in the Charente-Maritime area, in a charming village near Cognac and Saint-Jean-d’Angély
Location
This property is located in the Charente-Maritime area, in the former province of Saintonge, between Saint-Jean-d’Angély and Cognac, in a sector boasting plenty of heritage and renowned Cognac vineyards, in a village with a population of more than 2,000, boasting archetypal houses made of rubble stone with gently sloped roofs made of half-round terracotta tiles. All essential everyday services and shops, such as the bakery, cake shop and butcher’s, can be reached in 2 minutes on foot. The A10 motorway between Paris and Bordeaux is 25 minutes away, the high-speed TGV railway station in Angoulême is 1 hour away (with trains taking 1 hour 50 minutes to reach Paris), while Royan and the ocean are 1 hour away.
Description
The residence
The house is rendered with light-coloured limewash apart from on the ashlar door and window frames on the four rows of openings, with a garage door also to the right of the façade. The shallow sloping roof ends on the west side with a rectangular gable end boasting a double Génoise corbel. The façade facing onto the small street has additional small windows on the second storey.
The ground floor
The entrance has a terrazzo paved floor and leads, through a door, to a corridor, at the end of which, to the right, there is a double quarter-turn elm wood staircase before a door that opens to the north into the garden. The basement can be reached via a door under the stairs. To the left, there is a dining room with a white tinplate ceiling. A serving hatch connects with the kitchen, in which there is a small window and a patio door leading into the courtyard. In this room, there is a terrazzo paved floor, white wooden fitted kitchen elements, a granite worktop and white extractor hood with a cornice. Behind the kitchen, there is a utility room and a lavatory. To the right of the entrance, a door opens into the lounge, which boasts a 19th century stone fireplace and a large corner bookcase. This room has red pine stripped flooring and a white tinplate ceiling. To the north, looking onto the garden, there is an office with one window, plus an additional room used as a laundry room, with a lavatory and a wooden, quarter turn service staircase leading upstairs. In the lounge, to the left of the fireplace, a door leads to a hallway fitted with large cupboards, which in turn leads to a large room boasting a light-coloured tiled floor, a ceiling with exposed beams and a stone fireplace. On the garden side, a quarter-turn wooden staircase leading to the upper floor stands opposite old louvred shutters used as cupboard doors. A large patio door opens onto the garden, from the dining room and summer kitchen.
The upstairs
The landing at the top of the main staircase leads to two large bedrooms with marble fireplaces and light-coloured varnished wood floors. Each bedroom has an en suite bathroom. One of them, a large bathroom located in the northwest corner of the building, boasts a corner bathtub. Behind the main staircase, through a room converted into a bedroom that overlooks the garden, the service staircase can be reached, as well as a shared shower room, which in turn leads into another large bedroom overlooking the garden. This bedroom can also be reached from a hallway, which also leads to the southern part of the house and a fourth bedroom with an en suite shower room, as well as a large room converted into a home cinema. On this level, the ceilings are painted white and the walls are wallpapered.
The annexe
It is located to the west of the garden, opposite the swimming pool. The entrance door opens directly into the kitchen, from where a wooden staircase climbs up to a small mezzanine. There is a shower, washbasin and lavatory under the stairs. Following on from the kitchen, there is a lounge with a stone fireplace. Bathed in light through a window in the gable end, the mezzanine has been converted into a bedroom with a washbasin.
The other outbuildings
Near to the main building, to the east of the property, a former barn open on one side has been converted into a summer room. At the end of the barn, there is a well, which recalls the time when it was used by the animals as a drinking trough. The former cow byre is adjacent to this and still boasts its hayrack. It is now used as a summer kitchen and possesses original stone features such as the large sink. There is a workshop adjoining a utility room. To the west of the main building, opposite the gravel courtyard, there is a utility room with two large stone basins. A garage that can contain up to three vehicles, as well as a two-storey workshop, can be reached from the street via an entrance to the garden located behind the annexe.
Lastly, a small greenhouse with a stone base can be found at the northeast tip of the garden.
The garden
The garden boasts a wide range of shrubs, such as spindle, Mexican orange trees, camphor, ornamental plum trees, bay and more. There is a dwarf palm tree next to the swimming pool. Two other distinct spaces have been given over to a vegetable garden and orchard. Lastly, opposite the house, there are two-hundred-year-old lime trees at the start of a path through the garden. One of the two wells and a number of rainwater reserves enable sparing watering of the garden.
Our opinion
This is a home that boasts character, authenticity, a sense of welcome and warmth, in a garden that exudes serenity. It is an ideal place to while away happy days enjoying the charms and life of the village to your heart’s content, as well as the tourist attractions in nearby Cognac and Saint-Jean-d’Angély. It could be a perfect base for family life, a second home for pleasant get-togethers with friends whatever the season, or a bed and breakfast business: the property’s future is full of potential and remains to be found.
639 000 €
Fees at the Vendor’s expense
Reference 184900
Land registry surface area | 2514 m2 |
Main building surface area | 250 m2 |
Number of bedrooms | 5 |
Outbuilding surface area | 300 m2 |
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.