castle with pool for sale Aube, France

At the gates of Troyes, in the footsteps of Charles Perrault, a 16th and 18th-century chateau, listed as a historical monument, surrounded by moats on 12 5-hectare grounds. If it is possible to retrace the genealogy of the lords of this domain from 1222 up until 1688, there is little information on the edifice’s initial construction. Only an order made on 3 July 1585 with a quarry worker in Polisy regarding the delivery of two hundred Polisot stone blocks makes it possible to date the construction of the main building more precisely. Many lords succeeded one another over the years, but in the 17th century, Charles Perrault, a son-in-law of the owner, would make his own mark here when Jean de La Fontaine, Boileau, Voiture, Fontenelle and other members of the French Academy would gather here during the summer months. The property is discreetly located at the end of a residential neighbourhood. The group of buildings are situated around a main courtyard surrounded by moats with water, while the grounds extend over three of its sides with a tennis court. Remarkably designed, and from which six shady pathways spread out in a star-shaped pattern in all directions, are two outside dance floors, one of which is bathed in light, while the other, under a verdant canopy, is a little more shaded. From the street, a large pavilion opens onto the main courtyard via an entrance gate, which is preceded by a footbridge spanning the moats. To the right of the gate, there is the guardhouse building and, to the left, the outbuildings, supported by buttresses and bordered by a small tower. On the other side of the courtyard is the main Renaissance-era building, connected by an intermediary building to a half-timbered dwelling. At a right angle, a long classical wing from the 18th century is extended at the other end by two older bays and flanked at the rear by a small square corner tower with arrow slits. On the other side of the terreplein, past the polygonal dovecote, which abuts a swimming pool, the outbuildings that surrounded the courtyard have been entirely restored and converted for residential use with a swimming pool. Their back façades face a large canal that extends to the end of the grounds.