Sophie W. Says:
I’ve always dreamed of one day owning my own château in France. Is that something that’s possible, or just pie in the sky?
IL France Correspondent Tuula Rampont Writes:
There’s something undeniably romantic about having the keys to your own French château.
The word château takes in a whole range of architectural styles. Despite all the Disney films, a French castle isn’t necessarily a “Sleeping Beauty” palace with spiky turrets, battlements, and arrow-slit windows.
While many châteaux are indeed feudal fortresses dating back to the Middle Ages, others are nothing more than elegant country mansions or semi-fortified manor houses.
Most come with a sizeable estate, though it’s also possible to buy a basic tower house castle with a large garden if you don’t want the hassle of tending acres of land.
Prices for tumbledown towers start at around the $300,000 mark, but for a small château in good general condition, $800,000 is a more realistic base figure. And for something on a grand scale, you could easily pay $5 million or more.
But, before getting carried away with the idea of becoming a châtelain(e), you should do some hard thinking about the likely cost of repairs and refurbishment—and all those huge heating bills. Stone walls weep out moisture, and castles tend to feel cold and drafty. Why do you think people wrapped themselves in furs in bygone days?
While many lend themselves to development potential, perhaps as tourist attractions or for providing gracious accommodation for paying guests, the bills for transforming a semi-ruin may prove ruinous. Some new owners have spent $300,000 to purchase a château, then as much as another $4 million on restoration costs alone.
Even picture-postcard castles require an ongoing financial commitment to maintain them in that straight-from-a-fairytale condition. Yet it’s not an impossible dream.
Groupe Mercure currently has several castles on its books. Prices range from €327,000 ($388,878) for a small château needing restoration in the northern Pyrénées, to €16.8 million ($19.9 million) for a massive one in mint condition in the Dordogne region.
You can read much more about buying real estate in France—including châteaus—in Chapter 5 of Escape to France.
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