This typical Quercy mansion – with its château-like mass and imposing pigeon loft – is an early 17th century winemaker’s house. It has been more or less gutted and then lovingly restored with authentic materials – stone, wood and tiles – sourced locally and cleverly integrated into the original fabric.
The result is a property that can be used in a variety of ways. As a guest house, as a house + gite or simply as a rambling mansion with endless rooms, nooks and crannies.
It is not quite the finished product however as the décor needs finishing (walls have been left white for future owners’ convenience) and the choice of water heater (gas or heat pump) has yet to be made. Nonetheless, as you can see from the photographs, the house is eminently liveable immediately.
Essentially there are two parts to the house:
But that’s only the half of it: the lower floor is a labyrinth of cellars and garages and storage places where wine was stored and aged. The garden is not big but contains an in-ground 10×5 metre swimming pool.
Our opinion:
These sort of stone-built Quercy houses are very much in demand from Parisian emigrés and it should go quickly. However, some buyers may be put off by the ‘unfinished’ aspect of both house and garden. We can assure buyers that the very attractive price has taken into account the ‘finishing’ work still to be done. It is basically just painting and decorating work: no technical stuff involving electricity of plumbing: that’s all been done. We would live in the smaller ‘gite’ part of the mansion and let out the rest as a “self-catering gite with access to a pool”. It would easily let for over €1500 a week in the high season.