Commercial in Orthez , Pyrénées-Atlantiques , Aquitaine - Part of Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Located at the end of a long drive, this 18th-century maison-de-maître overlooks riverside grounds of 10.3 hectares, with a barn and outbuildings set away from the house to the south and an orchard and small vineyard to the east.

From a courtyard garden and parking area at the end of the drive, the front door of the house opens into a hall/boot room with a guest WC. From the hall, a door opens into an inner hall with a wooden staircase to the upper floors. Adjoining the hall is an open-plan sitting room/dining room with French doors out to the grounds and a spacious kitchen with a huge Aga, a cosy dining area and a door opening out to the courtyard garden. On the far side of the hall is a utility room, also with a door out to the courtyard garden.

Beyond the inner hall, a corridor leads to two bedrooms - one with French doors out to the grounds, the other with French doors out to the courtyard garden - and to a vast garden room/gym with sliding picture windows out to the grounds. The garden room/gym is equipped with a sauna and also has two luxurious shower rooms.

A door from the garden room opens into a modern office suite with a reception area, a separate glazed office and wheelchair-friendly WC on the ground floor - and an open-plan office area on the first floor, along with stairs up to the west-loft on the second floor of the main house.

The first floor comprises a huge sitting room with an open fireplace, a library/snooker area and French doors out to a south-facing balcony, a room previously used as a kitchen, a master bedroom (60m²) with a wood-burning stove, a dressing room and an en suite bathroom with spa bath, a second bedroom with a vanity unit, a bathroom, a separate WC and an north-east-facing dining terrace with steps down to the courtyard garden - the perfect spot for sunny breakfasts overlooking the grounds!

The second floor has two further bedrooms and a room with a WC, with enough space to install a bath or shower. Also on this floor are two loft spaces, a storage room and a door to the office suite. Please note that all the rooms on this floor have sloping ceilings.

Located near the riverside town of Orthez, this lovely maison-de-maître is situated in the Béarn, which is famous for its Jurançon vineyards and magnificent scenery! There are always things to see and do... mountain trails and skiing in the Pyrénées... swimming at a nearby leisure lake... white-water rafting on the "gaves" (rivers)... or surfing on the Atlantic coast...

THE MAISON-DE-MAÎTRE

Ground floor:
- two courtyards
- an entrance hall/boot room
- an inner hall with a wooden staircase to the upper floors
- a south-facing sitting room/dining room with French doors out to the grounds
- a spacious kitchen with a vast Aga, a cosy dining area and a door out to the grounds
- a large utility room with a door out to the courtyard garden
- two bedrooms, each with French doors opening outside
- a massive south-facing garden room/gym with a sauna, sliding picture windows out to the grounds, access to the office suite and a door out to the rear courtyard
- two separate shower rooms, both accessible from the garden room/gym and the office suite
- a WC adjacent to the entrance hall

First floor:
- a south-facing balcony with fantastic views of the grounds and beyond to the Pyrénées
- a north-east-facing dining terrace with steps down to the courtyards
- a vast sitting room with an impressive open fireplace, a library/snooker area and French doors out to the balcony
- a room (currently in works) previously used as a kitchen, which could become an study/office or an additional bedroom
- a huge master bedroom (60m²) with a wood-burning stove, a dressing room and an en suite bathroom with spa bath
- a bedroom with a vanity unit
- a bathroom
- a separate WC
- a rear garden

Second floor:
- a bedroom (14m²)
- a second bedroom (15m²) with a door to the west loft and separate storage room
- a bathroom with a vanity unit, a bidet and a WC, with room to install a bath or a shower if desired
- a west loft with a floor area of 43m², accessible from the second bedroom on one side and the office suite on the other side
- a storage room (15.5m²) within the west loft
- an east loft with a floor area of 43m²

NB: all the rooms and loft areas on the second floor have sloping ceilings


THE OFFICE SUITE

Ground floor:
- a private entrance from the grounds
- a light and airy reception/office area with a spiral staircase up to the first floor
- a separate glazed office
- a large wheelchair-friendly WC with a handbasin
- a door to the garden room and main house

First floor:
- an open-plan office area
- a staircase up to the second floor of the main house via the west loft


THE ESTATE AND THE OUTBUILDINGS

The maison-de-maître is set in a splendid riverside estate of 103,192m² (25.5 acres) with...
- a small vineyard of about 1,000m² producing about a tonne of red-wine grapes (1,000 bottles) in a good year: 1/5 Cabernet Sauvignon, 1/5 Cabernet Franc, 3/5 Tannat
- an orchard
- two courtyards
- a south-facing terrace
- a raised north-east-facing terrace
- a barn suitable for horses/animals (150m²) with a porch (25m²) and several open-sided outbuildings (50m²)
- a garden shed adjoining the office suite
- suitable flat land for installing a swimming pool, summer kitchen, children's play area, boules piste...
- parking for several cars


THE POTENTIAL!

Located in a peaceful countryside setting, this superb maison-de-maître comprises 470m² of living space, making it perfect for a fantastic family home or a luxurious holiday home... and with six bedrooms to choose from, you will have plenty of room to accommodate your friends and family when they come to visit you!

The property is perfectly located for anyone who works in Orthez, Bayonne or Pau - and the International School of Béarn in Pau is just 30 minutes away. If you work from home or need offices/consulting rooms for your business, the office suite at the far end of the house is ideal. It is directly accessible from the parking area and from the main part of the house via the garden room/gym. The office suite has a wheelchair-friendly WC.

With permission, it may be possible to create one or more self-contained apartments/gîtes to rent out to holidaymakers during the summer months, the skiing season and for Christmas and New Year. The installation of a swimming pool would obviously be an added attraction for guests...!

With the addition of some en suite shower rooms, it would also be easy to offer wonderful Bed and Breakfast accommodation to holidaymakers - or even to create a boutique hotel. You could also offer luxury accommodation to pilgrims who are walking the Chemin-de-St-Jacques-de-Compostelle, since the pilgrim route passes close by (a 10-minute walk). Pilgrims need accommodation all year round - and they will be particularly delighted if you can offer hearty suppers when they arrive, delicious breakfasts and even picnic hampers for lunch, especially if they are full of local Béarnaise and Basque delicacies!

Should you be interested in providing leisure activities to your B&B guests, the open-plan office suite and/or the garden room/gym could be used for hosting yoga classes and retreats, cookery and wine-tasting courses, theatre workshops, corporate seminars/team-building events... There would also be more than enough room for setting up a beauty salon and spa, a restaurant, a cosy teashop or even an art gallery!

The 10.3 hectares of riverside land would be ideal for keeping horses and other animals - and the outbuildings of about 200m² already contain animal stalls, making this a perfect property for setting up an equestrian business...

... and if you need flat, fertile land for an agricultural/horticultural business, this property could not be better - and, of course, you could enlarge the vineyard to produce your very own "Grand Cru"!


SERVICES & TECHNICAL

Partially double-glazed
Telephone + ADSL + fibre available
Electricity (3-phase)
Heating: gas central heating + wood-burning stove + open fireplace
Mains water
Septic tank (needs replacing)


THE LOCAL AREA

The property is located near the Medieval town of Orthez, which offers a good choice of supermarkets, bars and restaurants, along with a twice-weekly farmers' market and numerous cultural and sporting events throughout the year. There is also "La Base de Loisirs d’Orthez-Biron", which is a leisure lake with a beach, so you can swim, sunbathe and picnic as if you are by the sea!

If you have children, the area has many excellent schools, including a bilingual French/English school in Orthez; the International School of Béarn in Pau, which teaches the English National Curriculum, is just 30 minutes away.

The Béarn is popular with tourists all year round. The region is loved for its proximity to the mountains and the sea, as well as its Jurançon vineyards and healing thermal spas in Salies-de-Béarn. The area is superb for hiking, mountain-biking, white-water rafting and skiing - and for those who prefer beach-based activities, the famous resorts of Biarritz and St-Jean-de-Luz are about 55 minutes away...

Airports: Pau, Biarritz, Tarbes-Lourdes
Train: Orthez, Puyoô
Ferry: Bilbao, Santander
Coach: Pau, Bayonne

Ski: Issarbe, La-Pierre-St-Martin, Val-d’Azun, Gourette, Candanchú (Spain)...
Beaches: Biarritz, St-Jean-de-Luz, Hendaye, Hossegor, Tarnos...

Attractions: Base de Loisirs d’Orthez-Biron, Aqua Béarn, Le Petit Train d’Artouste, Parc'Ours, Grottes d'Isturitz et d'Oxocelhaya, Grottes de Bétharram, Chemin-de-St-Jacques-de-Compostelle...
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Information about risks to which this property is exposed is available on the Géorisques website : https://www.georisques.gouv.fr