A traditional 17th-century country home with a caretaker's house and seven
hectares of grounds, near the city of Périgueux in France’s Dordogne area
hectares of grounds, near the city of Périgueux in France’s Dordogne area
Périgueux,
DORDOGNE
aquitaine
24000
FR
Location
The city of Périgueux, the administrative centre of France’s Dordogne department, is officially recognised for its wealth of built heritage. Around it, the countryside is made up of gently undulating land, meadows, woods and villages built around their churches. The property is tucked away in this bucolic backdrop, among farms and scattered dwellings. You can reach the A89 motorway in around 15 minutes. Via this motorway, you can get to the city of Bordeaux in 1 hour and 30 minutes and the city of Brive-la-Gaillarde in 45 minutes. The airports of Bergerac and Brive-la-Gaillarde are only an hour away by car.
Description
The seven-hectare property lies on the plateau of a west-facing hillside, just outside a hamlet. Its landscaped grounds are made up of meadows and deciduous woods through which paths run. The house’s main section and its wings, at a right angle to it, demarcate a vast, gravelled courtyard, closed with a wooden gate that stands alongside a country lane. There is a pond opposite the main entrance. The grounds slope gently around the buildings with a sweeping view of the surrounding landscape. A few clusters of shrubs and some tall trees, including a cedar and an oak, give structure to the edges. A driveway extends the central route up to a shady bench. A swimming pool and terrace face the setting sun.
The main house
The country house was built in the 17th century. It has a long central corridor that faces east and west and is punctuated with five glazed openings that are evenly spaced out. A crawl space lies beneath the dwelling. A mansard roof, underlined with a génoise cornice, crowns the building. Each end of the main section has a tall hipped roof with a court-facing dormer. The upper section of the mansard roof has barrel tiles and its lower section has flat tiles, as do the hipped roofs at the ends, which is more suitable for their steeper slopes.
The ground floor
The main section has three dual-aspect reception rooms that connect to each other. Each one has a stone fireplace, alcoves and built-in cupboards. A corridor connects to two bedrooms with direct views of the grounds. At the other end, a hallway leads to the north wing, which extends the reception rooms to a vast dining room with an open-plan kitchen. This section is a former cowshed, now restored and terracotta-tiled. It also includes a bedroom and bathroom. In an adjoining square tower, there are two extra bedrooms for children. A scullery forms a link between the secondary entrance doors, a utility room, a pantry, a separate lavatory and a way up to the first floor.
The upstairs
Beneath the sloping ceilings of the roof space, a landing connects to two bedrooms, each of which has its own private bathroom with a lavatory. The windows are fitted with indoor shutters and the floors are terracotta-tiled.
The court and outbuildings
The square courtyard is edged with old agricultural outbuildings, whose many openings bear witness to their past uses: there was originally a bakehouse, a storeroom, a press room, a fermenting room, a stable, cowsheds and a sheep shed. Today, these spaces have been designed to form complementary spaces: an extension of the home, a woodstore, a shelter for vehicles and a self-contained dwelling. A barn, noticeable as such with its large cart entrance door, has remained in its original state.
The caretaker’s house
The caretaker’s house, in an outbuilding that is not at all overlooked by the main house, faces south. You can reach it straight from the road. It is a fully self-contained dwelling. The dwelling offers a 63m² floor area. It has a reception room with a kitchen, a bathroom with a lavatory, and two bedrooms, including one upstairs.
Our opinion
This 17th-century country home is a delightful gem of heritage that represents traditional Dordogne architecture. Its charming interior, level with the ground, is bathed in an abundance of natural light from the court side to the grounds. Indeed, the transition from inside to outside is seamless in spring and summer. A masterful renovation of the north wing has increased the property’s hosting capacity while preserving its true identity. Further renovation work would reveal its full potential in the next chapter of its long story. The historical property sits at the top of a valley, where it looks westwards. The grounds look out at the undulating landscape, in the shade of a three-centuries-old oak that stands in the beautiful vistas you can admire from the house.
Reference 366857
| Land registry surface area | 7 ha 57 a 30 ca |
| Main building floor area | 326 m² |
| Number of bedrooms | 7 |
| Outbuildings floor area | 165 m² |
| including refurbished area | 63 m² |
French Energy Performance Diagnosis
Information on the risks to which this property is exposed is available on the website: www.georisques.gouv.fr
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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.
