Location
This house, with more than 460 m² of living space, stands in a quiet, residential street in the Prés neighbourhood (in the midst of the Notre-Dame district), just a few minutes’ walk from the entrance to the Palace gardens via the Queen’s Gate. Versailles was long known as “The New Town” due to the construction of numerous mansion houses in front of the palace as of 1664. These are but some ten minutes from Rue-de-la-Paroisse and its shops, the market place with its stalls and the Versailles-Rive-Droite train station (with links to La-Défense and Saint-Lazare).
Description
The street facade is composed of five bays; the architecture of its four levels illustrating their hierarchy. On the ground floor in the central bay, the front door is highlighted with a projection in relation to the main building and with an arched lintel. The first floor, deemed the noble level in the 18th century, is enhanced by its windows, embellished with balusters and triangular tympanums adorned with dentil courses. The second is free of all ornamentation, apart from the moulding on the window jambs and lintels. The attic space, housed behind the break featuring roof dormers, tops the building and forms the third floor.
On the garden side, the four-storey facade is divided into three sections. It is unusual because of the dissymmetry of its right and left bays, one of which has two windows per level and the other just one, and because of the appearance of terraces on the second and third levels. The external decoration is concentrated on the jambs and architraves of the windows which delimit a set of moulding and grooves. And lastly, an antique style entablature, set at the top of the facade, reflects the architecture of ancient times and delimits the line between the facade and the attic space.
Elegant windows, with espagnolette bolts, adorn the facades and let copious amount of light into the entire building.
The French formal garden, typical of the architectural classicism, is laid out in the peace and quiet behind the building.
The paved courtyard, concealed behind a monumental porchway and the south wall decorated with trompe-l’œil alcoves, provides access to the central building, to an annexe building housing an exercise room and to the garden. Featuring remote-controlled gates, it can accommodate several cars.
Airy cellars running under the entire building are home to the boiler room amongst other things.
Ground floor
Reached via the paved courtyard and via the street, its main entrance hall, with light-coloured Burgundy stone tiles diagonally inlaid with decorative small black tiles, is set in the paved courtyard. It leads, right, to the “cabinet aux singes”, housing a cloakroom which, decorated with scenes evoking the arts, is typical of 18th century ladies’ sitting rooms. It is extended by a corridor leading to the street entrance hall, the main stairway and the kitchen. On the left-hand side is a hall area containing a lift as well as a separate toilet.
In line with the entrance hall, double doors, featuring Louis XVI style locks, open into a large lounge, enhanced with a light-coloured stone fireplace, Versailles pattern parquet flooring and richly moulded walls. A high ceiling bestows stateliness to this area, bathed in copious amounts of sunlight via a 4-leaf, French window, flanked by two large, lateral windows, opening on to a terrace, spanning approx. 70 m² and preceding the garden.
The dining room, following on from the lounge, reflects a similar style. Light flooding in through two windows overlooking the garden illuminates two alcoves which, supporting impressive kraters in their hollows, give the room formality.
The kitchen, linked to the dining room, has terracotta floor tiles. It is fitted with modern equipment, vast cupboards and a large, central unit which can be used for seating the family at mealtimes.
First floor
This level, spanning more than 110 m², is reached via a lift and a spiral stairway, with a wooden handrail and metal balusters. It has high ceilings throughout. As of the landing, the floors in its 5 main rooms, generously illuminated via large windows with espagnolette bolts, are laid with oak wood parquet flooring. A main bedroom, spanning more than 30 m² and adjoined by two large dressing rooms and a bathroom, looks out over the garden. It features double French windows, flanked by two leaves, that open on to a terrace with stone balusters.
Another two large rooms, preceded by a hall area, housing a cloakroom and a toilet, take up the remaining space. Laid out as elegant studies, they overlook the street and the garden.
Second floor
This floor is given over to children. Also reached via the lift and the stairway, it too has oak wood parquet flooring throughout. It spans 100 m², with 3 good-sized bedrooms, fitted with cupboards, a bathroom, a shower room, a toilet and a vast family room, able to take a football or table tennis table. Just like the first floor, it has a vast terrace facing the garden, but it is set back from that on the lower floor, making its surface area greater.
Third floor
The third floor, under the roofs with their slate breaks and zinc decks, spans a surface area of approx. 100 m². With as much distinguished character as the two lower floors, it houses a guest flat, with two bedrooms, a shower room and a kitchen. A 14 m² room, currently laid out as a projection room, and a laundry room take up the remaining space.
Outbuilding
Reached directly from the paved courtyard, its architecture reflects that of the main building. It spans a surface area of 35 m² all on one level and houses an exercise room. The garden can be contemplated from its roof terrace, bordered by balusters.
Jardin à la française
This quadrangular, French formal garden, spanning 540 m², includes a maze enhanced with boxwood embroideries. Several benches, varying the viewpoints at different times of the day, provide places for residents to sit and contemplate. It is beautifully encircled by a gravel alleyway, bordered by tall trees and embellished here and there with bushes and shrubs.
Our opinion
One of the very few mansion houses in Versailles still laid out as a family home, this building-courtyard-outbuilding-garden property features architecture that has been preserved and immaculately kept since its restoration. Its style is in line with the standards of classicism, whilst having a modern room layout. This property comprises an exceptional home for a family in search of a private haven that is easy to live in, whilst still being steeped in the glorious past of the royal town, just a stone’s throw from Louis XIV’s mythical palace.
5 150 000 €
Fees at the Vendor’s expense
Reference 202101
Land registry surface area | 880 m2 |
Reception area | 110 m2 |
Ceiling height | 3 |
Living space | 465 m2 |
Number of rooms | 16 |
Number of bedrooms | 8 |
Possible number of bedrooms | 2 |
Surface Cellar | 90 m2 |
Surface | 120 m2 |
Surface Terrace | 70 m2 |
Surface Garage 1 | 30 m2 |
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.