Coup de coeur #8: La Fillolie

(A series of "Pierre, what do they not have" posts)

In our search for multi-hectare properties we stumbled onto this one. Isn't it pretty? Yes it is. This is 10 hectares of chestnut trees on a hill in the Lot area, with a lovely house. And a big pool. Not a mill. And, almost within budget, provided not much work was needed. This is the first house we actually visited in France.

The top of the house is a bit higher than the hill it leans into, and at the same height as the top floor, where kitchen and living room are conveniently located.

Sorry, I start to sound like an estate agent already.

It has a separate outbuilding where they dried chestnuts in the past. (Here at the foreground.)

If you know where it is located you could see it, but I won't tell you.

And a nice and big swimming pool too. Cleverly heated with a bunch of black plastic tubes that are simply in the sun, and heat up the pool very nicely.

So what was the problem? Well, problem is a big word. We were after a big property, with a house in the middle. Here the house is right at the edge of the land. The red bits are not part of the property.

And, a chemin communal (again!) is running right along the house. They had told us hardly anyone uses the chemin, but while we were there a number of cars went past. Hm.

Another thing is that we need a garage for a beloved oldtimer car. We had hoped the cellar of the house would be suited as a garage. It is not. It's too low and not deep enough. The chestnut dryer is not reachable with a car, it's pretty high above street level.

The heating situation of this house could be what we like: 10 ha of chestnut trees should be enough to comfortably heat this house. But (always these buts) this house has the living space on the top floor of the house, and there's an insert stove there with a chimney on top. We had planned a much bigger Attika, and you cannot fit one of those there, the ceiling and chimney are too low. The roof is made with lauzes, and very heavy. Rebuilding the chimney elsewhere seemed a bit too much.

Another option would be to have a central heating system and a woodburning stove located elsewhere. The chaudiere could be the place, but you'd need to transport hot water about 20 meters to the house. Can be done, but it's a costly option too.

In the end we decided to not do it for yet another reason: there are hardly any windows in the living room, and the kitchen needed replacement and enlargement. One of us thought that was not too great. The other did not mind. So, that was a "non".

Here the "sold" situation was reversed actually. When I first contacted the owner, it had been sold. But, the buyer apparently could not arrange finances, and we were contacted later that it was still available. And so we visited. And treated to a nice lunch too by the Belgian owners. We're still grateful for that.