castles for sale France (page 7)

An impressive, 18th century chateau, its outbuildings and its parklands, just 30 minutes from Fontainebleau. The view from this chateau, standing in a dominant position, gives a vista of the Gâtinais bocage countryside. The garden laid out in front and composed of wide areas laid to lawn, gives unobstructed views over the countryside below. It is extended to the rear by a wooded section. The main, rectangular building in the centre stands facing the wrought iron entrance gates that open on to parklands spanning approx. 10 ha, one section of which is building land. A little further away, on the east side, are the outbuildings, laid out in a V-shape around a level courtyard. They have their own entrance from the village and are followed by a few utility buildings. Gravel pathways make it possible to move around and park cars.

A 19th-century manor and its outbuildings on a 22-hectare estate, thirty minutes from the town of Vichy in the north of the Puy-de-Dôme department. Perched up on a hill, this rectangular three-storey building is topped with a flat tile roof and flanked by a round tower on one side and a rectangular-shaped wing on the other. With grounds extending over approximately 22 hectares, its upper floors provide panoramic views of the nearby hills and the Limagne plain in the distance, while, the chateau, abutting a wooded hillside, is surrounded by large meadows below. As for the property’s reception rooms, they are located on the other side of a courtyard, behind the chateau, as are a caretaker’s cottage and various other outbuildings.

A large, 18th & 19th century, estate awaiting renovation, with a chateau and outbuildings in 14 ha of parklands, meadows and woods in south Burgundy. The current structure of the estate, standing on the site of an old Seigneury, predominantly dates from the 18th and 19th centuries. It can be reached via various private roads, including the main driveway that goes around the landscaped parklands, bringing the symmetrical facade of the chateau into view. The outbuildings, comprising two houses and spaces fitted out for reception activities, delimit a courtyard which opens on to a large, walled vegetable garden. The entire property exudes peace and quiet, away from any noise or visual pollution. However, it is in need of major renovation works and a new lease on life for its history to continue.

A 17th-century chateau listed as a historical monument with a large outbuilding and splendid grounds looking out at the Rhône valley in France’s Drôme department. The local village was once a fief of the Poitiers-Valentinois family. It became part of the Kingdom of France at the start of the 15th century. The village had a chateau before this one. That old chateau was known as the region’s most important fortification, but it was destroyed in the French Wars of Religion. That was when a new chateau was built just outside the village, along the side of a road linking the village to the nearest town, a short distance north of it. Its location was not chosen at random: a spring lies beyond the ditches and it once filled up the property’s ponds and brought its fountains to life. A vast earthen terrace of more than one hectare is edged with embankments and dry moats. Upon it stand two fine edifices built in the style of the Italian Late Renaissance. The chateau towers in the middle of this grassy terrace. Construction of the chateau began in 1591. The edifice continued to be built during the second half of the 17th century. It is a large square-shaped structure with corner towers and a central inner courtyard. It has three levels and a floor area of over 1,300m². In front of the chateau, at the property’s entrance, stands an edifice that was built at the end of the 17th century. It is about 60 metres long and edges a road that runs along the other side of the moat. This structure is made up of a gatehouse flanked with two wings. This gatehouse controls access to the property. The whole building offers a floor area of around 450m². Together, the chateau and the gatehouse with its wings represent a splendid feat of architecture: a classic symmetrical layout going from east to west on an open, grassy terrace. Beyond this section of lawns on which the edifices stand, the grounds extend through meadows and woods over a naturally undulating area. The chateau has been listed as a historical monument since 1990 for its walls, roofing and interior decorative features.

A chateau made of tuffeau stone, with outhouses, a swimming pool, a tennis court and almost 4.5 hectares of grounds, just a few minutes from the city of Tours. From a narrow one-way road, an iron gate between two tuffeau stone pillars leads onto a driveway. This drive runs through a wood to a parking area beside a vast lawn. On one side stands the south-facing chateau. The first references to the edifice date back to the 15th century, but the chateau in its current form dates back to 1720. The chateau was severely damaged in the Second World War, but was later rebuilt. It is made of tuffeau stone. The edifice has a central main section with a ground floor, a first floor and a second floor in the roof space. This main section has a huge triangular pediment with a bull’s-eye window in the middle. It is crowned with a hipped slate roof. On the garden side, the roof has four arched dormers with volute ailerons. And on the other side, there are three gabled dormers facing the inner courtyard. On the south side, a flight of steps leads up to a broad terrace edged with finely crafted stone balusters. The east wing is made of rubble stone coated with rendering. It has a ground floor and a first floor in the roof space. The roof is a mansard slate roof. On its garden side, this roof is punctuated with dormers that are identical in style to those on the main section’s roof. On its courtyard side, it has two dormers with triangular pediments between two arched dormers. The other windows of the east wing are of different shapes and sizes and are fitted in tuffeau stone surrounds. A large covered entrance area with a paved floor leads to the inner courtyard. Opposite, there is a west wing: a single-storey structure made of tuffeau stone. Its facade is punctuated with three wooden double doors. This wing has a three-slope slate roof. At the back, the inner courtyard is framed between two wings. This outdoor space extends, over different levels, across a terraced garden up to two small towers: a chapel and a former dovecote. The grounds cover almost 4.5 hectares. They are dotted with trees of different varieties. Paths lead to the swimming pool and outhouses on one side and to a tennis court and a small log cabin on the other side. There are several bubble-like treehouses in the trees.

A 19th century chateau with 14.5 hectares of grounds surrounded by verdant countryside in north-west Isère . This vast estate, extending over approx. 14.5ha of gently sloping, uninterrupted land, consists predominantly of woodlands. A shady driveway leads to a large gravel parking area to the north-west of the main building. It then continues towards a courtyard in front of the chateau, where the woods give way to a large clearing. A secondary path followed by a flight of steps lead to a swimming pool on a plateau overlooking the forest. On the other side, a small wooden chapel is tucked away beneath the trees. This was originally a forest house linked to an ancient 16th century Cistercian abbey. After the French Revolution, it was used as the home of the steward responsible for managing the national forest. In 1888, a local grandee commissioned the architect Joseph-Étienne Mallaval to build a substantial four-storey extension. The chateau, which has undergone several periods of construction and renovation, stands on the north-eastern edge of the grounds. Its most striking external architectural features are those dating from the 19th century. The distinct, homogenous volumes of each section follow one another cascading down to the outbuilding, reflecting the different periods in which they were built. The adobe, pebble, rammed earth concrete and clinker block facades are rendered. The roofs, clad with slate, monk and nun or flat “beaver tail” tiles are in good condition; they have all been renovated, with the exception of the roof of the 19th-century main building. Today divided into various lodgings spread over three levels, the building has a total floor area of approx. 870 m². It is currently used as tourist accommodation, benefiting from one of the most peaceful environmental areas.

Perched in the hills of the Vire Valley, with 22 hectares of land, a listed chateau from the 13th and 15th centuries. On the outskirts of the city, a long tarmac driveway lined with horse chestnut trees descends towards the property’s entrance. Gradually, the landscape becomes less and less urban and the lawns on either side of the road become more expansive. The road leads to a wrought-iron gate supported by two solid schist rubble columns, extended on either side by low walls topped with fencing. Nearby, a chapel stands on a hill. On one side, the driveway runs along the length of an outbuilding, which is used as a garage, before reaching a square tower. The chateau stands on a promontory, with, as its background, the woods, which blanket the flank of the small valley and fields that border the Vire River. The fortress was built along the edge of a cliff overhanging the river by about twenty metres. Impregnable to the north, it was protected to the south by walls, towers and a drawbridge, which were destroyed in the 19th century. Today, the edifice is composed of the vestiges of an imposing construction and a wing built at a right angle to the body of the main building. Constructed out of schist rubble stone, it was built over three levels, including the attic space. Hipped dormer windows punctuate the slate roof on the side facing the Vire River. To the south, the front entrance is framed by columns, which support a straight lintel and triangular pediment. A three-sided, slightly projecting, tower houses the interior spiral staircase. It is topped with a triangular dormer with an oval oculus. A second round tower with a pepperpot turret roof is attached to a corner of the building. The mullion and cross-window surrounds are in granite ashlar stone. On the exterior corner of the two main buildings, a square extension with a slate hipped roof was built over two stories.

A 13th-century chateau, its outbuildings and feudal vestiges between Brive-la-Gaillarde and the foothills of the White Périgord region. From the hamlet’s small square, a 150-metre no-through road, framed on either side by large outbuildings that partially mask the property, provides access to the chateau’s court of honour via a wrought-iron gate flanked by stone pillars. The property’s enclosure walls, the round tower with its Renaissance dormer window and the crystallised ruins of an ancient lookout tower, are the remaining vestiges of the early chateau dating from 1226, which was expanded in the 15th century with the construction of the three-storey main building and its square tower, and then restored in 1650, this last phase being accompanied by the construction of the mansard roof outbuildings as well. Facing east to west, the barlong-shaped main building has a hipped roof flanked on opposite corners by two towers, one round and topped with a pepperpot roof and the other square with a pavilion roof. The three-storey façades of this classical-style dwelling, in lime-pointed rubble stone, are cadenced by many tall casement cross-windows with ashlar stone surrounds. The façade also has two sets of double glass doors with semi-circular spoked fanlights as well as two bull’s-eye windows, and is topped with a rounded dormer window on one side, which dynamically highlights a central row of windows. Two monumental chimneys rise up from this side of the roof as well, while the towers’ façades are punctuated by small windows, oculi and glass doors. All the windows and doors are safeguarded by single or double-leaf wooden shutters, with the exception of the mullion dormer window topped with a triangular pediment and a pinnacle that crowns the vertical row of windows on the chateau’s northern gable end. With two hectares of land, the property’s buildings were all constructed out of blond limestone and topped with Allassac slate roofs. Adjacent to the round tower and extending on from the main dwelling, a two-storey outbuilding, used mainly as housing, faces a triangular domestic outbuilding, which encloses the grand courtyard on one side. The latter is extended to the south by a large rectangular, landscaped patio, which provides the chateau’s western façade with a panoramic view, while from the chateau’s eastern façade, the grounds bordered by a gravel area reveal swathes of woodlands that extend towards the south. Lastly, an immense right-angle outbuilding used for agricultural purposes is located on the other side of the drive.

A 19th century castle with 13th and 15th century towers and outbuildings, in 8 hectares of listed meadows and woods, In the Charente area, a short way from Angoulême. In a picturesque, steep sloped setting, this property is the remains of a fortress whose 13th and 15th century towers still stand either side of a 19th century building. The three buildings denote the base of the pentagonal-shaped castle walls, whose entrance was previously located to the north between two now levelled towers overlooking the moat. To the east, the wooded area runs down to the stream below in the bottom of the valley. To the west and south of the main building, opposite a lawned area, a dry moat carved out of the rock gives way to outbuildings set out in a U-shape open to the east next to the castle.

A chateau, renovated in 1960, in the heart of 28 hectares of bucolic grounds where a river flows and large outhouses stand, nestled between the cities of Périgueux and Limoges. The 28-hectare property stretches lengthways in the hollow of a narrow, isolated valley. Two riverbanks extend across several hundred metres beside a river flanked with meadows and forests. To reach the riverside woods, you can cross a wooden bridge that the current owners built. The property’s four buildings stand in a walled garden. These enclosing walls run alongside a calm road and mark a boundary with the meadow beyond. Stone pillars frame a large gate that leads into a vast drive paved in an opus incertum pattern. The chateau towers straight ahead. Four corner bartizans give the edifice a slender, graceful style. The imposing edifice made of local stone is a harmonious structure made up of several sections, each with their own steep hipped roof of flat tiles. These sections form a U shape and are linked together with a central covered gallery. The elevations are dotted with different windows set in ashlar surrounds, revealing the building's different phases of construction. All the windows are fitted with indoor wooden shutters. The corner bartizans, which are either round with a cone roof or square with a pyramidal roof, are crowned with finials. Wall dormers with a hipped roof or large gable end punctuate the top of the elevations. Following a fire, the chateau was entirely restored in 1960. This work restored the roofs, the window surrounds, the pointing, the terrace paving, and the windows with their small panes, single glazing and wooden frames. The paved space extends up to three garages, a barn, a caretaker’s house, a secondary gate and a huge cowshed that was built in the 1960s. The garden is made up of lawns with flowering plants, centred upon an ornamental pond. This space also includes a small shelter with a roof of flat tiles. On either side of the wall that separates the garden from the meadow, a few stone steps take you across this walled boundary.

A 19th-century chateau with outhouses, a pool and 7.5 hectares of grounds facing the historical town of Lectoure in France’s Gers department. A track leading to the property leaves a small country road on the hillside. A discreet spring covered with stones marks the entrance to the grounds. The chateau’s facade appears at the end of a drive shaded by tall, old trees. The edifice enjoys absolute privacy and calm. It looks out over a valley, in isolation from the rest of the world. You can admire several stunning vistas from the property. These views stretch to the town of Lectoure, perched on its rocky outcrop. The chateau is built on a large gravel terrace with a round ornamental stone pond. The building is rectangular and has an adjoining tower in the middle of its west elevation. It has four flours that can be seen from its east side, lower down. The top floor is a loft space. The edifice offers a liveable floor area of around 800m², spread between the ground floor and the first floor, which can be seen from the south driveway. The chateau was built in 1805. It is made of dressed stone, rendered with a beige lime coating. Its facade reflects the architectural traits of its era: 14 rectangular openings are arranged symmetrically around a central bay that stands out for its dressed stone and its double door that forms the main entrance. The quoins, cornices and door and window surrounds are made of exposed dressed stone. The building is crowned with a zinc and slate mansard roof with hipped ends, punctuated with three bull’s-eye windows on its south side, three on its north side, one on its east side and another one on its west side. The grounds are dotted with age-old trees and vast clearings. This wonderful outdoor space includes an isolated swimming pool, a dovecote, an old washing place and an Italian-style garden. The style of this Italian garden goes well with the chateau’s north elevation and brings out its elegance. At a lower level, there are two large rectangular outbuildings made of rubble stone. They face each other and can be reached via a separate drive on one side.

A listed Moorish Revival villa opposite Ile de la Comtesse on the Goëlo coast in Brittany, with panoramic sea views. With the rising popularity of sea bathing at the end of the 19th century, a new type of seaside architecture emerged along the French coast, designed for relaxation and turned towards the outdoors. Residences in a variety of bold styles flourished on the shores of the Goëlo region. Built on a hilltop, the 'Turkish Villa' was erected by the Count de la Lande de Calan around 1880. Extended in 1906, it offers uninterrupted views of the sea and the port. The house is part of a co-owned plot with an adjoining 4-star hotel. Access to the property is unrestricted. One parking space is reserved for the villa's residents, and five others can be made available on an occasional basis. The entrance is on the western facade. Extensive vegetation, combined with a coursed granite masonry supporting wall with a balustrade, ensures privacy. A large bed of rosebushes precedes the wall and balusters, with a profusion of agapanthus as a backdrop. Two well-trimmed conifer hedges mark the entrance. Between these, a small staircase leads to an esplanade and to a granite approach stair serving the solid wood entrance door, carved in the shape of a horseshoe arch.

The “Mas de la Brune”, a listed, Renaissance-style gem, its 4 ha of parklands and its gardens at the foot of the Alpilles mountains in Eygalières. At the end of a row of two-hundred-year-old horse chestnut trees, three interconnected constructions comprise the buildings on this predominantly wooded, 4-ha property. The first is the Renaissance-style manor house, known as the “Mas de la Brune”, constructed in 1572; the only building of this type, standing in the middle of the land, rising up like a nave, proudly showing visitors the prow of its watch-turret. Directly adjoining the manor, a more recent construction dating from the 18th century stands in the shade of a three-hundred-year-old lime tree. This building once housed the staff accommodation. And lastly, on the east side, where a perimeter wall no doubt once existed, a rehabilitated farmhouse is separated from the manor by a row of cypress trees. Opening on to a vast courtyard that extends behind the French formal garden, it acts as a link with the rest of the parklands, where the permanent singing of the precious water, coming down from the Alpilles Mountains via the canal of the same name, can be heard. The French Historic Monument listing, dating from the 9 August 1924, applies solely to the “Mas de la Brune”, already showing on Cassini’s 18th century map under the name of “Grand Mas”. Some say it was constructed for the consul Pierre-Bruno-Isnard, who gave it the feminine version of his surname, whilst others maintain it was for an alchemist, whose name is long forgotten. In both cases, this outstanding building, entirely constructed from Baux stone, was probably built by master mason, Gaston-Flayelle, native of the Vivarais region, who also designed the “Hôtel de Manville” in Les-Baux-de-Provence. The size of the manor house, its biblical paraphrases sculpted on the façade, like a big open book, and including the secret number of steps of its spiral stairway tend to reinforce the hypothesis of an alchemist’s home. A spacious tiled swimming pool, cleverly concealed from onlookers in a copse of laurel bushes, has been installed a good distance from the main house. And lastly, a carpark, out of sight of the manor but able to take ten or so cars, has been laid out in the shade of mulberry plane trees.

A family chateau where a famous novelist lived, tucked away in the beautiful countryside of France’s Anjou province. The chateau stands in the shade of age-old trees that tower in English-style grounds. The edifice was recently restored. Its roofing, insulation, electricity, plumbing, windows and sanitation system were renovated. Its 40-metre-long facade stretches from north to south. The chateau has a main section with dual-aspect rooms. This section is framed between a pavilion at its north end and a second pavilion at its south end. Two towers also adjoin it. One of these towers houses a chapel. To the south and west of the dwelling, there are 6,500m² of tree-dotted grounds that are easy to maintain. The property was the family home of the famous French novelist Hervé Bazin. The current owner recreated the atmosphere of Bazin’s novel ‘Vipère au Poing’ here and opened the chateau to visitors. The property has been entirely adapted to comply with norms for France’s accreditation for a building to be open to the public. It now resembles a museum and can be used as a business.

A 19th-century chateau with guest accommodations, swimming pool and grounds, perched along the banks of the Saône River, 35 minutes from Dijon in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. A tall wall conceals the entire property from view, except for the tops of a few trees visible from the road. Accessible via an automatic entrance gate that opens onto a parking area, a landscaped drive – bordered on one side by the annexe with its three garages and, on the other, a verdant arbour with views of the Saône River – leads to the entrance of the L-shaped chateau, located in the middle of the property and adorned with a tower topped with glazed tiles and an exterior brick walkway. Separated from the property’s outbuilding by a gravel courtyard, the main dwelling includes ten guest accommodations, while the swimming pool and the entrance to the property’s vaulted cellars are located in front of the main façade, facing south. As for its landscaped terraced grounds, they slope down behind the chateau all the way to the Saône River, where a path provides gentle access to the landing stage and an immense space along the water’s edge.

An 18th-century chateau near Beaune, in the peace and quiet of the Burgundy countryside, surrounded by majestic topiary trees and 15 hectares of parklands, meadows and woods. One has to get a little lost to find the chateau. The road first runs alongside an impressive dovecote situated outside the perimeter walls, like a watchtower, then ends at the threshold of a sober gate flanked by two stone pillars. The unobstructed panoramic view reveals the chateau and its flat-tiled roof. It is slightly elevated and bordered by a raised garden adorned with stately topiary elements. The symmetrical ochre facade features a protruding gable pediment with an oeil-de-boeuf window in the centre. It is flanked by two small wings, one of which has a slate roof. At its feet, a line of pruned box hedges shelters four sculptures that seem to watch over the property. In the centre, the vegetation gives way to a perron with a few steps leading to the forecourt and its monumental yew topiaries. On either side of the esplanade, the numerous brick outbuildings with small flat tile roofs harmoniously complement the overall picture. Near the former grape harvesting shed, a large stone watering basin has been transformed into a water feature.

40 minutes south of Toulouse, a 18th-century manor house, with outbuildings in 4,700 m² of grounds. This property was built around 1760 and then rebuilt during the 18th century by the Marquis de Sers. It occupies the same site as a medieval fortress dating back to the 13th century. The rectangular building is entirely made of brick and boasts a pavilion at each of its four corners. Protruding brick cornices denote the separation between the two storeys of the edifice and underline the roof. On the façade, a semi-circular arched doorway sets the tone, whilst in the equivalent place at the rear, there is a rectangular French window. The façade faces the village square that occupies the manor house’s former domain, with views to the horizon of the green hills that overlook the municipality. In front of the edifice, the garden / courtyard is planted with rose bushes and rhododendrons, under the finely statured branches of two horse chestnut trees and two lime trees. Together, they provide freshness as well as shade in summer and light plus warmth in winter. The courtyard is surrounded by three buildings: the manor house, former stables and a hangar, forming a coherent architectural whole that protects against prying eyes and wind. Behind this brick screen, there is a second garden - the Garonne garden - which extends up to a discrete gate to the village’s church, which was the castle’s chapel in bygone days. It is framed by two mounds, most likely the former medieval moat. It is square in shape and retains subtle traces of its past as an ornamental garden, with geometric patterns and an elegant thoroughness. Two fountains - one in the garden / courtyard and the other in the Garonne garden - provide a gentle touch to the place. To the west, in a discrete corner of the Garonne garden, a swimming pool stands in its rightful place, lined with irises, rose bushes, olive trees and a few palm trees.

An estate to be restored, with outbuildings and 4.5 hectares of meadows and vines, 45 minutes from Bordeaux, on the outskirts of a village in the Gironde area. The estate is located in the heights of the village of which it is part, near to a street that runs past it. However, it is sufficiently far from any form of noise pollution. An earthen drive running past an hedge of hornbeams leads directly to it. The property is not fenced or walled, which would be superfluous, given the location set back from the road, the natural protective screen formed by the vineyards as well as the peace and quiet of the area. It is located in a semi-rural area, on mainly flat land, as is the case for the surrounding villages, standing between the Garonne River and its canal. This massive and noble stone residence with a tiled roof can be seen from the road, partially hidden by the estate’s rows of vines. It is made up of a rectangular main building with an adjoining, one-storey outbuilding set at a right angle to it, to the right-hand side of the house, on the eastern side, which is used as a store and a garage. Opposite, a hut houses the water pumping system, very near to the well. The grounds, including several hundred-year-old trees and notably a cedar planted in 1875 as well as copses of more recently planted shrubs, is made up of lawns stretching from the walls of the house to the vines to the northeastern side of the property. They account for approximately a third of the 4.3-hectare estate. The rest is made up of two plots of cultivated vines, separated by a tarmac road. The property has been in the same family since 1844 and is a recognised element of the region’s heritage, as proved by its classification as a picturesque site for the last 50 years by the local authorities.

A neo-Palladian chateau with outhouses, set in nine hectares of lawns and woods near Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and 35 kilometres from the French capital. Railings painted bottle green form a concave shape that is centred upon a wrought-iron gate leading into the property, where a remarkable neoclassical chateau built in 1846 stands proudly. A vast lush lawn extends immediately beyond the gate. The chateau lies further on. Straight to the right of the wrought-iron gate there is a pedestrian gate in the same style as the main gate and a caretaker’s lodge made of brick and rubble stone. The chateau’s design is neo-Palladian. The magnificent edifice has a ground floor, a first floor and a second floor. The building is rectangular and made of dressed stone. All its elevations are coated with white rendering that has a slightly pink tint. A raised terrace and a series of evenly spaced columns form a portico at the top of four front steps. This portico leads to the chateau’s main entrance door. Four majestic Doric columns feature in this tetrastyle portico. A terrace lies above their capitals. This terrace is edged with an architrave and a finely crafted balustrade. Along the facade, 11 bays per floor offer sweeping views of the beautiful grounds in front of the chateau. The window ledges and their corbels are made of dressed stone. The windows are fitted with shutters, the pale blue tone of which brings out the edifice’s hues. A neoclassical pediment with three windows rises up in the middle of the facade, on the chateau’s top floor. A long row of Greek dentils underline the entablature, adding a light touch of elegance to the grand edifice. Dormers and skylights neatly punctuate the roof. The rear elevation has an architectural design that is similar to the facade. But here a distyle portico marks the entrance where a tetrastyle portico adorns the front. The chateau’s hipped slate roof is in perfect condition. Red-brick chimney stacks rise up from it. Beyond the chateau there is an annexe that looks like a grand country house. Work was carried out on the property in the late 19th century. During this phase, a farmhouse, an outbuilding and a dovecote were added in the property’s north-east corner. An outer wall encloses most of the grounds, where vast lush lawns extend, edged by broad-leaved trees. Archaeological remains may be buried beneath these grounds. The property is remarkably peaceful and soothing. Tranquillity reigns here.

A 19th-century chateau with outhouses, a chapel and a lake, nestled in 30 hectares of grounds in the south of France’s Touraine province. The seigneurial home that was built here on the ruins of a medieval mansion, of which no vestiges remain, was endlessly redesigned until it collapsed in 1860. In 1890, the decision was made to rebuild the edifice on the site. A renowned architect, Louis-Alfred Trolliet, a specialist in the reconstruction of chateaux, was entrusted with this task. He was responsible for the edifice you can see here today. Trolliet was nicknamed ‘the Viollet-le-Duc of the Berry province’ in a nod to the famous 19th-century French architect Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc who restored many medieval monuments. Trolliet won his spurs as a leading figure of the Troubadour style in French architecture with his restoration of the Château de Romefort in the town of Ciron. To rebuild the present property, he did not adopt the Troubadour style but rather the style of the Loire Valley chateaux that was also in vogue at the time. Trolliet opted for a long rectangular dwelling crowned with tall hipped roofs of slate tiles recalling the Château de Chenonceau and the Château d’Azay-le-Rideau. The grand edifice comes into view once you have gone through the entrance gate and made your way up the long central drive punctuated symmetrically with topiary box shrubs neatly clipped into cones. The château faces east and west. Its main section has a ground floor, a first floor and a second floor in the roof space. The adjoining square tower has a third floor in its roof space. The symmetrical elevations are rendered and punctuated with large small-paned windows fitted with wooden louvred shutters that are painted sky blue. Gabled dormers punctuate the roof of the main section and that of the square tower. Beyond the château, the drive crosses dense woodland on this estate, which covers around 30 hectares and includes a 1.2-hectare lake. Trolliet also decided to build two large lodges as foreparts of the château exactly opposite it. These two buildings are rectangular. They have a ground floor and a first floor. A third lodge stands at a right angle to one of them. This third structure has an eclectic style and recalls a train station. On the south side, a circular dovecote with a cone roof of terracotta tiles adorns the grounds. On the east side, there is a heated swimming pool. Behind the outhouses, a secondary entrance leads to a gravelled car park. Lastly, on the north-west side, there is a private lake. In the middle of this lake there is a small tree-dotted island.

An isolated 14th and 17th century castle divided into four homes, in the middle of 34 hectares of land in the Dordogne area, to the northwest of Périgueux. This estate, in the heart of a rural and undulating environment, away from large and medium-sized thoroughfares, is spread out over more than 34 hectares of meadows, organic farmland and woods. The buildings, located in the centre of this land, are surrounded by parkland and boast an inner courtyard, gardens, patios and an approximately 1-hectare orchard. The property benefits from uninterrupted 360° views. It is made up of a main edifice with two wings in an L-shape flanked by an imposing 14th-century round tower where they join, a farm with its various farm buildings near to the passing road and, lastly, set slightly away from the rest, a swimming pool with a view overlooking the surrounding nature. The rubble stone and ashlar façades are mostly rendered, with mainly rectangular doors and windows, some of which have mullions and transoms, while the mainly gabled roofs are made up of half-round or flat tiles. The main entrance to the property is formed by a drive, lined with hundred-year-old trees and a long farm building, that leads to an inner courtyard closed by a gate. A secondary entrance runs alongside a lawned, shaded parking area to the west wing of the castle.

An 18th-century mansion renovated as a hotel, with outbuildings, in 11-hectare wooded grounds boasting a pond, 1 hour 30 minutes from Paris. The estate comes into view at the end of one of the three avenues lined with hundred-year-old elm trees that lead to the grounds and main residence. In the inner courtyard, the property is demarcated by the historic perimeter as already indicated in 1708: “on one side, there is a canal of running water and on the other, five to six acres or so of thickets making up the grounds of the said mansion, which is enclosed by walls, except for the part running along the length of the said canal which serves to delimit the edge of the property at this point”. The residence is made up of a main dwelling flanked by two pavilions and an annex extending forward from one of them. The façades are covered in beige rendering and enhanced by quoins as well as a number of belt courses and moulded cornices that underline each level. The main elevation boasts six vertical rows of openings. The central avant-corps features a large amount of rusticated masonry topped by a triangular pediment with a blocked bullseye window. The steep sloped slate roofs are punctuated with dormer windows. A stoop with a rounded double staircase leads up to the entrance. Lastly, visually aligned with the residence, there are modern outbuildings at the edge of the property, as well as a pond in a wooded area, all within the uninterrupted land of the estate.

An vast 18th century mansion and its neo-Romanesque indoor chapel and outbuildings in the Essonne valley, 35 km south-east of Paris . The present mansion was re-built in a classical 18th century style on the foundations of an older edifice around 1850. Past the entrance gate leading directly to the main courtyard with a central circular lawn, the mansion comes into view. At the rear of the mansion, parklands planted with centuries-old trees provide the backdrop for a both pastoral and elegant scene that stretches as far as the river. This four-storey mansion spans approximately 1,200 m². Its slate roof, which is in excellent condition, is dotted with bullseye windows. The edifice extends out on either side of a central south-east facing front section. This houses the main entrance, topped by a wrought iron balcony whose motifs are reminiscent of the Sun King's monogram. The balcony can be reached via French windows framed by a sculpted pediment. The upper part of the front section rests on four columns topped with capitals. On each side of the entrance, two carved stone sphinxes stand guard over the estate. Each wing has a row of five windows per level. On the ground floor, thanks to the dual aspect rooms, they connect the front and rear of the grounds. At the four corners of the mansion, four square towers emphasise the symmetry of the design. Each tower features windows richly decorated with carved shells and floral motifs in the Renaissance style. The façades of the towers are framed by slender columns crowned with finely crafted capitals. The north-west façade, facing the grounds, echoes the composition of the main façade. Its central avant-corps stands beneath a bullseye window framed by two imposing gable dormers. All of the façades, as well as the slate roof, have been carefully restored in keeping with their original architectural style.

An elegant, 19th century chateau and its outbuildings in Vendee's lowland bocage countryside on the outskirts of La-Roche-sur-Yon. A central, 200 m long alleyway, lined with oak trees, crosses 10 hectares of fields before reaching the main entrance. This is guarded by a hunting lodge and tall metal gates. A perimeter wall encloses the property. The 3 hectares of parklands, gardens landscaped in 1893 and redesigned in 2002, are planted with several trees over a hundred years old, including sequoia, ash, oak and lime trees. They also have numerous camellia, azalea and boxwood bushes. Alleyways lead to the various outbuildings of the chateau, some of which have been so well renovated that they are able to accommodate up to 40 guests. The property’s two swimming pools, one heated indoor pool and one outdoor pool, make it possible to take relaxing dips from April through until October. An orangery is but an invitation to read and relax. On the sides and in front of the chateau are the old wash-house, the bread oven and the moat, all bearing witness to its history.

A 110-hectare hunting estate with exceptional enclosed grounds in the centre of France. Set back from the road and any other neighbouring dwellings, the estate of nearly 110 hectares, devoid of all disturbances and enclosed by 2.3-metre high fences, is mainly composed of 76 hectares of woods with a variety of different trees, meadows and five ponds ideal for hunting. As for the buildings, in the middle of the property, they are grouped around a courtyard, surrounded by meticulously maintained grounds planted with plane trees, and include a manor house, a guesthouse, two caretaker’s cottages, a reception hall and various outbuildings used for the estate’s daily operations. Completely and carefully renovated over the past 20 years, the estate’s buildings all exude exceptional quality, comfort and elegance.