A vast 17th to 18th century country manor house with outbuildings
and ruins, nestled in a 13-hectare estate in the Périgord Noir area
and ruins, nestled in a 13-hectare estate in the Périgord Noir area
Veyrines-de-Domme,
DORDOGNE
aquitaine
24250
FR
Location
This manor house is near the royal fortified village of Domme, one of the gems of the Périgord Noir area and a winner of the “France’s must beautiful villages” competition, standing 150 metres above the Dordogne river. This area is much sought after and is internationally renowned for its wealth of speleological treasures, its historical and prehistoric heritage, the quality of its gastronomy, but also outdoor activities, such as kayaking on the Dordogne or hiking along the GR 64 trail between Rocamadour and Les Eyzies. It is around 25 minutes from the town centre of Sarlat-la-Canéda, approximately 1 hour from Brive-la-Gaillarde with its international airport and railway station, as well as the A20 and A89 motorways which respectively put Bordeaux 2 hours 15 minutes away and Toulouse 1 hour 45 minutes away, approximately.
Description
On his tour of France to identify monuments eligible for the very first Historic Monuments classification, created at the request of Napoleon III, Prosper Mérimée noted that: “I am staying in one of these country manors that are so common in Gascony, which the villagers have the habit of calling a mansion”.
This is precisely the case for this manor house, whose proud appearance and majestic volumes led the villagers to refer to it with the generic but no less supreme French term of château (a mansion). Its wide façade and dominant position overlooking the valley from afar accentuate the almost stately effect.
The drive passes through an imposing wrought-iron gate with arrow-head motifs, supported by 4 square pillars made of local limestone topped by 18th-century capitals. It leads to a large esplanade-like lawn that dominates the surroundings, separating the house from the stables, which are nonetheless located within the same enclosure encircled by dry-stone walls.
In bygone days, it was probably a fortified manor, from where, on high, it was possible to discreetly keep watch for potential attackers. As such, it once had a tower, which has since been levelled, though its precious vestiges remain. Consequently, today, it is possible to gauge the impressive thickness of the defensive work’s walls. A surrounding wall enclosed all the buildings, as can still be seen today by the traces of a wall perpendicular to the corners of the two façades.
The buildings are surrounded a short distance away by a mixed grove of more than one-hundred-year-old oak, lime and chestnut trees, framing them in a permanently green setting.
To the right of the entrance gates, at the end of the lawn and meadow that stretch out in front of the noble façade, the ruins of the old stables and drinking troughs, as well as two wine storehouses that are still intact, barely conceal a sparklingly blue trapezoid-shaped swimming pool.
This is precisely the case for this manor house, whose proud appearance and majestic volumes led the villagers to refer to it with the generic but no less supreme French term of château (a mansion). Its wide façade and dominant position overlooking the valley from afar accentuate the almost stately effect.
The drive passes through an imposing wrought-iron gate with arrow-head motifs, supported by 4 square pillars made of local limestone topped by 18th-century capitals. It leads to a large esplanade-like lawn that dominates the surroundings, separating the house from the stables, which are nonetheless located within the same enclosure encircled by dry-stone walls.
In bygone days, it was probably a fortified manor, from where, on high, it was possible to discreetly keep watch for potential attackers. As such, it once had a tower, which has since been levelled, though its precious vestiges remain. Consequently, today, it is possible to gauge the impressive thickness of the defensive work’s walls. A surrounding wall enclosed all the buildings, as can still be seen today by the traces of a wall perpendicular to the corners of the two façades.
The buildings are surrounded a short distance away by a mixed grove of more than one-hundred-year-old oak, lime and chestnut trees, framing them in a permanently green setting.
To the right of the entrance gates, at the end of the lawn and meadow that stretch out in front of the noble façade, the ruins of the old stables and drinking troughs, as well as two wine storehouses that are still intact, barely conceal a sparklingly blue trapezoid-shaped swimming pool.
The manor house
You can enter this classical styled residence from the patio, admiring its noble south-facing façade of irregularly coursed Périgord stone, known as Vèze stone, which is exposed and carefully pointed, as in many homes in the Dordogne. It is adorned with a very linear Louis XVI style pyramidal decorative terminal, which subtly underlines its aristocratic appearance. A fanlight created in the upper part of the decorative terminal was subsequently crudely filled in.
This sober, two-storey façade communicates with the patio and lawn via a wooden entrance door with a fan-shaped transom window and four windows with wooden shutters, symmetrically positioned on either side of the door. There are five windows on the first floor, equipped with wrought-iron guard-rails and shutters.
The north-facing façade possesses seven windows or French windows on each level, opening out onto a meadow frugally planted with trees.
The narrower east and west facing elevations both have two windows on each floor.
The steeply pitched four-sided roof made of flat Périgord terracotta tiles follows the very linear layout of the manor house. Its impressive long ridge tile is punctuated with four Sarlat stone chimneys, including a monumental one.
The ground floor
As with all the rest of the manor house, certain parts are habitable (126 m²) and others (114 m²) need to be completely restored, albeit with the beautiful existing materials already in place as a basis.
You can reach the habitable portion through the entrance door and an entrance hall with walls rendered in yellow ochre lime-wash, leading to a semi-turning staircase in white Vèze stone with a wooden balustrade.
The entrance hall also leads to a vast fifty-square-metre lounge, the breadth of which is accentuated by the through-lighting from which it benefits.
The walls are lime-washed with yellow ochre rendering, as is the case throughout the house, but around the large windows the stonework is exposed. One of the walls plays host to a stone 18th century style fireplace, added some time after the initial construction.
On either side, two 18th century oak double doors lead into the kitchen. On the ceiling, there is a single square-sectioned oak master beam. The very vast old kitchen and scullery are monastic in their simplicity, with a single stone fireplace and a long, off-white glazed tiled floor. Although the presence of radiators might suggest its presence, there is no heating system in the house, apart from the fireplaces, since the house has primarily been used as a summer residence.
The floor is made up of large, glazed Périgord terracotta tiles and Vèze stone slabs.
The first floor
After climbing a wide, well-proportioned staircase with a wooden banister and balustrade made of flat balusters, a long corridor with wood stripped flooring and a high ceiling with exposed beams leads along the first floor, of which 138 m² is habitable and 112 m² requires renovation.
Four bedrooms, plus a bathroom with two washbasins and a toilet make up the habitable portion. Two of the bedrooms boast fireplaces from the 18th and 19th centuries as well as chevron patterned wooden flooring. The other two bedrooms have more recent solid oak large stripped flooring.
All the bedrooms have large ceiling heights and exposed beams that have been carefully restored.
The harmony of the materials and colours on the rendered walls on the ground floor is repeated on the first floor, with the same pale yellow ochre lime-washed rendering, leaving the stone of the windows and doors exposed.
The attic
This attic space covers an area of approximately 327 m² and boasts an impressive roof frame in the form of an upturned ship’s hull, a masterpiece of carpentry that is around 23 metres long. This building technique burgeoned in the 16th century. These roof frames, known as “Philibert Delorme” frames, are made up of flat pieces of wood, assembled by a system of wedges, and was easy to assemble without the need for large lifting equipment. They were popular in large rural homes, as their entire volume was used to store crop harvests or fodder in the absence of barns.
The basement
The cellars can be reached by the main staircase in the entrance hall, but also via a two-leaf wooden doorway at the bottom of the western elevation. The three cellars are laid out one after the other. Two of them are vaulted and possess stone fireplaces. A narrow passageway, that has now been blocked, conceals a few steps of an old staircase that once led outside.
The outbuildings
Backing onto the surrounding wall, opposite the old defensive tower is a building of modest dimensions (20 m²), with a steep gable roof made of flat Périgord terracotta tiles, which was once a bakehouse or plum drying room, with no large openings apart from the door. It is now used as a workshop and equipment storage room.
The old smithy with its wide carriage door next to the former stables, now in ruins, is today used as a tractor garage and houses the swimming pool’s technical equipment.
The ruins
They are an important intrinsic element of the estate.
At the southern tip of the lawn in front of the main façade, opposite the manor house, the remains of the old stables, with dimensions worthy of a coaching inn, hidden under carefully trimmed vegetation, provide the grounds with a fascinating romantic setting in the style of painter Hubert Robert, as well as a moving reminder of the estate’s very active past. Surrounded by an overgrown path, the remnants of a drinking trough and a carriage hall that can be reached via a sloped incline, these ruined stables are one of the treasures of the estate.
Finally, hidden beneath this interlacing of stones and beams are two cellars – one of which is 40 metres long with a barrel-vaulted roof – which extend like a long tunnel, with a floor of old Périgord rammed earth, like an intriguing echo of the manor house’s upturned ship’s hull roof frame.
The estate
The estate is split between lawns, meadows, fruit tree groves (with plum, pear, fig and walnut trees, among others), as well as mixed woodland, commonly called garenne, covering a total area of approximately 13 hectares. Some fine old trees stand out, including lime, evergreen oak, beach, acacia and chestnut. The regularly maintained earthen tracks running through it are an invitation for a stroll.
Our opinion
Even before you go through the gates, you will be left with the impression that you have crossed a threshold into somewhere timeless, taking a trip back to yesteryear, arriving in a bubble out of time and away from any disturbance, in a remarkably unspoilt environment. This daydream comes at a price: one part is immediately suitable for living while the other needs to be renovated, depending on your projects... maybe at a later date; or perhaps never, as with the ruins that are so eloquent and decorative in their current state that it would seem almost a shame to alter them.
For whoever wants to restore this house to its former glory - because it has never lost any of its original lustre - the major advantage is that any work can be carried out while you immediately enjoy the perfectly renovated habitable part.
You will indeed be in Wonderland, on the other side of this timeless looking glass.
Reference 390249
| Land registry surface area | 13 ha 30 a 7 ca |
| Main building surface area | 490 m2 |
| Number of bedrooms | 4 |
| Outbuilding surface area | 56 m2 |
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NB: The above information is not only the result of our visit to the property; it is also based on information provided by the current owner. It is by no means comprehensive or strictly accurate especially where surface areas and construction dates are concerned. We cannot, therefore, be held liable for any misrepresentation.
