This outstanding renovation is not a Parisian apartment or Provencal mas. It was a neglected flour mill, now turned into a luxurious property with a guest wing. The artisan has retained the essential spirit, imaginatively re-using reclaimed materials. There is one modern twist: sit in the dining room at night and watch the water flowing beneath you through illuminated porthole-shaped glass!
Let us begin with the owners’ accommodation. An entrance hall with revealed stone walls has the date 1843 chiselled on it. To the left is a vast living room, with terracotta tiles, a huge fireplace and whitewashed beams. The dining room is behind here and there is a kitchen, scullery, study and utility room. An original staircase leads up to a second living room, with the mill hatch – now triple glazed – looking down to the ground floor. A corridor leads to the master bedroom and its own beautiful bathroom. The second floor has been fully insulated and has a further four bedrooms, bathroom and shower room. The conversion process was being completed when I visited. The guest wing consists of a living room, kitchen, downstairs bedroom with disabled-friendly shower room, an upstairs bedroom and a second shower room with separate WC. A further en-suite bedroom, which is accessed from a central staircase, can be part of the guest accommodation or that of the owners.
There are a number of outbuildings, two of them vast, and most of which have renewed roofing. A formal garden area overlooks the river, and there are approximately three and a half hectares of grounds, including riverbank and woodland.
The nearby villages offer basic shops and a superb restaurant. Civray and its full range of facilities, supermarkets, DIY shops, boulangeries, bucher, (no candlestick maker), twice weekly open-air market and bars and restaurants, banks and other shops is 15 minutes away.
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