A Renaissance dwelling with guesthouses, outbuildings and a French formal garden, in a village near the River Loire, 30 minutes from the city of Anger
A Renaissance dwelling with guesthouses, outbuildings and a French formal garden, in a village near the River Loire, 30 minutes from the city of Angers.
The property lies in France's beautiful Maine-et-Loire department, in the middle of the Pays de la Loire region. It is tucked away in a village near the banks of the River Loire. This area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is less than 10 minutes from a characterful town, which is nestled among many vineyards and is overlooked by the largest chateau in the local Anjou province. This town offers shops and amenities, as well as a vibrant weekly market. The city of Angers with its high-speed train station is roughly 30 minutes away. From this station you can get to Paris in around 1 hour and 30 minutes by rail. The station offers around 10 return trips to the French capital each day. And you can easily get onto the A85 and A11 motorways too.
A narrow street in the village leads to the property's different entrances. This property was once a priory that belonged to Fontevraud Abbey, as can be seen in an inscription on one of the walls. The carriage entrance gate, made of tuffeau stone, is arched and has mouldings. It leads into a gravelled court that extends a French formal garden. The house has a ground floor, a first floor and a second floor in the roof space. It is made of rubble stone and dressed tuffeau stone. The main driveway is edged with a square corner tower and a square facade tower, which houses the staircase. The facade has a loggia balcony with a flight of schist stone steps, which has a solid balustrade of tuffeau stone and leads up from the courtyard. A bakehouse adjoins the western gable wall. The play of slate roofs is remarkable: upon the loggia balcony there is a single-slope roof, supported by a tuffeau-stone pillar; upon the main section there is a two-slope roof, punctuated with dormers; upon the bakehouse there is a three-slope roof; and upon the two towers there are four-slope roofs. Impressive gargoyles of tuffeau stone - a griffon at the back and a dog at the front - mark the roof-end edges at the top of the western gable wall. The courtyard also leads to an outbuilding that serves as a garage, to one of the two guesthouses and to a gatehouse beside the pedestrian entrance gate. At the bottom of the French formal garden, there is, on one side, a second guesthouse with an adjoining former washhouse and, on the other side, an open-sided shelter with a workshop. Beyond, the lush grounds edge the surrounding countryside. Behind the outbuilding, there are two earthen terraces, separated by a wall. They run alongside the court and the French formal garden. A gate leads out to a narrow street. There is a stable and a greenhouse on the upper earthen terrace. The property is enclosed with walls, except for the countryside-facing section. All the buildings have been restored masterfully. Some of them are even listed by the Fondation du Patrimoine, France's leading association for conservation of the country's built heritage.
The main house
The ground floor
The ground floor has a kitchen with a dining area, a scullery and an 8m² utility and boiler room. The dining room has a floor of terracotta tiles and a French-style beamed ceiling. In one of the walls, there is a tuffeau-stone fireplace, inside which a door leads to the bakehouse. From this room, which leads out to both the front and back of the house, a stone spiral staircase leads to the two upper floors.
The upstairs
A landing connects to a lounge and, beyond it, to a bedroom with a bathroom and lavatory. Versailles parquet extends across the lounge. The bedroom floor is terracotta-tiled. French-style beamed ceilings extend above the rooms. Each room has a tuffeau-stone fireplace with a Renaissance trumeau panel. The bedroom and bathroom lead straight out onto the ...
