A 17th-century watermill with 2.9 hectares of grounds and a lake, nestled by a village in France's beautiful Touraine province - ref 659025
A 17th-century watermill with 2.9 hectares of grounds and a lake, nestled by a village in France's beautiful Touraine province.
The historical Touraine province lies just west of central France. It is a beautiful natural region with stunning architectural heritage. The property is nestled on the edge of a village, not far from several towns with shops and amenities. A stream flows through its grounds. The lush, gently undulating surroundings are dotted with meadows, woods and quaint villages that are typical of the Touraine area.
This old watermill is 2 hours and 50 minutes from Paris via the A10 motorway, 15 minutes from the town of Loches, and 30 minutes from the city of Tours with its high-speed train station from where you can reach the French capital in only one hour by rail.
Two rubble-stone pillars flank a wrought-iron gate. This entrance gate opens into a vast, gently sloping lawn. A driveway takes you down to the back of the main building and a parking area. Your gaze is first drawn to the watermill: a long edifice with rendered stone walls, a roof of flat tiles punctuated with wall dormers, and a square tower crowned with a pyramidal roof. The watermill was built in the first half of the 17th century and extended in the 20th century. It appears on the Cassini map - the first detailed map of the entire kingdom of France, produced in the 18th century. The building has three sections. First, there is its long main section, which is the oldest part. This section has two floors: a ground floor and a top floor in its roof space. Second, there is a tower, which has a ground floor, a first floor and a second floor in its roof space. Last, there is a third, single-storey section. All the windows have timber lintels.
You reach the house's two entrance doors at two different places via footbridges that cross a millrace. The watermill looks out at its grounds, which are filled with many trees. A large terrace in front of the building leads to a swimming pool and a garden. Beyond them, there is a vast lake. You can take strolls on grassy expanses all the way around this lake. A stream flows alongside the lake before splitting into two. One branch is natural and flows through the grounds. The other branch, which becomes the millrace, flows behind the watermill to turn the old waterwheel.
The watermillThe building faces east on one side and west on the other.
The ground floor
The main entrance, in the oldest section, leads straight into a vast space with exposed beams. This space is an extensive living room with one end taken up by bookshelves and a billiard table. The watermill's mechanism can still be seen in this room's entrance area. Low stone walls and cast-iron pillars showcase this mechanism. A quarter-turn timber staircase leads up to part of the first floor. Three French windows take you out onto the terrace facing the swimming pool. A large opening leads into an office that features a fireplace of carved tuffeau stone with a straight hood. Stone tiles adorn the floor. A corridor takes you to a fitted kitchen where a second entrance door leads inside the house. Meals can be enjoyed comfortably in this spacious kitchen beneath exposed beams. The corridor also connects to a bedroom with a tiled floor that is filled with natural light from three French windows. It has a shower room, a walk-in wardrobe and a lavatory. A door leads from the kitchen to a second corridor that takes you to two sections from the 20th century. This corridor connects to a lounge with exposed beams, a tuffeau-stone fireplace and a timber staircase that leads upstairs, and then to an extensive dining room with a cathedral ceiling and exposed roof beams. From here, large sliding picture windows lead out to the terrace and garden. A wine cellar, a fitness room, a workshop, a lavatory and storage space complete ...
