A grand 18th-century country house with annexes, a dovecote and a swimming pool in five
hectares of grounds near Saint-Jean-d'Angély in France’s Charente-Maritime department
hectares of grounds near Saint-Jean-d'Angély in France’s Charente-Maritime department
Saint-Jean-d'Angély,
CHARENTE-MARITIME
poitou-charentes
17400
FR
Location
The property lies in a village in France’s Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. This medieval village has a grocery and a 12th-century church listed as a historical monument. The house is 45 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean and is close to the charming town of Saint-Jean-d'Angély with its royal abbey. It is nestled in the Fins Bois area – one of the six zones that form the protected region of origin of the famous Cognac brandy. The property is also near the A10 motorway, which you can get onto quickly from here. On this motorway, you can reach the city of Bordeaux in 1 hour and 30 minutes and Paris in 4 hours and 30 minutes. You can reach the city of Niort in 45 minutes. From Niort’s train station, you can get to Paris in 2 hours and 30 minutes by high-speed rail. And from Saint-Jean-d'Angély, you can reach the French capital in 3 hours and 30 minutes by rail.
Description
From the village south of the property, you reach a tall entrance gate framed between pillars that are crowned with stone vases. From this gate, a tree-lined drive over 100 metres long leads up to the grand country house. A second entrance on the west side leads to the caretaker’s house that stands beside the grand country house. The house has a semibasement, a raised ground floor and a first floor. Its central section is crowned with a hipped roof adorned with finials. This central section is flanked with two wings that are lower in height. Each of these two wings is capped with a gabled roof. The house’s elevations are rendered and punctuated with many large-paned windows fitted with partly louvred shutters that are painted pale blue. The first-floor windows are smaller and just beneath the roof. The house faces south-southeast and north-northwest. A dovecote stands east of the house, a dozen metres away from it. And a long outbuilding lies south-east of the grand dwelling, at a right angle to it. East of this outbuilding, a wall of vegetation made up of trees runs northwards, enclosing the grounds, which are adorned with four 18th-century statues laid out in a square in front of the grand house. There is also a 20m² rectangular pond and a swimming pool on the south-east side of the property, towards the village.
The grand country house
The grand country house has a semibasement, a raised ground floor and a first floor. From a central section, two wings that are lower in height extend outwards. The edifice is 60 metres long. A caretaker’s house adjoins its west end. On the south-east-facing elevation, the windows of the central section are laid out in five bays. Beneath them, there is a semibasement entrance under two curving flights of front steps that lead up to the main entrance door. The north-west-facing elevation looks out at the parkland. Here, the central section has only three bays of windows. On one side of the house, several steps and an archway lead to another entrance.
The ground floor
The entrance door leads into a hallway with wood strip flooring. This room is adorned with dado panelling that underlines a glazed arched art deco door. Beyond this door, there is a small room that leads out to the other side of the grounds. On the left, an imposing wooden staircase with two quarter turns leads up to the first floor. On the right, there is a lounge with oak strip flooring. It features a Louis XVI style fireplace beneath a trumeau mirror and a painting depicting a chivalrous pastoral scene. From here, you reach a library, then a kitchen with a stone fireplace. These two rooms lead to two small bedrooms and a bathroom. On the left side of the entrance hallway, there is another lounge with oak strip flooring. It features a fireplace beneath a trumeau mirror and a decorative fan. Beyond it, an office lies in front of a kitchen, which can be reached from outside. Terracotta tiles adorn this kitchen’s floor and an old-style stone oven lies to the right of its fireplace. From here, a door leads to a scullery, which connects to a bathroom and a bedroom with a view of the grounds. A last door leads to a room that needs to be entirely converted. It houses a former water pump.
The upstairs
The landing connects to two vast bedrooms on both sides and to a smaller bedroom on the south side. Next, there is a space with a floor area of 100m² and exposed roof beams. On the parkland side, there are two more bedrooms and two spare rooms. Two shower rooms, a bathroom and a separate lavatory complete this floor.
The garden-level floor
Rooms for different purposes take up the semibasement on the east side, near the dovecote. These rooms include a storeroom, a cellar, a boiler room and a former kitchen for domestic staff, which has a fireplace and an old-style stone oven.
The outbuildings
The outbuildings are arranged around the main house. The caretaker’s house with a separate entrance adjoins the dwelling at its west end. A dovecote stands a dozen metres east of the main edifice. And there is a long farm building used for storage that houses an old cowshed.
The caretaker’s house
The caretaker’s house stands at the west end of the main dwelling, separated from it by a barn that serves as storage space for maintenance equipment. This caretaker’s house offers a floor area of around 75m². Large French windows with small panes lead inside it. It includes a kitchen, a lounge, two bedrooms, a shower room and a lavatory. A garage adjoins the house on its north side.
The dovecote
The square dovecote is crowned with a pyramidal roof. It has kept its ladder, which was used to reach the 350 earthenware pigeonholes in the walls.
The long building
The long single-storey building offers a floor area of around 120m². It is crowned with a gable roof of terracotta barrel tiles and its walls are made of rubble stone. This outbuilding has storerooms and a former cowshed.
The grounds
The grounds extend over an area of around 2.5 hectares on the property’s north-west side. A central space stretches over 200 metres, demarcated on each side with woodland. From the double flight of front steps that leads up to the main entrance door, a drive that is around 30 metres long runs across a square formed by four statues. These statues date back to the period before the French Revolution in 1789. Due to the turmoil of that time, these statues were hidden for a while before they were placed in their present positions. One statue represents a gardener resting on his shovel. The three other statues allude to mythology. There is Hermes with his caduceus, Dionysus with his bunch of grapes and Artemis with her bow and deer. On the east side, a path that is around 30 metres long leads to a round 8m² pond, then to a swimming pool that is 10 metres long and 4.5 metres wide.
Our opinion
This grand 18th-century dwelling is remarkable. The property is a haven that is both rustic and refined with its outbuildings, its vast grounds adorned with four statues and its swimming pool. It will delight anyone looking for calm, for nature as far as the eye can see, and for architecture that is authentic and elegantly understated. Moreover, the property is ideally located, far from urban bustle, yet less than one hour from the Atlantic Ocean and close to shops, amenities and the region’s cities. Indeed, this location is a precious asset for anyone in search of a peaceful lifestyle.
752 000 €
Fees at the Vendor’s expense
Reference 221783
| Land registry surface area | 5 ha 18 a 59 ca |
| Main building surface area | 435 m2 |
| Number of bedrooms | 7 |
| Outbuilding surface area | 145 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.
