manors for sale Procé-Monselet, France

A cosy 18th-century house with an old farm complex and over a hectare of grounds near the River Erdre and Nantes, France. A white Norman-style fence runs alongside a quiet road on both sides of an electric gate: the property’s entrance. Beyond this gate lies a grassy court separated by walls and two pillars covered with Virginia creeper. This court forms a transitional area leading from the road to the buildings. It takes you into the main courtyard, which enclosed by the outbuildings, an old farm complex and the house. Around the sides and rear of the buildings, vast grounds extend, dotted with age-old trees. These extensive grounds cover more than a hectare. A bridle path runs around the edge of them, marking the boundary with the neighbouring property. The buildings and grounds once formed a farm complex belonging to a nearby chateau that towers on the bank of the River Erdre. The chateau’s historical estate was carved up: today’s property was born of this division. The main dwelling is rectangular with a central section extended on both sides with two wings in the same style. The central section is built of rubble stone rendered with a coating of Loire sand. It has a ground floor, a first floor and a second floor in the roof space. The wings are single-storey sections. The windows in the facade are set in tuffeau-stone surrounds with segmental arch tops. They are arranged asymmetrically. Their timber frames recall old mullioned windows. The hipped slate roof has a dormer on each side. Two chimney stacks rise up from it. One of the wings houses a reception space and looks out at the lush grounds through broad picture windows. The other wing houses a space dedicated to the swimming pool. A complex of old farm buildings around the courtyard flanks the house on both sides. These structures are made of rubble schist and crowned with slate roofs. They form a comprehensive collection of buildings: a barn, garages, workshops, storerooms and open-sided shelters.

A remarkably restored Belle Époque villa and its guest houses on the banks of the Loire, halfway between Nantes and Ancenis. The first gate opens from the street onto a hedge-lined driveway, which leads to a second gate framed by two dry-stone pillars. The grounds unfold from here, featuring on one side a vast, deep garage, a shelter and a workshop, as well as two guest houses created in the former stables. At the back, the sober rear facade of the villa completes the view of the upper part of the grounds. The sloping parkland surrounds the residence on both sides. It features a swimming pool with pool house and a large terrace in front of the elevation facing the Loire, before descending down to the perimeter wall. Below the terrace, two rows of centuries-old trees frame an elegant expanse of lawn. Finally, a gate in the perimeter wall provides access to the street leading to the station. This country residence was built for an industrialist from Nantes in 1899. It comprises a rectangular main building preceded by two semi-octagonal turrets linked by a central bay at the front, on the Loire side, which seem to form a projecting decorative structure. The two-storey villa is almost entirely built of tuffeau limestone on a granite base. The rear section has a four-pitched slate roof. Each of the turrets has a pavilion roof and the central bay, which features a protective Virgin Mary statue in a recess on the facade, is topped by a triangular pediment towering the rear roof. On either side of the central section, two single-storey wings replicate the semi-octagonal shape of the turrets, adding stability and balance to the overall appearance. The decorative window surrounds are of tuffeau limestone. The stone balustrades on the piano nobile were filled in during a previous restoration. The two octagonal roofs of the turrets are supported by a corbelling with large moulded dentils. The two adjoining guest houses, which come into view just after passing through the entrance gate, have been converted into independent gîtes. They are of rendered schist masonry with brickwork and topped by slate gable roofs. Each house has its own little garden, bordered by a vertically slatted chestnut fence.