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GITES FOR SALE FRANCE is based in Toulouse at the epicentre of South-West France where we live and work. Although our team is often on the road we are reachable within 24 hours if you use one of the contact methods listed below. The most convenient way to get things moving is to send us an email outlining your plans: do you want to buy or sell ? Have you a budget in mind, a location? The more information we have the quicker and more precise is our response.
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Chateau Canal du Midi

Château on Canal du Midi

June 27, 2018

  • Canal du Midi

  • Château – estate with 3 gites

  • between Toulouse and Carcassonne

  • €1,250,000 * (ref 123)

The Canal du Midi – a 17th century engineering masterpiece – links Toulouse to the Mediterranean sea. It is now a tourist waterway with small boats, barges as well as cyclists and walkers using its water and towpath. There are practically no B&Bs or tourist accommodation near the Canal.

A former military fortress transformed into a Palladian-style chateau by an Italian architect, this property goes back a long way. Luckily the present owners have made great efforts to bring the chateau up to modern-day standards without compromising on the authenticity of the materials or décor. In other words, there is no IKEA furniture cluttering up early 18th century drawing rooms.

As befits a chateau of this standing, the property is completely surrounded by its 5.8 hectares of grounds with no near neighbours. A broad swathe of lawn drops down from the chateau to the Canal du Midi. This part of the canal is relatively quiet – between Castelnaudary and Villefranche-de-Lauragais – but there is a steady traffic of pleasure boats, a sprinkling of cyclists and some walkers in summer.

Château on the Canal du Midi

The chateau has three storeys covering roughly 420m² each. Ground floor comprises the vast entrance hall, large lounge, dining-room, kitchen, study, artist’s studio and diverse pantries and cloakrooms. The second floor has a billiard room (which could double as a ball-room), four bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, at least 3 servants’ bedrooms and a warren of corridors, secret passages and service stairs. The top floor is attic space with headroom for giants, split into about 6 very big spaces.

The grounds are a mix of woodland and lawn, French-style garden and horse paddocks. They include a 3 bedroomed cottage near the canal of around 120 m². The other two gites are in the west wing of the chateau. There’s also an old forge and a bakery (with a bread oven). In other words a selection of accommodation which could be used to generate a bit of income.

The local village has shops, café, restaurant and post office. Castelnaudary (with all services – even a hospital) is only 4 kms distant.

Our opinion: Since the Canal du Midi has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, there has been a mini-boom in property prices along its banks. As the canal itself is owned by a Govt organ – the VNF – Voies Navigables Françaises – which does not allow any building or commerce within 6 metres either side of the canal, you can appreciate the value of this sort of property. We would rig it out as a luxury Guest House (using the existing 4 en-suite bedrooms) and offer a table d’hôte befitting the status of the place. The gites could be re-decorated and let at once. The cottage could serve as living quarters for the owners while the servants’ quarters were turned into a comfortable manager’s flat. The whole chateau could be let to groups or wedding parties. There is no limit to what could be done.

* agency fees included reference n°: 123

more information or to arrange a viewing – email

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The Citadel at Carcassonne

Carcassonne B&B for sale with 3 gites

June 27, 2018

  • Carcassonne B&B for sale

  • Estate with B&B (5 rooms) and 3 gites

  • 3 kms from the Cité de Carcassonne

  • Secluded location in vineyards and pine forests

  • €740,000 * (ref 121)

Carcassonne is not just the home to one of Europe’s largest and best-kept mediaeval fortresses, it’s also the regional capital whose airport boasts links with a number of UK, Irish and Belgian airports. On the main train-line and motorway linking Toulouse to Montpellier and the Mediterranean coast, Carcassonne is a strategic tourist hub combining old-world charm with modern services and a lively café culture.

But what first-time tourists want as soon as they arrive in Carcassonne is to visit the Disney-perfect Citadel, with its towers and turrets, watchtowers and keeps (pictures below).

This property is a secluded estate just 3 kms (5 minutes) from the Citadel. The perfect location, in other words, for anyone running a tourist business in Languedoc. And the 950 m² of surface area offers the whole gamut of accommodation possibilities: 5 B&B en-suite guest rooms, 3 independent gites, a restaurant with professional kitchen … and a five-bedroomed ‘owners’ house. There’s quite a few garages, store-rooms, cellars and outhouses too if any potential buyer wants to add to the accommodation.

On one side of the estate is the Cité of Carcassonne and the Canal du Midi (also a UNESCO World heritage Site) and on the other … the wilds of the Corbières: a wilderness of maquis and pine forest, criss-crossed with hiking trails, riding paths and cylcing pistes. This is what many guests really come for: a day in the Citadel and then 6 days exploring the Corbières.

What’s for sale?

– a 1.6 hectare estate comprising horse paddock, gardens, car-park, pool

– over 950 m² of living space

– east wing first floor: 5 en-suite guest rooms

– east wing ground floor: wine cellar, storage room, boiler room, atelier/garage

– west wing: 3 duplex gites (2-4 person capacity)

– west wing: owner’s quarters: 5 bedrooms, kitchen, living-room, bathrooms

– restaurant plus pro kitchen with terrace and summer kitchen

The local village (before you get to Carcassonne) has shops, café and baker plus a doctor and a chemists.

Our opinion: This property ticks most of any serious client’s boxes: location, going concern, B&B and gites, secluded but by no means isolated, surrounded by land, local vineyards… Add to that good turnover figures and much potential (the owner has not yet exploited the UK market) in both clientele and outhouses etc and you have a winner on your hands. It’s not cheap …. but then, this sort of property in this sort of location is gold dust.

* agency fees included reference n°: 121

more information or to arrange a viewing – email

Similar Carcassonne property

en français

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Corbières Gite business

June 4, 2018

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  • 8-gite complex in old wine co-op

  • Stand-alone gite complex on outskirts of village

  • 3-bedroom owner’s quarters

  • swimming pool

  • 1 hectare of land

  • €580,000 * ref 224b

 

The Corbières is the wine region south of Carcassonne and Narbonne: to the East lie the sandy beaches of the Mediterranean, to the South the Pyrenees and to the West the upper Aude valley and the Limoux wine appellation. It’s a land of rugged and rocky outcrops, tiny vineyards wedged in between expanses of maquis and rock canyons with very very few isolated houses. The few habitations there are are grouped in tight, stone-built villages.

This property is a former wine co-operative, a massive stone-built edifice designed to transform local vignerons’ grapes into wine, bottle it and dispatch the cases to the 4 corners of the world. It was a victim of over-production in the Seventies when farmers were paid to tear up vines.

A clever conversion of the original building has integrated most of the old wine vats into the new schema: 8 independent gites ranging from cosy one-bedroom studios to bigger three-room flats. Each has its own outdoor terrace and, of course, access to the swimming pool.

The owners have created their own quarters out of the monumental entrance hall of the winery: a huge open space with 8m high ceilings, three bedrooms on a first-floor mezzanine and extensive kitchens and store rooms on the ground floor.

Even better, they have created a large meeting room/events space at the front of the building with its own kitchen/scullery where meals for up to 30 participants can be cooked.

The whole property is surrounded by over a hectare of land – grass mainly with some maquis. The village is just 300 metres down the road.

Our opinion: This property has enormous potential. Not only is it a going-concern, very well-known among the hiking fraternity and in numerous guidebooks about the Corbières, but it has unexploited potential in a number of fields:
1. a further gite could be created out of the last remaining wine vats
2. the ‘events’ space could be used out of season for wine seminars and tastings
3. the surrounding fields would lend themselves either to equine events … or simply to a bit of ‘camping à la ferme’. .

Our mandate for this property has now elapsed. Please contact the owner for further information and pictures. The property can be visited by appointment only.

more information or to arrange a viewing directly with the owner – phone: 04 68 70 08 80  – email 

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