlantic Ocean to the north of La Rochelle (100 km).
The main house, built out of rubble limestone, overlooks, on its garden side, the Sèvre River from all four of its storeys, while its other façades look out on one of the most beautiful villages in the department with its medieval chateau.
All the living spaces are located on the ground floor, which includes: a large living room, a small sitting room, a library or office and dining room, all decorated with nailed wide-plank hardwood floors, a variety of different fireplaces and ceilings with exposed beams or delicate stucco patterns, while the kitchen, left in its original state, has an antique square terracotta-tile floor. In the other building, a vast room, called "the chapel", accessible via the small sitting room, could be used for galas, concerts or theatre performances.
The first floor contains four bedrooms, each in a unique style - one of which has a powder room with lavatory - as well as a vast separate shower room with lavatory.
On the second floor, under the insulated roof, a lounge space opens onto the staircase, while a last bedroom, bathed in sunlight, is located near the bathroom with lavatory. The rest of the floor is reserved for the attic space. As for the garden level, it includes a summer kitchen and furnace room (wood-pellet central heating), a workshop, a summer shower room with lavatory and a cellar.
The house's tile roof is in great condition as is the roofing for the outbuildings, while most of the windows are double-glazed.
The garden is organised into six spaces, including the courtyard enclosed on three of its four sides by two barns and the deep, asymmetrical quadrilateral swimming pool.
The four storeys of the house in need of restoration - which a small courtyard separates from the first - are accessed by a spiral staircase, which is undoubtedly older than the date displayed above the building's arched front door: 1724. Although some of its window frames have been changed recently and the shutters are new, there are eight rooms in total that need to be refurbished, in addition to three cellars and two attic spaces. An interior garden, in which a palm tree provides a Mediterranean touch, opens onto a patio under which, thanks to the slope of the street that descends towards the bridge over the river, a garage was created.
The Main DwellingFacing the Sèvre River, the four-storey house with its gable roof resembles a stone chalet. Jutting forward, another building, which flanks the main dwelling to the left, includes a vast room upstairs called "the chapel" and, on the garden level, a sewing workshop that replaced a summer bedroom. At a right angle to the latter, two perpendicular outbuildings form one of the garden's more intimate spaces. Located on one of the streets that descends towards the small river, the house's main entrance is marked by a door, which immediately indicates the house's status: two Tuscan ...
