Main Description
This competitively-priced exceptional three-bedroom village house has a "wow" factor which can only be fully appreciated when you visit. It is located at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac three minutes walk from the village shop in Loire-sur-Nie, and has a 10 x 5 metre swimming pool and walled garden.
Located between Matha and Aulnay in Charente Maritime, the village is 40 minutes by car from Cognac and one hour from Poitiers and the coast at La Rochelle, both of which have regular flights by low-cost airlines to and from UK. The house is of stone with a new tiled roof. The overall plot is 1,858 square metres.
The ground floor comprises a spacious entrance hall, a large two-storey living/dining room with a feature fireplace and a mezanine gallery, a fitted kitchen with dining area and wood-burning stove, a utility room, and a huge conservatory with a fitted bar area, an indoor barbecue and sliding doors to the garden and pool. The pool has an alarm system to meet safety requirements.
The master bedroom is also on the ground floor and has a spacious en-suite shower room with bidet and WC. A separate WC with wash basin, and a second shower room, are accessed from the entrance hall. Apart from the fireplace and wood-burning stove, there are electric radiators throughout the house.
A staircase in the entrance hall leads to the upper floor which has two double bedrooms, a separate WC and wash basin, and the large mezanine area overlooking the living/dining room. This was previously used as an office but is now used to accommodate extra beds when necessary.
There is an integral garage/barn with fittings for a summer kitchen, which has separate access and gives opportunity for further development.
The village of Loire-sur-Nie is in an agricultural area, mainly devoted to cereals and sunflowers but on the edge of the vineyard areas supplying the Cognac distilleries. The nearest village, Nere, four kilometres away, has a baker, chemist, cafe/bar and other useful small shops, and Aulnay and Matha, both about eight kilometres distant, have a wide range of shops and services including supermarkets. Aulnay has a street market and also an interesting Romanesque church which was a stop on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela.
The autoroute A10 from Paris to Bordeaux is accessed at St. Jean d'Angely, a large historic town with all facilities twenty kilometres to the west. The Royal Abbey there houses The Centre for European Culture and was also a stop on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. The TGV from Paris and Lille to Bordeaux stops at Poitiers and Angouleme, each about an hour away.
The property is ideally suited for access to a wide variety of activities. There are numerous sandy beaches at the coast around La Rochelle and the Ile de Re and the Ile d'Oleron, and there is a former French naval base at Rochefort. Futuroscope, the space and science theme park, is at Poitiers, which also has a magnificent Romanesque cathedral. Between Poitiers and the coast is the Marais Poitevin, the network of canals and paths known locally as the Venise Verte, and you can hire boats and bikes there, according to choice, to explore them.
To the south there is the Louis Rouyer golf course at Saintes, and the Roman amphitheatre at Saintes itself and other Roman remains at Pons. Boat trips on the river Charente can also be taken from Saintes. At Cognac, all the major producers offer tours of their brandy distilleries, and visits to St. Emilion and the Bordeaux region with its chateaux and vineyards are also popular day trips.
The present owners have had the house as a holiday home for almost twelve years, but changes in personal circumstances mean they have now, reluctantly, decided to sell.