HISTORIC CHATEAU - Alsace, France
Historic Updated 1572 Chateau in Blissful Isolation on the edge of a Village in the Alsace of France
7
Bathrooms:
5 1/2
Amenities:
- 3 buildings including a separate guest house with 2/1/kitchen/living
- 2 Land Rover Defenders
- 1 hectare or about 2.5 acres
It seems the older I get, the
more difficult it is for me to believe anything about real estate that
I haven’t seen with my own eyes and so when I first heard about this dreamy
chateau by telephone, I thought “oh yea, another falling down house in
the French countryside which needs mountains of cash to rework.”
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But first, are you the person who goes to the Hamptons to be seen by everybody or are you the person who goes to the Hamptons to escape from everybody? Former persons need not apply. Let the captain keep taking you to Aspen, mon cheri. Later candidates, read on. This could radically improve your life and change your stress level for many years.
Picture a road through a rural, pastoral countryside with forests at the edges of farm fields and tractors working the land as you zip along in the Land Rover included in this purchase. As you near the hidden valley where the chateau sits at the far end of the country lane through the little village, you downshift to descend the lane and get ready to toss all of the cares of your hectic life into the country stream you finally pass before entering the hamlet. Pretty easy to figure out which lane goes into your chateau as there is only one lane in this village. Of course there is also no traffic and no stoplights. The only folks coming to your gate are the ones your driver picked up at either the TGV or the airport. OK, now swing open the gates and be greeted by your dog (this is the countryside and you must wear chaps and own a dog or two) and your guests. The main chateau is a manageable 5 bedroom, well lighted square of a fortress building which has undergone extensive renovations to the structure and all the modern conveniences under the careful watch of the current owner. (Our nomination for the French version of Martha Stewart is the current lovely lucky owner, with a gaggle of children and linebacker/hunter-in-Armani husband.) On the far side of the country court yard is a series of updated garages which house a duo of modern guestrooms and a cozy family summer kitchen/dining room which is open to the green fields rolling up to the crest of the valley beyond your property fences. Picture a roaring fire, a great bottle of red anything, and your favorite novel which you are either now reading or currently writing. I have been asked by the locals not to mention that your Blackberry works here as well or that DSL has reached now the hamlet but svp, toss the Blackberry in the stream where you through your cares earlier. I have it on very good authority that if you take your Blackberry down into the well next to the chateau, you can find the blocked up door that the former owners used to zip across the hamlet to the former cousin’s chateau as well. This is a very safe place for you to leave that Blackberry until you finally leave this blissful haven. If you need to be connected 24/7, apparently you plan on having several lives so please do visit us again when you get the message about important people needing to disconnect to recharge.
But I digress, back to the main chateau. Rustic and modern, a powerful combination which gives you a great entry in the front into a beautiful, rustic living room with roaring fire, dining room with fireplace, drawing room, and modern kitchen on this level. The table in the kitchen, so Martha, used to be a working table in a tool shop and now hosts fragrant morning coffees, cheese from the artisan cheese makers in the village, and a bottle of vino to ease the transition from blissful day into blissful night. Up stairs are enough bedrooms to handle you comfortably in your suite and plenty of family or close friends as there are 4 other bedrooms sharing 2 baths up there as well. Personally I prefer to see guests only after coffee, so I’d put them either in the guests’ suites across the courtyard or a bit further away in the compound in a 2 story house better suited to a driver, nanny, and the maid. France is all about living and eating well. Within a 25 minute ride are more than enough Michelin stars to keep you busy at dinner for months without seeing the same face twice. There are also plenty of closer, smaller unrated treasures that will greet you warmly and feed you imperially. Should you delight in blissful isolation, be in love discovering the historic area of France which once was border of the mother country and Spanish Netherlands, then hop on over. As we aren’t in the area of France that looks into the Mediterranean over a sea of tourists that fight over seats in restaurants, our prices are also far more civilized. This treasure is offered at SOLD in US dollars and includes not one, but 2 Land Rovers (but you must however provide your own dog to sit “shotgun” when the car comes to collect you at the air field.)
Additional details available from The Rex Hamilton Corporation, exclusive brokers of fine properties everywhere at +1 305 776 8686.
Please contact us at rexhamilton@rexhamilton.com for additional details.
SOLD
2655 LE JEUNE ROAD, SUITE 500,
CORAL GABLES, FLORIDA 33134 USA
telephone: 1 305 441 2828 ~ fax: 1 305 446 7073
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