A 16th-century farm complex with 78 hectares of farmland and woods with
a lake, tucked away in France’s Perche province, an hour and a half from Paris
Frazé, EURE-ET-LOIR center-val-de-loire 28160 FR

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

From the main road, a local lane runs alongside a lake and cultivated fields before leading to the entrance to the property, situated on a gently sloping hillside. The grass-covered courtyard is flanked by two farm buildings and closed off at the far end by the main house. The buildings are made of rubble stone and flint, rendered with lime. The roofs are covered with small tiles. A copse surrounds the complex. Formerly a 16th-century manor house, the main building was extended and redesigned in the 18th and 19th centuries. It offers a floor area of around 230m². The building has a ground floor and a first floor in the roof space. The facade displays ten openings set in surrounds of dressed stone. Four wall dormers with pediments stand along the roof. To the west, two circular towers crowned with cone roofs stand out for their terracotta finials. The house has kept several original features, including terracotta floor tiles, fireplaces, windows with dressed-stone surrounds, and exposed beams. The main section houses the reception rooms: a lounge, a dining room and a study. At the back, an extension built in a former dairy houses the utility rooms. Another extension, extending from the main house, has three bedrooms and a bathroom. Upstairs, there are three bedrooms and a second bathroom. An outdoor flight of steps leads down to a small cellar housing a heat pump, which supplies the water-filled radiators. The two outbuildings, formerly used for livestock and farming activities, now serve as storage spaces and workshops. Their layout allows for a variety of uses. The estate includes around 53 hectares of farmland, free of leases, and 18 hectares of woods. There is also a two-hectare lake, which was actually indicated on the Cassini Map – the first detailed map of the Kingdom of France, produced in the18th century.

The main house

The ground floor
In 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


See the fee rates


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


Information on the risks to which this property is exposed is available on the website: www.georisques.gouv.fr

Consultant

Côme Lefebvre du Preÿ +33 1 42 84 80 85

contact

Share

send to a friend Pinterest linkedin Facebook

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.