You reach the property from a one-way street. It lies in a cul-de-sac in a residential district made up of upper-middle-class houses. When the edifice was built, at the end of the 19th century, its position – only 500 metres from the fishing port – was strategic. In 1892, the building housed a thriving business in cider, wines and spirits. The firm became the main supplier for sailors, cafés and restaurants in the town. The site included a workshop and a storehouse. A manager’s house was built in 1903. And at the end of the 1970s, the cider factory moved site. Yet the buildings here were then left as they were for several decades. Today, the workshop has been converted into a dwelling and the storehouse has been totally renovated and now serves as storage space. Around the buildings, there are parking spaces, terraces and shrubs. A tall stone wall encloses the property.

The workshop converted into a dwelling

The former workshop has two rectangular wings made of stone. They are crowned with long, hipped slate roofs. The elevations are made of granite rubble. Ashlar forms the door and window surrounds. Lime pointing fills in the exposed stonework. The stonework is pale yet warm in tone, contrasting with the bluish grey frames of the doors and windows. Many skylights punctuate the roof. Just above the entrance door, a hipped dormer houses a bell. Wooden corbels supporting protective panels beneath the eaves form a crenelated cornice along the top of the stone elevations. The edifice’s charm is brought out by old chimney stacks, wooden terraces, stone steps, a metal balustrade and lush shrubs.

The garden-level floor
You can reach the garden-level floor from either inside, from a staircase leading down from the lounge, or outside, via doors that lead out into the ornamental garden. On this bottom level, there is a spacious games room with a floor of terracotta tiles. Exposed beams of timber and metal run across the white ceiling. In addition to natural light from windows, spotlights brighten up this room. Grey dado panelling adorns the walls. Its tone reflects the door frames and the modern staircase made of metal and wood. Beyond this room, there is a bedroom, a shower room, two lavatories and a utility room. All the radiators are made of cast iron. These cast-iron radiators are decorative features in themselves. The bedroom has wood strip flooring. Its design is tastefully minimalistic and contemporary. The windows have indoor wooden shutters, as do other windows in the house. Beside the utility room, stone steps with a metal balustrade lead up to a vast wooden terrace that faces south and extends the ground floor. The garden-level floor is not at all overlooked.

The ground floor
A few stone steps outside lead up to the main entrance door. Above this half-solid entrance door, there is a small bell housed in a dormer. The entrance door leads into a spacious reception room, flooded with natural light, beneath a cathedral ceiling. This space forms the heart of the dwelling. A door leads out to the back of the house via ashlar steps. Terracotta tiles adorn the floors. Their tone contrasts with the grey of the fitted kitchen and the white of the walls. A long central table that can seat 10 guests stands in the middle of the reception room. Porcelain switches add to the charm of the interior. A 2.5-metre-long glazed partition wall with three rows of panes in aluminium frames that recalls an orangery separates the room from a lounge. This lounge is cosier than the central reception room. The ceiling is lower in the lounge. Exposed metal beams run across this ceiling. These beams are remnants of the site’s old industrial activity. There are many square windows too. Broad-strip wood flooring extends across the room. From the kitchen, on the south side, a door leads to a small lounge. Another door leads to a bedroom with a bathroom and lavatory. On this level, there are wood strip floors and terracotta-tiled floors. The walls are white, grey and pale green.

The first floor
Two distinct entrances lead into two separate spaces on the top floor. In one wing, at the top of the staircase that climbs up from the garden-level floor via the ground floor, there is a landing bathed in natural light where you can admire the exposed beams of the roof frame. Authentic wood-strip flooring extends across this level. This wooden flooring comes from a former building from the 18th century. In a partition wall, a glazed section of four rows of panes offers a downward view of the spacious reception room below with its cathedral ceiling. There are two bedrooms in this section. The beams of the roof frame are exposed in these bedrooms. You can see the purlins, battens and rafters. The finishing touches are of excellent quality. They reflect the remarkable decor of the north wing’s first floor. You reach the other wing’s first floor via a staircase that climbs up from the garden-level floor beside the utility room and takes you to the small reading room on the ground floor. A corridor filled with natural light connects to a bathroom with a shower, bath and lavatory and to two bedrooms, one of which has a partition wall with a glazed section of three rows of panes that offers a downward view of the spacious reception room below.