An 18th-century house, a caretaker's cottage and a guesthouse, surrounded by nearly 14 hectares of land in the heights of the Lot-et-Garonne departmen
An 18th-century house, a caretaker's cottage and a guesthouse, surrounded by nearly 14 hectares of land in the heights of the Lot-et-Garonne department, 30 kilometres from Agen.
Surrounded by nature, the property is located in the former region of Gascony, within the Lot-et-Garonne section of the Pays de Serres. Only one hour from Bordeaux and its airport by car, the property is 3 hours away from Paris via the train station in Agen, while all shops, services and a train station are only about 9 kilometres away in Aiguillon, the latter of which provides service to Bordeaux and Toulouse.
Narrow plateaus bordered by low cliffs and separated by steep-sided, small valleys, these mountain ridges or "serres" form a landscape of forests, pastures and orchards. Located atop one of them, the property has breath-taking views and may have once been a former fortified home with its outbuildings: in the 17th century, the place name appears on a local lord's title of nobility, demonstrating the centuries-long interest and drawing power of this place.
Today, it is the ideal starting point for discovering a region with a mild climate and a relaxing lifestyle either via the nearby hiking trails or by car.
Placed on the edge of a plateau as if it was a lookout tower, the house overlooks the nearby village and has incredible views of the Lot River Valley and the confluence of the Lot and Garonne rivers.
Two drives provide easy access to this oasis of peace and quiet. For the first, at the top of a steep slope and alongside a wooded valley, a pruned hedge guides visitors along a gravel lane that leads to the main dwelling and the buildings that surround it, all built out of rubble stone. As for parking, a grassy area has been reserved for this purpose, while the house itself is accessible via a wide, footpath, surrounded by a carpet of lawn. Last, but not least, the caretaker's cottage is accessible via a separate tarmacked drive.
The Main DwellingWith three storeys, the house is topped with a hipped tile roof, which is cadenced by two hayloft dormer windows crowned with pediments on its eastern and western sides as well as four round hayloft dormer windows on its northern side.
With an inhabitable floor area of approximately 550 m² and completely restored, it gracefully combines recent authentic materials with the house's carefully conserved original elements, such as: terracotta tiles, hardwood floors, stone sinks, 17th-century ashlar stone or brick fireplaces, 18th-century wooden double doors, cross-windows, as well as its exposed wooden beams and rafters.
Well-maintained, with ample, but still human-sized volumes, the house's living areas are all located on the ground floor: a kitchen, dining room, living room, office, an independent suite and lavatory, while the first floor includes four bedrooms, bathrooms as well as spaces for relaxation.
The ground floor
A dual-aspect gallery provides access to all the rooms on this floor as well as the outdoor spaces via two wooden entrances on either end, each topped with a glazed fanlight. With terracotta tile floors throughout, except in the nuptial suite, all the rooms have ceilings with exposed beams, which, depending on the room, are painted with different colours in between the rafters and culminate at 3.8 metres high. The first room, a kitchen, has a brick fireplace in which a woodstove was placed, providing welcome heat in the spring and autumn seasons, while, in addition to the regular kitchen amenities, an ancient stone sink still stands in one corner of the room.
A wooden door, located near the fireplace, opens onto the adjacent dining room. Like the other rooms on this floor, it has a fireplace, this time in stone and most likely from the 17th century, the white colour of which corresponds with the colour of the plastered walls. Following on from here ...
