a lake, tucked away in France’s Perche province, an hour and a half from Paris
Location
The property lies in France’s beautiful Centre Val de Loire region, in the Perche regional nature park. It is surrounded by farmland and woods. It is located less than one kilometre from Frazé, a village with many listed buildings. The surrounding countryside is ideal for walks. Eight kilometres away, the town of Brou offers a wide range of shops and is home to a renowned market. Illiers-Combray, a town associated with Marcel Proust’s great literary work “In Search of Lost Time”, is 15 kilometres away. And the city of Chartres, known for its cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is 30 kilometres from the property. You can reach Paris in around 1 hour 30 minutes via the A11 motorway and in 1 hour 50 minutes by rail from Brou train station.
Description
The main house
The ground floorIn the middle of the facade, a glazed door leads into an entrance hall where a wooden staircase leads upstairs. On one side, this hallway connects to the lounge, then to the dining room and the utility rooms. On the other side, it connects to a study, three bedrooms and a bathroom. The lounge and the dining room have similar decorative features: old square terracotta floor tiles, exposed beams and joists, and historical fireplaces. In the dining room, there is a fireplace made entirely of dressed stone with column-shaped jambs. It houses a stove. The fireplace in the lounge combines two dressed-stone jambs, a wooden lintel, a fireback and a brick hood.
The first floor
A landing leads to three bedrooms, one of which has a cathedral ceiling and a dressed-stone fireplace beneath a trumeau panel. The room adjoins a bathroom, a lavatory and an unconverted loft space.
The outbuildings
The centre of the courtyard forms a rectangular lawn surrounded by gravel and flanked on either side by two farm buildings with small-tiled roofs. It covers around 600m². The outbuildings have a ground floor and a first floor. They used to house a cowshed, a stable and a sheep shed. The floors are largely paved and feeding troughs remain on the walls. The roofs near the house feature hipped dormers and are also crowned with terracotta finials, like the house’s towers. Two barns are attached to the livestock buildings. A small brick bakehouse, set back, was built in the 19th century.The lake
The lake covers around two hectares and is filled up by a stream. Both have been documented since the 18th century. Drainage water from the surrounding fields also feeds into it. The water level is regulated by a drain. A large lateral overflow allows excess water to be discharged. Maintenance work needs be carried out to dredge the entire lake and inspect the embankment and drain.The woods and farmland
Woods and farmland surround the house. The unobstructed horizon is punctuated by the surrounding copses. The drained fields will be free of leases when the sale agreement is signed. They are mainly cultivated for cereal crops. The woods are regularly used for firewood and the felling of large trees, mainly oaks. They are not governed by France's special legal document for forestry (“Plan de gestion”, which describes, maps and schedules work on woods). Hunting focuses on large game – roe deer and wild boar, which abound in the region – as well as birds. An old, unoccupied farmhouse lies a few hundred metres away. It is made up of two buildings on a plot of moorland and woods.Our opinion
This former manor is a true gem of built heritage. Its towers, fireplaces and terracotta floors evoke its long story. And its extensive outbuildings bear witness to the estate’s agricultural heritage. Around the courtyard, the house, livestock buildings and bakehouse form a cohesive rural whole, extended with the estate’s land, woods and lake, which was indicated on the Cassini Map – the first detailed map of the Kingdom of France, produced in the 18th century. The flexibility of the agricultural plots and the diversity of the buildings allow for a range of projects here, whether for a family or for on-site business activities.
1 095 000 €
Fees at the Vendor’s expense
SIREN: 343 503 967
Real estate agent registered with the French one-stop business formalities office
Reference 321797
| Main building floor area | 230 m² |
| Outbuildings floor area | 600 m² |
| Land registry surface area | 78 ha 23 a 45 ca |
| Number of rooms | 10 |
| Number of bedrooms | 6 |
| Possible number of bedrooms | 8 |
French Energy Performance Diagnosis
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.