 "Country house by a river")
Country house by a river
Click photo to enlarge "Garden and views")
Garden and views
Click photo to enlarge
This country house with a large garden with a river lies close to the village of Caylus, just 5 minutes from a market place but in a quiet corner on the banks of the river Bonnette.
The property comes with 22 ha of land that are part of a nature reserve within the valley of the Bonnette which is a classified site for its ecology, fauna and flora. The upper reaches of the valley are a nesting site for peregrine falcons, and the Bonnette is a trout stream.
The house is of traditional construction with stone walls and oak beams. There are five rooms – a large living room, a kitchen/dining area and three bedrooms plus one bathroom and two toilets. The living room has been created in the former barn, it overlooks the river, and its original spaciousness, oak beams and dormer windows have all been conserved. The total habitable area is 150 sq.m and in addition there is a large cellar (75 sq.m) and an artists studio (20 sq.m). The property benefits from gas-fired central heating plus a wood-burning stove.
The garden is approximately 2,500 sq.m in area and is bounded on three sides by stone walls, and on the fourth by the river. There are flowerbeds, a terrace, a lawn (sort of!) and an orchard area with seven or eight different fruit trees. But the best feature have to be the wild orchids growing in the garden. In a typical year there are several hundreds in flower, mostly pyramidal orchids, but in all 9 different species have been seen.
There is also an old farmhouse that is currently being restored to become a hide, an old bread oven and various other buildings more or less ruined. In the meadow there is a spring that flows all the year round, and at the base of the cliffs there is a small cave that provides a refuge for bats.
The total area is about 22 hectares (not attached – 5 minutes away and included in the price), stretching along the valley of the Bonnette and up into a side valley. The environment is very varied, with a meadow in the lower part and wooded areas on the steeper slopes rising to cliffs at the top end. The site is managed to achieve a maximum of diversity of those species that are representative of the valley.
The field is grazed by a herd of cows belonging to a local farmer under a contract that requires him to keep the meadow area free of scrub. Staff working for the Conservatoire Régional des Espaces Naturels provide technical advice and monitoring of the site. The Conservatoire is willing to continue in this role.
Located about 2 km from the local medieval village with shops and a weekly market, approx. 40 km from Montauban and 100 km from Toulouse with international airport.
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For further details on this property or to arrange a viewing,
call us on 0845 123 5885 (local rates in the UK).
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