The Lure of the Loire: French Property Guide

Riverside towns are charming and sought after -Carolyn Reynier picks out three set along France’s longest waterway, the mighty River Loire…

I’ve often thought it would be fun to have a French address on a river you know, like living in a beautiful village such as Talmont-sur-Gironde or Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne. Where better to look than along France’s longest river, the mighty 1,020km Loire? It rises in Ardèche, flows north, hangs a left at Orléans then heads west to Nantes where it enters the Atlantic Ocean (so it’s a fleuve, not a rivière, which flows into another river). I’m going to take a look at properties in

On the market three riverside communes in three different departments. Firstly, Aurec-sur-Loire – with a medieval château, stone houses and picturesque lanes is in the Haute-Loire department (Auvergne-Rhône Alpes region). Part of the Loire Semène territory, it nestles in a river bend just southwest of St-Etienne, prefecture of the neighbouring department Loire, and north of the Loire gorges. With verdant river banks, a popular nautical base and the Teinturerie Street Art festival in September, it’s surrounded by rolling landscapes, walking and cycle paths with natural sites for fishing and canoë-kayak.

Secondly, La Charité-sur-Loire in Nièvre (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté) is a Unesco-classified 11th-century Clunisien monastic site and a Ville d’Art et d’Histoire. It’s a stopover on the Via Lemovicensis, one of the Ways of Saint James to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. The 10,000-hectare medieval Bertranges oak forest is close by, while lovers of the sauvignon grape can fill their cellars with sancerre and pouilly-fumé from nearby vineyards.
The third location is Les Rosiers-sur-Loire in Maine-et-Loire (Pays de la Loire), part of the Gennes-Val-de-Loire commune in the 277,063-hectare Parc Naturel Régional de la Loire-Anjou-Touraine. It lies on the north bank on the Grande Levée, now the D952, the Angers-Saumur road built by the English Henry II, also Count of Anjou; a suspension bridge links it to Gennes on the southern bank. Although named after the roseaux (reeds) which covered the valley, you’ll find many varieties of old roses in a local nursery.

Aurec-sur-Loire is a welcoming commune, says Maxime Boncori of Val de Loire Immobilier, with embankments and small beaches along the riverbanks. The most sought-after property is situated along these banks. These symmetrical bourgeois maison de maître dwellings in attractive tree-filled grounds often belonged to former local industrialists. Prices start around €300,000-€400,000 for a pleasant property with cachet and pretty grounds.

The other characteristic type of property in local hamlets and villages is renovated stone corps de ferme (farmsteads; agriculture here is mainly dairy herds and some cereal) with open views in a natural tranquil environment. Around €350,000 should buy you a decent property, says Maxime. You may still find old barns or farm buildings for renovation. Some with direct access to rural hiking paths – offer gîtes and chambres d’hôte.

If you prefer to be in the historic centre of Aurec-sur-Loire, a small, terraced townhouse with terrace or jardinet (small garden) would be around €150,000. Apartments in old stone buildings are priced at €1,800-€2,100/m², rising to €2,100/m² for one in a modern building. Due south, Monistrol-sur-Loire (population 9,000) is the second largest town in Haute-Loire. St-Étienne is just 25 minutes on the RN88 so lots of folk who work there settle here. In the centre you’ll find old stone townhouses with or without a garden, and apartments. There are also some detached bourgeois properties – cut stone, hipped roof (toit à quatre pentes), large staircases and tree-lined grounds (parc arboré).

Authentic elements have usually been preserved which gives interiors their cachet, says Maxime. Apartments have magnificent stone and timber staircases, but rarely have lifts, and are priced around €2,200-€2,500/m². Apartments in residences ‘de bon standing’ (quality) built ‘de bon standing’ (quality) built from the 1990s on can reach €3,000/m². Maxime mentions La Rivoire, an attractive late-1970s residential sector, with around 200 houses, each with lots of surrounding space. It has been designed “to create a country effect although you’re in town,” he says. Prices range from €250,000 to €600,000. It’s easier to find a famhouse around Monistrol because there are more of them (€300,000-€500,000), he says.

Have a look, too, at nearby Bas-en-Basset – more detached houses, fewer apartments, historic centre, pretty Sunday morning market, and you can walk around large étangs (ponds or small lakes). You’ll find hamlets, says Maxime – “a bit isolated, very typical of the locality” – which are “très sympathiques”. A distinctive feature is that many enclosures and some houses are built from pise (rammed earth).

La Charité-sur-Loire lies at the crossroads of two major cycle paths: the St-Jacques à Vélo, and the Loire à Vélo, part of the 4,500km Euro Vélo 6, which follows rivers to link the Atlantic to the Black Sea, from the Loire to the Danube via the Rhine. Small stone, terraced townhouses have open beams and fireplaces and, although rare in the centre-bourg, may come with small courtyard or garden, says Marie-Louise Watine of Agence Berry-Nivernais. Expect to pay €80,000-€120,000 for one with a little outside space and no work required.

There are also some attractive terraced bourgeois houses with pretty reception rooms, panelling and moulding and jardinet; Marie-Louise quotes a bracket of €300,000-€350,000. The pale building stone, la pierre de Bourgogne, is from the local Champcelée quarry. There are two post-war central residential buildings which offer pleasant east-west dual-aspect (traversant) apartments. Expect to pay circa €50,000 plus work in the older one, and €80,000-€100,000 in the more modern one. A little further from the centre you see detached late-19th-century/early-20th-century properties with gardens – attractive facades, central front door, brick window surrounds, four ground floor rooms leading off from a corridor, for around €150,000-€200,000.

Post-war detached homes built over garden-level basement and garage with living area on the first floor sell for €120,000-€160,000. Within a 15km radius, you drive through villages and hamlets with old terraced houses with small rear gardens in their centres, while further afield, you’ll find modern properties with larger gardens. Marie-Louise explains that the La Charité-sur-Loire taxe foncière (property tax) is quite high so you may want to checkout surrounding villages like Chaulgnes to the southeast, and Narcy and Bulcy to the north. Have a look, too, at La Chapelle-Montlinard opposite La Charité in Cher and other villages on or near the canal lateral to the Loire.

Often village houses are in a poor state of repair; expect to pay around €100,000 for a renovated one. You also find pretty little farmhouses (fermettes) in Cher (and Nièvre), with living area and barn next door for possible conversion into gîtes – €150,000-€250,000.

In the centre of Les Rosiers-sur-Loire, terraced houses (one storey plus attic) are built from local tuffeau stone (pale fine-grained sandy limestone) generally with attractive rear gardens, says Nathalie Vincent of Albert Immo. You may still find a few for renovation. Expect to pay €250,000-€300,000 for a maison de bourg in good condition with garden. There are some small food shops here and you walk across the bridge to the supermarket at Gennes.

This is not really apartment country. “People who buy here absolutely want a garden otherwise they go to Angers or Saumur,” says Nathalie. For around €250,000 you could buy a little country longère, a long stone building with ground floor and first floor under the eaves. For a larger one, 180m² say, prices can rise to €400,000-€500,000. On this northern bank heading down river, Nathalie says St-Mathurin-sur-Loire is a “petit village sympa,” and mentions too La Ménitré, also on the river. Both are Unesco-listed.

Prices are a little higher as you head towards prefecture Angers. Nathalie points out that on this northern bank, you can buy a property with Loire views but you’ll have the Levée in front of you. It’s agricultural plain here whereas when you cross over to Gennes on the southern bank, there are hillsides so you get a view of the Loire without the road. Let’s stroll across the bridge to Gennes – it has a similar layout to Les Rosiers but no main road so life is quieter here. Small terraced village houses and larger properties with a rear garden sell at similar prices to Les Rosiers.

In the undulating wooded countryside with lots of hiking paths, you’ll find longères and also larger former farms, which you don’t find north of the river. “The Gennes countryside is more sought after than that of Les Rosiers,” says Nathalie, so property is a tad more expensive. Pretty hamlets include upstream Chênehutte-Trèves-Cunault, a Petite Cité de Caractère made up of three villages with a rich architectural heritage including the medieval priory at Cunault, a chef-d’oeuvre of Romanesque art. Downstream you have a magnificent view of the Loire at Le Thoureil and from the 9th-century St-Maur abbey.
The train from Les Rosiers gets you to Angers in 20 minutes. Another not inconsiderable advantage is the vignoble ligérien. This useful adjective, meaning relative to the Loire, comes from Liger, the Latin name for the river. The Anjou, Saumurois and Touraine vineyards are nearby. And yes, they too are Unesco-listed.

The Loire continues its journey but we have reached the end of ours. I hope it may help you find your ideal home in Somewhere-sur-Loire.

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