Paimboeuf, Pays de la Loire, Address available on request

A former shipowner's house dating back to 1855 with a walled terraced garden, 10 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean on the south bank of the River Loire. The property lies on a redeveloped quay where the colourful houses of fishermen neighbour more sumptuous edifices that belonged to captains and dignitaries. There is a large area of tree-dotted parkland opposite the old shipowner's house, which was built in 1855. The home offers a floor area of around 370m² and has a ground floor, a first floor and a loft. A small front garden lies at the foot of the edifice's facade. The dwelling is a terraced house.

The building's main section is square-shaped. On its rear side, two wings extend the house southwards. They are joined together to form a second section. Beyond the latter, a long, narrow garden stretches further southwards. This secret south-facing haven is enclosed with tall walls of natural stone. It offers an extensive outdoor space. The whole layout is L-shaped: there is the street-side main section, which spans a depth of two rooms from front to back, and a rear wing on the garden side. The two wings have been joined together at the ground floor, covering a corridor that was once an open passageway that led from the street to the garden. A single-storey concrete extension was added in the property's east court in the second half of the 20th century to house the local tax office's safe.

The facade, on the property's north side, faces the River Loire. It is punctuated with four even bays of windows and doorways aligned vertically and horizontally and it is framed between quoins of dressed stone. The elevation, made of granite and rubble stone, is rendered with a pale lime mortar and a stringcourse separates the ground floor from the first floor. Along the ground floor of the facade, two casement windows fitted with white shutters alternate with a main door and a secondary door. On the first floor, small balconies with finely crafted wrought-iron guardrails are supported by stone corbels - tokens of architectural articulation that was doubtless richer originally. A loft lies in the roof space. It has not been converted. The house is crowned with a slate roof of gentle slopes, underlined with a dripstone moulding. On the garden side, the west wing, which is longer and older than the concrete extension beside it, is crowned with a hipped roof of tiles. And the flat roof of the east wing, which is more recent and lower in height, has been turned into a roof terrace. From this sun deck, you can admire a view of the long garden, terraced with several levels and dotted with fruit trees. This lush haven ends with a timber shed.

The property's architecture includes both historical charm and contemporary touches. This bears witness to its different phases of building and design, which also relates to construction of the quays. This development in multiple stages explains the house's unusual layout today.