A characterful old house with an inner court and garden, nestled in the heart of the beautiful town of Vézelay in Burgundy - ref 572911
A characterful old house with an inner court and garden, nestled in the heart of the beautiful town of Vézelay in Burgundy.
The town of Vézelay lies two hours and forty minutes from Paris via the A6 motorway, which is thirty minutes away. It is fifty minutes from Auxerre and Saulieu and twenty minutes from Avallon. Vézelay is emblematic of Burgundy and a place of pilgrimage. It is a starting point for the famous Camino de Santiago pilgrims' way. This beautiful medieval town is easy to reach and it has kept its authentic character. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and as one of France's most beautiful villages. The local area is on the edge of the Morvan regional nature park. It is a great place for outdoor pursuits, including hiking, mountain biking, fishing and kayaking. Many festivals bring the area to life in the summer. The main street leading up to the basilica is lined with art galleries, boutiques and excellent restaurants. The house stands on this street.
The house stands on the main street. A small courtyard lies between its facade and the road. On the rear side lies a garden. The dwelling is a terraced house tucked among buildings from the same period that were made in the same style. They look out over the valley.
The houseThe house is rectangular. It faces north-west and south-east beneath a gable roof of flat tiles with two hipped dormers and a central gabled dormer. Windows with red dressed-stone surrounds punctuate its rendered facade. Its rear face looks out over a garden. Rendering leaves this face's stonework slightly exposed. At the top of this back wall lies a terrace with a metal guardrail and a breathtaking view over the valley. Large-pane casement windows are paired with wooden shutters.
The ground floor
The ground floor is made up of two rooms intended for retail. It also includes a private apartment on its garden side. The commercial premises stand in a row. You enter them through large French windows on the small street-side courtyard. The second room is smaller. It connects to the basement and to a small inner court. Members of the public can reach this inner court and a lavatory is available to them there.
A long lateral corridor runs across the house from one side to the other. It connects to the boutique and to a private section. The latter is made up of a spacious living room with a kitchenette and a bedroom with an adjoining bathroom. Large windows bring in much natural light and offer views over the fields and hills surrounding Vézelay.
The old features of this fully restored historical house include corbels, huge solid-timber beams and large dressed stones for lintels and door surrounds. Small and large square stone tiles adorn the floors.
The end of the corridor leads to the inner court and garden. A door opposite takes you to the other apartment, which lies upstairs.
The first floor
Once you have gone through this door, a staircase takes you up to a landing with direct access to the living room. A corridor connects to this floor's rooms. On the right, behind a large sliding partition, is a bright, fully equipped kitchen with many cupboards. A small brick fireplace takes up a corner. There, you can grill mushrooms picked from the nearby Morvan forests.
A few steps lead down to the living room, where windows look out over the garden, like the apartment below does. A built-in fireplace with a trumeau mirror stands opposite a bare wall that evokes the dwelling's rustic origins. Here too are many well-integrated cupboards. A passage leads to a large bathroom with exposed beams that are painted blue.
Down the corridor and beyond the lavatory, a sliding partition opens into a lounge, which also features a fireplace and large cupboards. Huge solid-timber beams on corbels look down over the whole place. Part of this room has been ...
