A village house typical of France's historical Brie province with colourful gardens, nestled in the countryside just east of Paris - ref 159213
A village house typical of France's historical Brie province with colourful gardens, nestled in the countryside just east of Paris.
The property lies in a rural backdrop, yet it is close to amenities for everyday life. It is 70 kilometres from Paris and nine kilometres from the town of Coulommiers, where a train station offers regular rail journeys into the French capital all day long via line P on the Transilien regional rail network. The A4 motorway also takes you quickly to Paris by car. The village has kept traditional features, such as a town hall, calm roads and vibrant local associations. A reception hall and sports facilities add to local life, with activities that include yoga and qigong. You can reach the house from either a calm cul-de-sac or a small square where you can park.
Two double-leaf gates lead into the property. The first entrance gate leads onto a gravelled court where two cars can be parked. This court is extended with a small garden dotted with shrubs. Here there is an old well. At the bottom of the plot, the second entrance gate, made of black wrought iron, leads into an area of dense vegetation, organised around a pond. Between these two entrances, there is the edifice: a traditional village house with an adjoining barn that connects to it and forms a single structure with it. The building is a former farmhouse of modest proportions. It has a ground floor and a first floor. A basement lies beneath it. Its elevations are coated with roughcast rendering and punctuated with double-glazed windows set in frames painted white. Some of these windows are fitted with louvred shutters. The plinth courses are made of local stone and the roof is covered with old, flat tiles. Two glazed entrance doors fitted with distinct wrought ironwork stand beneath canopies and lead inside the home. There is one entrance door on each side of the house: one leads out into the court, the other out into the garden. On the south side of the garden, a terrace edges the house. Stone steps lead down to a cellar. Here, the wall outside is adorned with vegetation. The whole property has kept the plain characteristics of old village farms that have been redesigned over time.
The traditional village house
The ground floor
There are two entrances into the house: one in each of its two main elevations. The doors are glazed in their upper parts and fitted with wrought ironwork. They face each other inside, making it easy to move from one side of the house to the other and bringing in an abundance of natural light too. The court-facing entrance door leads into a reception space used as a dining room. A dual-aspect entrance area opens out into it upon a floor of terracotta tiles. On the left, there is an office with a floor of old hexagonal terracotta tiles. In this office there is a wood-burning stove. The office is filled with natural light from a north-east-facing window and a south-facing window. The garden-facing entrance door, which takes you out onto a terrace, leads into a hallway where a staircase of solid-wood steps with a wrought-iron balustrade and starter-post knob climbs up to the first floor. On the right, there is a lounge with oak strip flooring and a fireplace insert. On the left, there is a kitchen with a tiled floor. It is fitted with many storage spaces and includes an eating area.
The upstairs
Wood strip flooring extends across the first floor, which is filled with an abundance of natural light. Towards the top of the staircase, the steps split off into two flights. On the right, a landing connects to two bedrooms, including one with an exposed beam on the garden side. On the left, a second landing connects to the master bedroom. In this bedroom, there are two double-door built-in wardrobes placed symmetrically either side of a marble fireplace. Oak strip flooring extends across ...
