Château Shopping (no 5)
A revisit and Location, Location, Location!
Another early morning, up at 5:45 am, and on the road by 6:40 am… (AM, that’s AM…I don’t even know who we are anymore!) We are still in lockdown with a 6pm curfew and have no choice but to be on the road before the sun rises. We made two visits on this drizzly and misty morning. Our first visit was a return visit (a second showing) to Château d’Avensac in the Gers, followed by what I will call the un-named Château as we never learned of its name, about an hour away from Avensac. A Château is generally referred to as Château due to a person of French nobility or royalty having built or having owned the structure. Read more about this on Wikipedia, it is very interesting! The Châteaux names derive from the family name of the royalty or a name chosen by the person of royalty that built or owned it, or their respective location. I have an understanding that the names are listed and they are what they are, and cannot be changed.
I will start with Château with no name, it does have one, and I wish I knew what it was… Location, location, location! That is how I describe the property. I have yet to see French countryside as beautiful as the land the Château with no name sits on. Even on a broken cloudy day, the land scape is breathtaking!
The Château itself was beautiful in its own way with sections that dated from the Middle Ages, and sections from the 1700’s. A sort of hodgepodge of structures that combined to make one. Beautiful moments on the exterior and on the interior. But not a property for us. If you wanted a beautiful French countryside home that you could entertain friends in and be comfortable just hanging out, this one would be for you. It is missing that WOW factor and size that we are searching for, but we went to see it because you just never know! Have a look at some photographs of the Château in the gallery below.
We also made a second visit to Château d’Avensac. We are seriously considering making an offer and wanted to spend time really looking under her skirts.
I wrote a post about our first visit and if you have not, you can read it by clicking here. Diminutive, delicate and yet very beautiful is how I remembered the Château, and our second visit did not change that feeling. Have we reached a point in life where we should be more understated and less gregarious??? Are we getting so old that we should not stand out in the crowd but retreat to the corners of the room??? Oh for Gods sake, we are buying a Château in the south of France… I think Not!
And yet I do not think of Château d’Avensac as a complete change of character. Although delicate on the outside, the interiors and the back terrace with it’s incredible views have amazing potential to be the over the top, WOW moments we are looking for…
We have a return visit to Château de Cadres and one other property to see within the next week and then we will sit sit down and put all of the cards on the table to see if we can come to a decision.
The Gallery below are photographs I took on the second viewing of Château d’Avensac. I was really focused on details, details, details!
Click on the small images to enlarge.
As I wrap up todays post I will leave you with a tease… a parting shot… Getting back into the mindset of big and grand, over the top, and “What were you thinking” – The Château below is our next viewing…
