A seventeenth-century country home with a guesthouse in walled grounds that cover
one hectare in a hamlet in France’s Périgord Vert area, near the town of Ribérac
one hectare in a hamlet in France’s Périgord Vert area, near the town of Ribérac
Ribérac,
DORDOGNE
aquitaine
24600
FR
Location
The property lies between the beautiful towns of Aubeterre-sur-Dronne and Brantôme, in the Val de Dronne area of south-west France: a lush region of hills dotted with streams, mills, Romanesque churches, peatland, woods and colourful fields. Local buildings are made of white limestone, which makes the architecture here especially bright. This is the area of France that the English writer Edward Harrison Barker criss-crossed on foot and by canoe in the nineteenth century – he shared the story of his travels in the book ‘Two Summers in Guyenne’. There are shops for everyday needs in a neighbouring village and the town of Ribérac is about twenty minutes from the property. You can reach Bordeaux in less than two hours. Paris can be reached in less than three hours by high-speed rail from the town of Angoulême.
Description
The property looks down over a valley. It lies in the heart of a hamlet and covers roughly one hectare on a hilltop plateau. The country house stands in the middle of grounds that are entirely enclosed with stone walls. The whole building forms a U shape. It is an imposing dwelling from the end of the seventeenth century. Its enclosed inner courtyard has a water tank and a remarkable ago-old lime tree that towers in the centre. A central pavilion stands out on a long dual-aspect section that runs from north to south. This pavilion is crowned with a square dovecote and a mansard slate roof. A carriage archway leads through it into the inner courtyard. This central pavilion lies between two very different L-shaped sections. On the south side of the carriage entrance, there is the main house, which is made up of three parts. One end of the long section with the carriage archway and mansard roof joins the main building at a right angle. This main building has a semibasement, walls that are taller than the rest of the edifice and a roof with a mansard end. At this building’s gable end, there is an older section that also has a semibasement. Monk-and-nun tiling covers its three-slope hipped roof, which is lower than the rest of the house’s roofing.
On the opposite side of the inner courtyard, outbuildings stretch from west to east. This wing has been converted into a gîte. A well forms a junction with a barn beneath a mansard roof, which is well balanced with the central pavilion and the main house.
English-style grounds dotted with flowers and trees extend all around the edifice. Low dry-stone walls divide the grounds into different spaces that include a swimming pool, an orchard, a terrace and gardens.
On the opposite side of the inner courtyard, outbuildings stretch from west to east. This wing has been converted into a gîte. A well forms a junction with a barn beneath a mansard roof, which is well balanced with the central pavilion and the main house.
English-style grounds dotted with flowers and trees extend all around the edifice. Low dry-stone walls divide the grounds into different spaces that include a swimming pool, an orchard, a terrace and gardens.
The main house
The main house forms an L shape. The pale rendering of its stone walls leaves its quoins exposed. Rectangular windows of small panes punctuate its walls. The window and door surrounds are made of sculpted and dressed stone. Slate and monk-and-nun tiles cover the house’s mansard roof, which is dotted with dormers.
The main entrance door stands in a lime-coated facade. The vertical decoration of its dressed-stone surround reaches the floor above it. This strengthens the impression of height. Its surround includes sculpted pilasters that rise up to a double cornice crowned with two ornamental plant ears.
The structure has the characteristics of a typical country house with a central pavilion. Yet the layout of this property is unusual. The main house’s living space does not take up the whole of the building’s U shape. Nor does it include the central pavilion, which, as the edifice’s focal point, would usually contain the noblest room. Perhaps this is because of an older dwelling that was here before. Remains show that a country house with an enclosed courtyard once stood on this site at the end of the Middle Ages.
The ground floor
Six tall wooden-framed French windows herald a ceiling height that is rarely seen in Dordogne. They punctuate the ground-floor walls and are capped with fanlights of small panes. An entrance hall stretches from one side of the building to the other, beneath a French-style beamed ceiling. Its sizeable floor area makes it look like a second living room or a bright, spacious corridor. In the oldest section, this hallway connects to two bedrooms, one of which has kept the remains of a fireplace and cupboards from the Middle Ages. The lime-coated walls, the joists painted white and the nailed pale-wood flooring are tokens of a modern restoration that has respected the property’s old architecture. On the other side of the hallway, the kitchen, the living room, and the main bedroom with its bathroom – all featuring remarkable ceiling heights – contain Louis XIV style fireplaces with decorative sections that rise up to the ceilings. These impressive fireplaces are so tall that the rooms’ standard-size doors seem small in comparison to them. Between two sections with mansard roofs, a hallway houses a splendid staircase made of stone and wood that leads up to the roof space and an older staircase made of stone that leads down to the basement. This room also serves as a lobby for entering the dining room. The bright dual-aspect dining room has been restored and decorated masterfully. Beyond its fireplace, a small room serves as a cloakroom and wood storeroom and leads out to the inner courtyard.
The attic
A bedroom has been made beneath exposed beams and a mansard roof. A small window and a skylight fill it with natural light.
The cellar
A semibasement extends beneath the house’s entire south wing. You reach it via a staircase inside the house and three doors that lead out into the south garden. This semibasement includes a wine cellar, several vaulted rooms on the courtyard side, storerooms, a utility room and a boiler room.
The outbuildings
The north wing once housed a stable, a kitchen, a bakehouse and a well. This section adjoins a barn beside the carriage entrance.
The guest house
Today, a two-floor gîte has replaced the north wing and its stable. The former kitchen is now a bedroom. The ground floor is made up of a kitchen, a shower room and a living room with a tall ceiling height. Stairs lead to a second bedroom and a ladder takes you up to a boudoir on a mezzanine floor. You can reach this gîte from the courtyard or via a more private entrance on the north face: an arched door opposite the swimming pool.
The barn
The barn has the same architectural design as that of the main house: a mansard roof punctuated with gabled and round-top dormers. Yet there is no fireplace inside it, nor a ceiling, nor any windows in its walls. The interior is simply a vast open space with an earthen floor, left in its original state.
The entrance porch
A square-base dovecote capped with a mansard roof stands above a carriage archway and a pedestrian door that form the only entrance into the inner courtyard.
The grounds
The grounds gently slope upwards from south to north. Flowerbeds, gates and dry-stone walls divide the grounds into several different spaces around the edifice: an orchard, a garden embellished with flowers on the south side, a children’s play area, and a walled garden with a terrace, a lawn and a swimming pool beside the gîte.
Our opinion
This delightful property is a gem that has been preserved since the late fifteenth century. From outside, it seems like a classic country house. Yet its composite character has made the edifice unique over the years. You can never tire of its enchanting mix of historical periods, architectural styles, proportions and materials. Its asymmetrical U-shaped layout, its mansard roofs, its monk-and-nun tiling, its astonishing ceiling heights and the impressive semibasement of its main dwelling all create a certain charm. And this undeniable charm has never lost its harmony over the course of successive restorations.
Ever since the property was first built, only three families have owned it, including the Montozon family until 1920 and the current owners since 1989. So the next owners will represent the fourth chapter in the long story of this remarkable home.
750 000 €
Fees at the Vendor’s expense
Reference 881312
| Land registry surface area | 9895 m2 |
| Main building surface area | 343 m2 |
| Number of bedrooms | 4 |
| Outbuilding surface area | 400 m2 |
| including refurbished area | 137 m2 |
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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.
