Between Tours and Angers, in a 320 hectare estate with park, woods and farmland, a 19th-century château and its outbuildings - ref 440933
Between Tours and Angers, in a 320 hectare estate with park, woods and farmland, a 19th-century château and its outbuildings.
In the Pays de la Loire region and the Maine-et-Loire department, the property extends over 320 hectares, surrounded by the rolling, wooded countryside of the historic pays of Baugeois. King René of Anjou hunted these grounds in the 15th century. His château stands barely 10 minutes away, in the town that today holds the main shops and services, along with a substantial weekly market. Equidistant from another locality, the estate lies midway between Tours and Angers - 1 hour and 45 minutes away by road respectively - with train services to Paris from both cities. Saumur and the banks of the River Loire are 45 minutes away, and access to the A11 and A28 motorways some 30 minutes.
A country road leads to an entrance gate, which opens onto a drive crossing the park to the château. An unpaved road carries on to the outbuildings, arranged around a courtyard. The property dates from the first half of the 19th century. Built of tuffeau on a hard-stone base, the main house stands four storeys tall, each of roughly 250 m² and the uppermost set under the eaves. Rectangular in plan, it is flanked at each corner by an octagonal pepper-pot tower. Renaissance-style dormers pierce the four-sided slate roof front and rear. Rustication dresses the principal elevations and the towers; modillions carry the cornices. Two central doors, framed by pilasters and topped on either side with portrait medallions, open at the front onto a straight flight of steps and at the rear onto a double-revolution staircase edged with a tuffeau railing. A balcony, borne by a carved lion's head, extends the front elevation. Reception rooms retaining their original decor take up the ground floor; eleven bedrooms and a study-library fill the two upper floors. Running north to south, the château stands at the centre of its park, close to the outbuilding courtyard set near the western gable. The estate comprises a landscape park of nearly 20 hectares, some 90 hectares of farmland and a forest block of around 215 hectares. The buildings as a whole require refurbishment.
Le château
The ground floor
The entrance hall, its walls painted in imitation marble, serves a billiard room, a pantry, a kitchen and a grand drawing room. The billiard room leads through to a small drawing room, the pantry onto a dining room. The grand drawing room opens in turn onto both the small drawing room and the dining room. Cabochon flagstones pave the vestibule; solid oak parquet runs through the rest, laid in chevron or plain English pattern. Classical and neo-classical panelling lines the walls of the reception rooms, and each drawing room holds a marble fireplace. The billiard room, the small drawing room, the dining room and the kitchen all open directly into the corner-tower rooms; the grand drawing room also gives onto the rear perron. The main staircase, of wood with winding flights, rises from the entrance hall. A secondary wooden staircase and a lavatory occupy the tower beside the dining room. A small cellar sits in the basement.
The first floor
A landing, its walls in imitation marble, opens onto a bedroom, a study-library and a corridor serving four further bedrooms. Solid oak parquet in English pattern runs through every room, and a marble fireplace in each bedroom. Plumbing installations are fitted within the towers. The landing gives onto the balcony above the front door.
The second floor
The layout, function and dimensions of the rooms match those of the floor below. One bedroom now serves as a linen room; a further bedroom occupies the space above the study. Terracotta tiles or parquet cover the floors, and the landing walls carry the same imitation-marble finish as on the first floor.
The attic
Part ...
