15 minutes from Poitiers, a partly listed 19th-century chateau with medieval origins, its outbuildings forming a hamlet, and 22 ha of grounds - ref 86
15 minutes from Poitiers, a partly listed 19th-century chateau with medieval origins, its outbuildings forming a hamlet, and 22 ha of grounds.
In the north of the historic region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, within the Vienne département, some 15 km from Poitiers, the chateau stands in a lively village with shops, essential services and a weekly market. The Poitiers TGV station, reached in around twenty minutes, puts Paris 1 h 20 away, Bordeaux 1 h, and Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport around 2 h 30.
Entered through several gateways, the property lies concealed behind high walls and the canopy of mature trees. From the main entrance, the chateau reveals itself gradually through an avenue of plane trees. The building reflects several phases of construction. From the medieval period, a former keep survives, remodelled in the 14th century and listed on the Historic Monuments register. Its facade, well-proportioned, is articulated by wide windows and dormers. The roof is slated; the walls are rendered with exposed stone quoins. The principal enlargements date from the Renaissance, though the most extensive works were carried out in the 19th century. Watchtowers, dormers, wide windows and pinnacles record these successive periods. In 1356, during the Hundred Years' War, Jean II le Bon is said to have stopped here on the eve of the Battle of Maupertuis. Later, Louis XIV is reputed to have stayed en route to Saint-Jean-de-Luz for his marriage to Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche. On the balustrades of the upper windows, a Latin motto reads: Paix à cette maison - "Peace to this house". To the west, a terrace lined with columns extends into a pergola, with a fountain set on the lawn beyond. The outbuildings, set apart from the chateau, form a cluster of varied uses. The whole is surrounded by parkland, woodland, meadows and an orchard.
The chateau
The ground floor
The eastern facade has three separate entrances: one leads to the stair tower, itself listed, the other two to the main and service entrances. The tiled entrance hall commands an imposing stone staircase with a wrought-iron balustrade. It also distributes three rooms: a dining room, a sitting room and a corridor. The corridor is marked by a series of pigeon-holes once assigned to the huntsmen, then used by the sisters during the period when the chateau housed a Benedictine community until the 2000s. The sitting room, open to the garden through numerous windows and French doors, retains a 19th-century tiled floor, a marble fireplace and wooden panelling. It also leads to several service rooms: a utility room connected to a storeroom and a secondary staircase, a lavatory and a smaller room. The small dining room, its coffered ceiling painted with the arms of the Beauchamp family - who directed the chateau's 19th-century transformation - and fitted with a stone fireplace, connects to the service entrance. This opens onto two kitchen rooms, with an exit to the exterior and access to a secondary staircase, older than the main one, housed in a 14th-century tower. The stone staircase, winding with an open well, also serves a back kitchen with lavatory and access to a third cellar.
The first floor
At the top of a stone staircase with a wrought-iron handrail, a landing and then an anteroom distribute two reception rooms and a library, each with wooden panelling and white marble fireplaces. Opposite the staircase, a door opens onto a corridor serving three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom and lavatory. Here too, extensive wooden panelling contrasts with marble fireplaces. The entire level is parqueted, with the exception of the largest bedroom, whose floor is paved with armorial tiles.
The second floor
Reached by the main staircase, a landing distributes on one side three bedrooms, a bathroom and a separate lavatory; on the other, a corridor serving ...
