A track leads up to the mansion from a small local road. It goes past a line of former service outhouses that used to belong to the property. A gate fitted in a round-arch stone passage forms an impressive entrance that takes you into a vast front court with a lawn in the middle. On one side stands the mansion. On the other side stands a warden’s lodge and a long building of annexes that includes a garage and storerooms.

The gently sloping grounds cover about two hectares and extend around the mansion and behind it, dotted with trees that are over a hundred years old. These grounds lead down to the River Erdre where they offer private access to the water via a stone quay. The property cannot be seen from the river.

The mansion

The edifice was built in the sixteenth century where a fortified construction once stood. It is one of the town’s oldest buildings. It was occupied by a biological son of King Henri IV who was sent on a peace-making mission in this town, which was a hub of the Reformation. A small dovecote – a royal privilege – hollowed out in the south-tower wall bears witness to this period. The mansion was restored in 1711 – an engraving indicates this on the coat of arms that adorns the facade looking out over the grounds. And in 1823, a grand pavilion that is taller than the main section was built onto it in an eighteenth-century style and annexes were built on the grounds too, extending the property.

The mansion is rectangular. One end is made up of a rounded projection flanked by two small towers. The other end is made up of a pavilion that rises above the main section and juts out slightly from the latter at the front and back. The building is made up of a ground floor and a first floor. The pavilion includes a second floor: an attic level.

The edifice is made of rubble masonry upon a granite-and-schist base. The walls are rendered. The cornices, dormers, quoins, and door and window surrounds are made of tuffeau stone. The mansion is crowned with a hipped slate roof that features zinc finials. The roof is punctuated with wall dormers that have curved-top pediments. The pavilion roof features bull’s eye dormers.

The mansion’s court-facing facade is elegant. The main section in its middle, the towers at one end and the higher pavilion at the other end form a well-balanced whole. The entrance door is capped with a curved-top pediment. Above it, beneath the roof, is a windowless dormer that features the coat of arms of one of the house’s former occupants. A Virginia creeper covers almost the entire court-facing side and luxuriant wisteria climbs up the tower and arched passage. The other side, which looks out over the grounds, is plainer: an absence of wall-climbing vegetation leaves the stone face visible.

The main building covers a total surface area of around 350m². It spans the depth of one room from front to back, whereas the pavilion spans a depth of two rooms from front to back. The entire edifice needs to be restored.

The ground floor
The entrance door in the house’s central section leads into a hallway with a granite floor and the start of a quarter-turn flight of oak stairs. The balustrade is embellished with splendid wrought ironwork from the nineteenth century. On one side, the hallway connects to a vast dining room where cement tiles cover the floor in a pattern of large cabochon squares with a floral motif. In this dual-aspect room, the wooden panelling on the walls and the French-style beamed ceiling have kept their original paint. French windows lead out into the grounds from the back of the room. In line with the entrance, a door takes you into a kitchen with a stone floor of cabochon tiling and a large fireplace hollowed out in the wall. There is a linen room, a lavatory and a service entry in the adjoining tower.

On the other side of the hallway lies a spacious living room with a large fireplace in wood sculpted with a foliated design. Strip parquet covers the floor. The walls are adorned with floor-to-ceiling wooden panelling that has kept its original paint, as have the exposed beams and joists that run across the ceiling. French windows lead out into the grounds. Another door connects to the pavilion. It takes you to a second entrance that leads to an office and library room with a black-marble fireplace and a herringbone-patterned parquet floor. The room’s ceiling is covered with a trompe l’oeil painted sky that is remarkably well preserved. Beyond it is a former kitchen that takes up the rest of pavilion’s ground floor.

The first floor
The main staircase in the central section leads up to a landing. On one side, this landing connects to a large dual-aspect room that has been turned into a dormitory. Its exposed beams and joists are painted. Beyond it there is a vast bedroom with three windows. This bedroom takes up the mansion’s semi-circular end. It has strip parquet flooring, a black-marble fireplace, and painted beams and joists. There are also two large fitted cupboards in the bedroom, which offers access to a bathroom and a lavatory in the towers.

On the other side of the landing, a passageway takes you to a corridor connecting to the mansion’s central section. It leads to the pavilion. Here, in the mansion’s central section, there is a bathroom, a wardrobe, and a bedroom with parquet flooring and exposed beams and joists. Further along, in the pavilion, there are two extensive bedrooms with higher ceilings. They include a master bedroom with its own bathroom and lavatory. Strip parquet covers the floors of all the bedrooms. The master bedroom features a black-marble fireplace beneath a trumeau.

The second floor
At the end of the corridor, a door that is flush with the wall surface leads to a flight of stairs that climbs up to the pavilion’s second floor. This level includes two separate bedrooms with sloping attic ceilings. The two bedrooms connect to a shared shower room. The whole floor is brightened up with light from circular windows and covered with old-style oak parquet. An attic that has not been converted can be reached via the main staircase.

The outhouses

The caretaker’s house
The warden’s lodge stands on one side of the stone arch entrance, which it supports. The building is made of rubble masonry upon a schist base. Its gabled slate roof features a dormer with a curved-top pediment on the court-facing side. On one side of the lodge is a small tower that contains a staircase. The building needs to be entirely restored. It offers a ground-floor room with a fireplace and, on the first floor, a bedroom.

The outhouse
This building made up of annexes stands exactly in line with the warden’s lodge. These annexes were built in the nineteenth century, but in an eighteenth-century style. The construction is perfectly symmetrical. It is made up of a central section flanked with two pavilions that jut out very slightly from the front and back of the building. It has a ground floor and an attic level. The latter is brightened up by light from wall dormers that are each crowned with a triangular pediment. The building’s rubble masonry walls rise up from a granite base course. The quoins and the door and window surrounds are made of tuffeau stone.

Inside, the central section is taken up by a large room used for storage. The two pavilions at the ends serve as a garage and a room for the boiler and fuel-oil tanks. The upper level would need to be restored to be used.

There is a little shed outside in line with the building.

The grounds

The grounds
Trees and shrubs have been carefully planted around the grounds throughout an area that covers roughly two hectares on gently sloping terrain around the mansion. The grounds are well designed, with avenues of horse chestnut trees that are over a hundred years old and delightful vistas of the mansion nestled in its lush surroundings. The River Erdre can be reached directly via a flight of stone steps. And you can easily moor a boat on a quay made of reinforced concrete.

The rectangular green expanse of lawn in front of the mansion is neatly marked out with four box trees sculpted into cones. One stands in each of the lawn’s four corners.

In another part of the grounds, a former clay tennis court has become overgrown with vegetation: shrubs and groves have taken over the spot. This part of the grounds lies in an area listed as a Natura 2000 conservation zone.

The orchard
The orchard covers around 1,200m² and extends behind the outhouses. Some fruit trees still stand in it. The area is a pleasant garden too, isolated from the rest of the property.

There is also an old greenhouse that adjoins the back of the building of annexes. But this glass structure needs to be restored: nature has reclaimed it.