Superb rural estate

with lake, manor house

Overview

Gascony: rich and rolling countryside, incredible views and rambling country estates. There is of course the ubiquitous confit de canard. With this property, there are real live ducks, a fabulous private lake in the garden, and the kind of manor house you would happily find on location in a movie entitled Secret South West France.

Many houses in the area have been completely restored. This one although having undergone partial renovation has the appealing ambience of an old French home in the countryside, where there is still plenty to do, but somehow everything works. From the occasional vibrantly shocking colourful bathroom suite, or wallpaper last hung in the 1970s, to the old farm kitchen, to the lovely old wooden staircase, and what feels like an endless amount of children’s bedrooms. If every you were invited to stay in the countryside of France as a child, in a quintessentially French home, this is it. The children can play on boats or by the waters edge, or chasing the ducks, for hours. The garden is populated with a host of trees, from olive to oak. There is a dog, plenty of cats; plenty of place to work from home, house the in-laws (should you wish to), or to hide away from the world and pretend you are in 1950 or 1970, or today, or 2025 with the superspeed internet.

Let’s have a wander
The main house

The main house is divided into two sections. Historically the property was occupied by several branches of the same family and at some point in the 1950s this vast Gascon home was divided into two sections, with a kitchen, reception room, and bedrooms on both sides.

Let us begin our tour, with a look at the part of the property in which the current owners reside today :

We enter the main house, to find ourselves in a traditional Gascon hallway, that at some point in time was divided into two sections: being such a long hallway, it was no doubt deemed that the second section of the hallway, with a door at the far end leading to the garden, was wasted as a hallway, and instead became a dining-room – very much as the space was used in the past with big feasts with the farm-workers after harvest. Here there is a lovely old parquet floor (requiring some repair), wall panels, and a dining-room table.

First left, on entering our original front door, there is a lovely warm and welcoming “L” shaped farmhouse kitchen, with a door at the far end to the garden to the side. There is a woodburning stone, a range of units for storage. With plenty of place for a breakfast table, this room has a joyful ambience, and is also a lovely room to sit and work at the table, and enjoy the fire.

At the bottom of the hallway, there are two rooms, one on each side. One is the family reception room, with fireplace, and on the other side a large reception room, which is used as a game’s room, or informal living room. On the other side of the wall, there is the second section of the property (or the other “half” of the property which we will visit later on).

There is a downstairs double bedroom, with a parquet floor and a window to the east, and an old fireplace.

Underneath the stairs (which have been enclosed by a wooden doorway which could be removed) there is a cloakroom where the coats and boots are kept from view.

A lovely old wooden staircase leads to the first floor.

The first floor

The first-floor landing is our first surprise being so spacious! This incredible 48m²+ area overlooks the garden, and has two windows. is more reminiscent of a first floor reception-room than a traditional landing.

 With a desk at one end, where the current owner works, it is currently used as an upstairs study.

There is also a large wooden reception style desk at the opposite end, behind which there is access to storage room/attic.

On this level there are 7 bedrooms, two of which have an ensuite shower-room. The others share a family shower room on the same floor.

The rooms have a mixture of parquet, lino and tiled floors and are all filled with light, and clearly much loved over the years. One might choose to redecorate, or enjoy the “feel” of a property from another time.

“When we first moved in, we thought about redecorating, but after a time, grew to love the vintage wall-paper and fittings so much, especially seeing how many of these fixtures and fittings are coming back into fashion! In the end we left much of the original decoration. This is a house that is perfect for a family and children, and we were very happy to keep the house very much the way it had always been. We have loved living here, and so have our children.”

The second half of the main property

As mentioned, the property was divided back in the mid-19^th century, when families had more children, and branches of the same family lived together under one roof.

Today, we access the other half of the property via a separate door, although it should be noted that both halves of the property can be joined together to create one single and vast home, as it was originally built in the 18^th century.

With a veranda to the side, the property has a lovely main reception room, with fireplace, a very rustic kitchen, a rear kitchen and pantry, and a hallway leading to two downstairs bedrooms, with lovely old parquet flooring and doors to the garden. There is a downstairs bathroom, storage area and WC.

On the first floor, a hallway leads to two upstairs bedrooms.

Other dwellings on the estate

There is a second cottage/gîte on the estate, and a second house once used by the farmworkers.

The first cottage has an entrance hall, a sitting-room, a downstairs bathroom and a kitchen. On the first floor of the cottage, there are two bedrooms and a WC and a converted 48m²+ attic space.

The farm labourer’s cottage

We enter the house directly from an enclosed area, with a walled garden, into a kitchen and open-plan sitting-room. There is a downstairs shower-room.

On the first floor, there are two bedrooms and a dressing room.

Outbuildings

A vast amount of space can be found in the outbuildings, with three garages ( 100m² x 3)

A covered hangar (336m²)

U shaped farm building (in two sections : 665m² + 710m²)

A wooden chicken-coop : 50m²

A barn: 520m²

A shed : 12m²

On a technical note

774m2 habitable space – sixteen bedrooms in total

3.91m² hectares of land, including the lake

Heating : wood, oil, electricity

Septic tank