Further details
The river flows along the 200 meters of garden frontage, which can be viewed from all the rooms to the back of the house, where we presently moor our boat. So you can fish for carp, bream, catfish and perch or just plunge into the river if it gets really hot.
You can cycle for five minutes to the village centre and pick up whatever you need to eat or drink. The old roman town of Saintes, with all its facilities, is 10 minutes drive away. There is a bar/restaurant, a further restaurant and a summer bar/restaurant on the river. It is 1 hour to La Rochelle Airport and about 45 mins to seafront and beaches.
The grounds are more like an English park than a garden. This is because of the high trees that pervade the land, which are home to many varieties of garden birds, which feed off many of the fruit trees. These include many finches, greenfinches, golden oreals and birds of prey. You will hear the sounds of a woodpecker along with sights of many common varieties of birds and the less common. Long-tailed tits flit along the river tree to tree in early evening. Kingfishers will speed along the river, a common sight. In early spring seamingly hundreds of storks arrive in the grasslands opposite, along with herons, egrets and a pair of resident moorhens. If you are patient you may see the cormorant that nested this year opposite the lower field. Blue tits and swans come and ask to be fed. Frogs and the occasional toad can be seen and found as well as tiny lizards, common to the area. Crickets hum into the night, nightingales sing even later. In the evening you can sit on the bank and watch bream, carp or catfish feeding from the steps. Or you can watch the occasional boat that passes. The scent of roses, orange blossom, teullel and figs can fill the air. So much and so much more.
None of the phtos give a true sense of the place.
Being on the river, there is a risk of flooding. It is not prone to flash-flooding, it is not that sort of river. Flooding is rare, the last time the house flooded was in 1996, when much of Saintes and the surrounding area was caught up in it. However, if there is a problem the "Pompiers" would know well in advance and would lift or evacuate personal property for you.
The autoroute is 1/4 km away, so at the begining weekends of August, when the french go on holiday it can be noisy as can the tail end of September when stocks are replaced in the stores.
To the front the view is a cliff, where we have seen deer, with a minor road that has some traffic passing on their way to work in the morning and returning at night along with a rural railway with at most six passings during any one day.
Certainly there are imperfections , but it is an extraodinary place to live for the romantic, the writer or the musician in you. The house itself is big enough for two people to have totally private places, or for a family of four or five at a pinch.
There are obvious business opportunities if you were so inclined.
We have lived here for five years and only increasing physical disability problems force us to sell.
Painted white throughout
Ground Floor
Entrance Hall (2m x 0.50m) to one side WC with white sink (2.5m x 0.50m)
From other side Entrance Hall leads to Sitting Room (4m x 7m) with solid floor. Large electric shuttered french doors to rear. Two radiators.
Through double doors or ahead from Entrance Hall is Living Room (4m x 6m) solid redish tiled floor/electric shuttered french doors to rear. Two radiators. Wooden staircase 1 is here to 1st floor.
Through door to Kitchen (2.5m x 7m) solid greyish/white tiled floor:door to rear/window to front/stone sink with basic fixtures. (In need of total refurbishment.)
Through to Dinning Room with arched area (4m x 7m) solid cream floor/radiator:Napoleon 3rd type fireplace.
Through to Hallway with Staircase 2 to 1st floor.
Other side of upper hallway leads to raised area with wooden floors to summer Sitting Room 2
(6m x 7m), 3 radiators, 3 sets windows/Napoleon III style and shuttered french doors looking over the terrace. 2nd front door in hallway area.
First Floor
From Staircase 1
Upper hallway of 9 sq m Parque flooring.
Bedroom 1: (4m x 4m) radiator/ windows to rear/parque flooring.
Bedroom 2: (2.5m x 4m) window to side/off peak-water storage-heater/wood floor
WC: with sink in white/grey, solid tiled floor (2.5m x 0.50m)
Bathroom: (3m x 2m) radiator/windows to rear/solid grey tiled floor/radiator/white suite
Other side of upper hallway (L-shaped 16 sq m)
Bedroom4/Office: (5m x 7m) radiator/windows to front and rear/wood flooring..
through to
Bedroom 3: (5m x 6m) radiator/window to front/wood flooring/Napoleon III type fireplace.
through doorway to small hallway (1m x 0.50m) with window to rear and doorway to Staircase 2.
Large under roof storage with windows (6m x 7m).
Garage is (10m x 7m) housing sophisticated oil-fired central heating and tank.
Most of the plumbing has been replaced and the water can be turned off even when the boiler is idling if needed.
Some new electic points have been fitted on a new curcuit.
Electricity is on single-phase.
ADSL ready.
The measurements and details are my own evaluations.
For exact information please comfirm with the agent.
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