A Characterful Stone Residence Set Within Exceptional Grounds, Near Saint-Émilion

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The gate opens onto a walled garden. Flowering borders, neatly drawn paths, not a plant left to chance: someone gardens here, and you can see it before you even reach the door. The house stands there, its south façade in dressed stone, shutters open.
The village is a handful of stone houses, with the vines starting just behind them. Over the garden wall the eye runs out across open country and rows of vines. Green in June, copper in October, a view with nothing to spoil it.

The house dates from 1850 and was taken back to the bones in 2016, which is where it all happens. I have rarely seen a restoration carried out with this much care. The stone, the proportions, the ceiling heights, everything that makes a maison bourgeoise has been kept, and behind it sits the equipment of a new build: gas-fired underfloor heating, air conditioning, heat-recovery ventilation, home automation, an electric car charging point, an independent sewage treatment unit. The finishes have been thought through down to the details nobody ever looks at. Nothing needs redoing, and the property tax comes to 782 euros a year.

245 m² of living space, 420 m² in all. On the ground floor, a sitting and dining room of nearly 75 m² runs through the house, with its fireplace and the southern light. The kitchen, fitted throughout with Miele, opens level onto the veranda. Heated, it is lived in all year: this is where the coffee gets drunk in January as much as in April. A utility room and a cloakroom complete the floor.
Upstairs, four double bedrooms. Two are proper suites of 20 and 22 m², each with its own shower room and WC, the larger with a fitted wardrobe. The other two share a shower room. When the house fills up, everyone keeps their own corner. Above, 102 m² of attic holding the plant room and everything you never know where to put.

Outside, close to 2,000 m² fully walled and facing due south. The garden is the great business of this property: generous borders, automatic watering and mowing, lighting for the evenings. It makes a show and asks little time in return. The 12 by 5 metre saltwater pool, heated by heat pump, stretches along the edge of the garden. The pool house has its own living room and shower room: guests sleep there without walking through your house, and it would take very little to turn it into a fully independent guest cottage. A well, a boules court, a double garage with pool plant room.

We are in the Saint-Émilion area, halfway between Bordeaux and Bergerac, which settles the question of journeys as much as that of friends passing through. The Saint-Émilion golf course is five minutes away, the shops ten, the TGV station and the clinics twenty-five, the airport forty-five. You are in the country without being far from anything, and Saint-Émilion is still an end-of-afternoon outing.

Come and see this garden, and the southern light on the stone. That is what makes up people's minds. Call me and I will arrange a viewing.


KEY FEATURES

● Dressed stone dating from 1850, fully renovated in 2016, gas underfloor heating and air conditioning
● 245 m² of living space within 420 m² in all, four double bedrooms including two en-suite
● Walled garden of around 2,000 m², facing due south, open views over countryside and vines
● Heated saltwater pool 12 x 5 m, independent pool house and double garage convertible into guest accommodation

Saint-Émilion area, between Bordeaux and Bergerac: golf 5 min, shops 10, TGV station and clinics 25, airport 45mn

Annie PEZAT
Maxwell-Baynes Agent — Christie's International Real Estate
+33 (0)6 38 13 44 47