The main house

The ground floor lies lower down from the garden. It was completely redesigned in the 1980s: the rooms have been decompartmentalised, the passageways opened up and the decor given mirrors, sliding doors, in-built furniture and vivid colours. It is structured around a vast lounge with a fireplace and exposed ceiling beams. This lounge connects to a kitchen. A hallway leads to two bedrooms, an office, two bathrooms, a lavatory and a utility room. Upstairs, a long corridor connects to four bedrooms, a dining room, a kitchen, a shower room and a lavatory. From the landing, you can also reach a large loft space, which could be converted. The rooms have kept several old features, including wood strip flooring, stone or wooden fireplaces, traditional window frames and small-paned windows.

The intermediate levels

Between the main floors, two intermediate levels connect to the chapel and the apartment. The first one has a room with walls of exposed brickwork and a ceiling of exposed beams and joists. A stained-glass window bathes the room in natural light. A former icebox remains here. A small wine cellar with racks adjoins it. The second one has a billiard room, which is also designed as a music room. A textile wall covering helps soundproof the room and a bar gives the room a convivial dimension too. A large-paned glazed door leads to a balcony that looks down at the inner court. Wooden and stone stairs with wrought-iron balustrades link together the different spaces that make up the whole property.

The apartment

An outdoor flight of steps leads up to a balcony that looks down at the court and takes you to the apartment entrance door. On the left, there is a bedroom with rose-toned floor tiles. It is filled with natural light from a small-paned window that looks out at the inner court. Opposite it, there is a large lounge with exposed beams. Two large-paned windows facing the garden and its trees bathe the room in natural light. A fireplace of mottled marble with a mantel of painted wood stands beneath a trumeau mirror. Beside this room, there is a fitted kitchen. It connects to a bathroom with a lavatory. This apartment has its own address and can be reached from the inner court, so it can be used as a self-contained dwelling, separate from the main house.

The chapel

Standing beside the different buildings, the chapel offers a 67m² floor area. It has a cupboard that runs all the way along it. You can see its neo-Gothic architecture in its rib-vaulted ceiling, whose ribs run down to columns with sculpted capitals. Tall lancet windows with red, blue and yellow stained glass, designed with geometric shapes, cast coloured natural light upon the plastered walls. A polychrome star motif embellishes the floor of hexagonal cement tiles. At one end of the edifice, there is an altar that is slightly raised and edged with a wrought-iron communion railing. Polychrome statues look down at the altar. They stand upon finely crafted corbels or are placed in pointed arch niches. There are wooden benches positioned in the nave. The chapel is linked to the house via an intermediate level. It also has a separate outdoor entrance.

The cellars and outbuildings

A stone staircase, slightly curved and edged with the same wrought-iron handrail as the one upstairs leads down to the lower floor. Down here, several rooms, a workshop and cellars are spread around a hallway. Their size and ceiling height and a separate entrance open up the possibility of creating dwellings down here, following renovation and subject to the planning permission required. Several old openings, now walled up, could be brought back. The main room has kept a floor a of terracotta tiles, dado panelling and a sink adorned with decorated tiling. A large two-leaf window, protected with a grate, looks out at the garden and the River Tarn. On a wall, an old board keeps records of the names of donors and the amounts of money given between 1876 and 1899 – this bears witness to the property’s former purpose. A storeroom houses a heat pump and its water tank.

The walled garden

One of the street-side doors leads into a first transitional outdoor space in front of the house and chapel. This outdoor space is entirely enclosed with the brick facades of the different buildings. It enjoys absolute privacy. It is gravelled and dotted with low clusters of shrubs, which are lined with terracotta edging. It is also embellished with climbing roses that grow up the walls. An old cedar towers in the middle. There is also a linden tree, a cypress and an albizia. These trees brings shade and coolness to the spaces around the home. Several flights of steps lead to the different entrances. On one side, the chapel’s tall lancet windows punctuate its elevation and look down at the garden.

The inner court

You reach the inner court from a second address. This court forms another transitional outdoor space, tucked away between the street and the buildings. It is smaller in size and paved with terracotta tiles. Tall brick walls surround it. The court connects to the rooms on the intermediate floors and to the self-contained apartment, which an outdoor spiral staircase made of wood leads up to. Two balconies look down at the court. One extends the billiard room and the other lies in front of the apartment’s entrance door. A stone balustrade with cross-patterned openwork also edges one of these open-air passageways. So the inner court connects together several parts of the whole property while respecting the independence of each one.