Castles for sale Bignicourt-sur-Saulx, France

An 18th-century chateau listed as a historical monument where the writer Diderot stayed and that the fashion designer Lagerfeld owned, nestled in 13 hectares of grounds with outhouses. A long tree-lined driveway set back from a secondary road leads to a bridge that crosses the chateau’s moat. At the end of this bridge there is the property’s entrance gate. The chateau and its grand court lie on a rectangular earthen terrace. To the right of them, there is a swimming pool and large outhouses forming a U shape. The grounds extend behind the chateau, well beyond the moat. This vast rear section includes a stream and a patchwork of woodland and meadows that stretches to the River Marne and a private river beach. The chateau was built between 1720 and 1740 by Jean-Robert Volland, France’s chief salt tax officer. In 1755, his daughter Sophie was 39 years old when she met the writer and philosopher Denis Diderot, who was aged 42 at the time. Diderot stayed at the chateau on two occasions: in 1759 and 1770. His letters to Sophie Volland, written over a period of more than 14 years, form the most famous romantic correspondence of the 18th century. The property was sold for the first time in 1773. It then changed owners three times. In 2001, the renowned fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld bought the chateau. He then sold it in 2011. The chateau is currently rented out for short stays.

An 18th-century chateau with a secondary house, indoor and outdoor pools, and eight hectares of grounds with a stream, just over an hour from Paris by high-speed rail. The property is hidden at the end of a small, calm lane in a village with under 250 inhabitants nestled in a beautiful valley through which a stream gently flows. A large gate opens beneath a wrought-iron arch of spearheads that stand out against the sky. The chateau towers at the end a long driveway alongside which annexes lie. The drive leads up to the edifice’s front courtyard. Splendid grounds extend all around the chateau. Woods edge them. A stream snakes through the grounds and a canal with a washing place runs through them too. Bridges of stone, wrought iron and timber cross the stream. Stone benches dot the grounds. There is an outdoor tennis court here too. And an island features an elegant wrought-iron pavilion crowned with a zinc roof.