FONTAINEBLEAU, Île-de-France, Address available on request

A 15th-century seigneurial house to be renovated near the historical town of Fontainebleau, France. A chateau dating back to the 15th century stood on this property up to the end of the 18th century. This chateau was largely redesigned in the 17th century. A map from 1785 shows that the chateau formed a quadrilateral in which each corner was protected by a tower. Yet most of this chateau was sadly destroyed during the French Revolution. The edifice was then turned into a fortified farm complex centred upon a rectangular courtyard.

Today, all the towers have disappeared, but the covered carriage entrance with a double gate flanked by loopholes has been preserved. On the left, there is a long stone wall that used to protect a chicken coop and rabbit hutches. Beside this wall there is a dairy and a dovecote. The seigneurial house stands at a right angle to these constructions. Its facade faces the courtyard, on its northern side. And its southern elevation faces the surrounding land. Next to it there is a former cowshed, then a barn. To the right of the entrance, there is a row of four barns. They stand opposite the seigneurial house. An old tithe barn adjoins them at a right angle.

All the buildings are made of burrstone. The main house has a three-slope roof, but all the other buildings have gable roofs covered with local flat tiles.

You reach the property from a calm village road that runs along the northern elevation of the row of four barns, beside which lie two pétanque courts and a pond. Land extends around the other sides of the former chateau's rectangular enclosure. An open-sided barn beside the covered carriage entrance completes this complex of buildings.