The property lies on a redeveloped quay where the colourful houses of fishermen neighbour more sumptuous edifices that belonged to captains and dignitaries. There is a large area of tree-dotted parkland opposite the old shipowner’s house, which was built in 1855. The home offers a floor area of around 370m² and has a ground floor, a first floor and a loft. A small front garden lies at the foot of the edifice’s facade. The dwelling is a terraced house.

The building’s main section is square-shaped. On its rear side, two wings extend the house southwards. They are joined together to form a second section. Beyond the latter, a long, narrow garden stretches further southwards. This secret south-facing haven is enclosed with tall walls of natural stone. It offers an extensive outdoor space. The whole layout is L-shaped: there is the street-side main section, which spans a depth of two rooms from front to back, and a rear wing on the garden side. The two wings have been joined together at the ground floor, covering a corridor that was once an open passageway that led from the street to the garden. A single-storey concrete extension was added in the property’s east court in the second half of the 20th century to house the local tax office’s safe.

The facade, on the property’s north side, faces the River Loire. It is punctuated with four even bays of windows and doorways aligned vertically and horizontally and it is framed between quoins of dressed stone. The elevation, made of granite and rubble stone, is rendered with a pale lime mortar and a stringcourse separates the ground floor from the first floor. Along the ground floor of the facade, two casement windows fitted with white shutters alternate with a main door and a secondary door. On the first floor, small balconies with finely crafted wrought-iron guardrails are supported by stone corbels – tokens of architectural articulation that was doubtless richer originally. A loft lies in the roof space. It has not been converted. The house is crowned with a slate roof of gentle slopes, underlined with a dripstone moulding. On the garden side, the west wing, which is longer and older than the concrete extension beside it, is crowned with a hipped roof of tiles. And the flat roof of the east wing, which is more recent and lower in height, has been turned into a roof terrace. From this sun deck, you can admire a view of the long garden, terraced with several levels and dotted with fruit trees. This lush haven ends with a timber shed.

The property’s architecture includes both historical charm and contemporary touches. This bears witness to its different phases of building and design, which also relates to construction of the quays. This development in multiple stages explains the house’s unusual layout today.

The house

The ground floor
The main entrance door of painted wood stands beneath a fanlight. It leads into a long corridor, which connects on one side to a vast office and workshop with a floor area of around 60m² and a separate street-side entrance door. Wood strip flooring extends across this room. A wall plastered in a way that leaves the stonework exposed has been carefully preserved. And against another wall stands a stone fireplace with an insert. This large space is extended at the back with a covered patio, or winter garden, which forms a transition into the reception rooms.

On the other side of the entrance corridor, there is a storeroom, a utility room and a bathroom with a lavatory. Beyond these spaces, there is a hallway where a flight of wooden stairs leads up to the first floor. Cement tiles with a Breton ermine pattern, an alcove and a wooden door reflect the typical ornamentation of an upper-middle-class dwelling of the house’s construction era.

The west wing is extended with a spacious room that serves as an office and library. Beyond an old three-leaf door with a glazed upper section, there is a vast space for everyday life bathed in natural light. It offers a floor area of around 88m², divided into three areas: an open-plan kitchen, a dining area and a lounge, which leads out to the terrace and garden. There is a white, old French-style beamed ceiling, yet the aesthetics here are more contemporary with spaces designed in the style of an open-plan city apartment, underlined with a floor of polished concrete.

The upstairs
From the dining room, a steel spiral staircase leads up to a raised walkway of metal openwork that connects to a mezzanine office. This triple-aspect room with four windows enjoys constant natural brightness and a pleasant view of the garden. In the west-wing section, a corridor connects to two bedrooms and a bathroom. Solid chestnut strip flooring extends across the floors.

A self-contained apartment takes up the first floor of the house’s main, central section. This unit of accommodation includes an open-plan kitchen, a lounge and two bedrooms, one of which is currently used as a yoga room and leads out onto the roof terrace of around 25m² on the east wing’s flat roof. The apartment is very bright and offers views of the banks of the River Loire. It has kept its historical charm with decorative features of the grand 19th-century house: tall windows, door frames with fanlights, indoor shutters and a marble fireplace.

The attic
A loft space lies at the top of the main section. It has not been converted. Skylights fill it with natural light. This loft offers a floor area of around 70m².