An 18th-century chateau with outhouses and a swimming pool in 14 hectares of grounds near the town of Lectoure in France's Gers department.
This property is tucked away in the beautiful Lomagne area of the Gers department in south-west France. Here, the undulating land is often bathed in golden light. The chateau is ideally located in the countryside, just a few minutes by car from the nearest shops and around 10 kilometres from Lectoure, a much-visited town that is rich in art and history. This wonderful region of France looks like Tuscany. It enjoys a mild climate, an abundance of tasty produce and a vibrant cultural life. Gentle slopes alternate between fields, woods and renowned bastides with the Pyrenees mountains as an enchanting backd-rop in the distance.
The high-speed train station in the city of Agen is 45 kilometres from the property. From there, you can get to Paris in just over three hours. And Toulouse airport is under 100 kilometres from the chateau. The property's location combines bucolic countryside with easy access to towns and cities.
You reach the 14-hectare property from a country road that edges its west side. A low stone wall protects a front section of the grounds where many outhouses stand. A shady path lined with towering horse chestnuts crosses a grassy expanse and leads up to the chateau's main entrance. On the south side, a long separate building made of rubble stone demarcates this front section and marks the edge of the property. Storehouses lie at the sides of the grounds. These structures have been partly renovated to become a caretaker's lodge and a workshop space, but much of the roofing on them needs to be restored. On the north side of the grounds, a small house with a dovecote and walls of repointed exposed stonework stands among farming annexes that include vast barns and other buildings. On the east side of this front section, a two-storey building with a tiled roof separates the old farm complex from the chateau, giving the latter complete privacy and calm.
The chateau lies beyond a tall wrought-iron gate that stands in a covered carriage entrance. The edifice dates back to the Middle Ages and the time when the lords of Armagnac reigned here. It was built in the centre of its grounds, surrounded by a gravel terrace. A chapel protrudes at a right angle to the main section at the chateau's east end. And a wing of annexes with a covered carriage entrance extends at the edifice's west end. This wing is flanked with an adjoining tower crowned with a windmill. A remarkable mechanism in this section brought running water to the property at the end of the 19th century. The mechanism was invented by Élie Coulange, the property's owner at the time.
An ornamental pond and stone pedestals supporting bronze vestals echo the typically 18th-century traits of the chateau's south and east walls. These statues were ordered by the famous countess Marie-Jacqueline de Biran d'Armagnac. Beyond the ornamental garden, and hidden behind a hedge, lies a swimming pool with a clear view of the surrounding countryside.
The grounds are as majestic as the edifice: the vast plot is punctuated with wells, water-filled moats and a wide range of age-old trees, including cedars that line a long path.
The chateauThe chateau is rectangular. It has two floors beneath a hipped roof that is almost new and is underlined with a double-row génoise cornice. The south-facing facade is classical and elegant in style. It typifies 18th-century architecture and the works that the countess ordered after the French Revolution. It has many openings. Its walls of dressed stone are punctuated with nine bays in which 18 tall windows with pane bars are protected behind solid shutters and capped with arched lintels. The facade is rendered with an ivory-coloured lime coating. The north wall is protected by three ...
