Country houses for sale

An appealing house in France

A French maison de maitre with ‘international appeal’ is for sale. The property, Moussot, is in a sleepy hamlet 40 kilometres from Auch and about an hour from Pau Airport (Toulouse and Bordeaux are both within a two-hour drive).

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This elegant six-bedroom three-storey home overlooks a sheltered, partially walled garden and has two reception rooms, three bathrooms and separate guest accommodation, the maison d’amis.

Also, there are stone barns within the three-quarters of an acre of grounds.

‘Sometimes when you enter a house you can say with a measure of certainty an English person will buy this, or sometimes this feels right for a French buyer, but some properties simply have international appeal,’ says Ian Purslow of Purslow’s Gascony in France (www.purslows-gascony.com), who is selling the house for ?695,000 (around £485,000).

‘Some buyers, excited by how much their money will buy in this part of the world, acquire a country house with land which is too large for their needs and then live to regret it when they have to cope with the gardening, maintenance and upkeep,’ Mr Purslow adds. ‘This house has a lot of capacity without being over-large and attractive grounds that are easy to keep.’

The house had an English patron in the Nineties, prior to the current French owners taking it on and acquiring additional land and outbuildings they converted into the spacious maison d’amis.

‘This type of house has broad appeal. I would not like to guess which nationality will call it home next,’ comments Mr Purslow.

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