Gaudiès, Midi-Pyrénées 09700

A 16th-century chateau with outhouses and four hectares of grounds with a river, nestled in France's beautiful Arige department, 40 minutes from the city of Toulouse. A driveway snakes through meadows and riverside woods up to the south-facing chateau with its symmetrical design. The edifice is built in a U shape: a central section with two wings and two round adjoining towers. One of the round adjoining towers is at the chateau's north-east corner. The other one, which has a polygonal base, discreetly adjoins the west wing. The main section's court-facing facade displays layers of construction periods over its three levels with different window styles, which include limestone surrounds, brickwork arches and concrete sills. In contrast, the rear elevation has a more symmetrical appearance. The central section has plainly rendered elevations and a painted sundial on its facade. A staircase tower with a door at each level has kept its authenticity with lime-rendered walls of rubble limestone and a cannon slit that offers a view of the River Hers. The wings stand out for their evenly spaced bays with arched carriage gates in brick surrounds, limestone aeration openings and segmental-arch window surrounds of brick. These wing elevations also include painted stringcourses, small diamond windows and gnoise cornices of tiles and brick. The central section is crowned with a gabled roof of barrel tiles and the wings are capped with hipped-end roofs of barrel tiles. The nearby outhouses include a former stable, a caretaker's dwelling and the rear wall of a building that was destroyed in 1942. Further away, there is a former chapel. Beneath it there is a cellar. This chapel includes a bread oven. There is a dovecote too. The chapel's perfect rendering draws your attention, as do its limestone quoins and its elegant triple-row gnoise cornice. An orangery and agricultural storage buildings complete the estate, bearing witness to its past in farming.