Ref.4067: ELEGANT CHÂTEAU FROM THE 15th, 17th and 19th CENTURIES IN MAYENNE.

This elegant chateau is located in the north of the Mayenne department, in pretty rolling countryside, 2 km from a village with basic services and 12 km from a resourceful town. The town of Laval, 40 km away by car (via a 4-lane road), offers a rich architectural heritage and is a certified "Ville d'art et d'histoire". It benefits from a TGV station that connects to Paris in 1h15.

Abbé Angot (1844 - 1917, historian specialising in the history of La Mayenne) mentions this castle as a stronghold of the Froullay family for many years: "On 29 August 1680, Gabriel-Phillippe de Froullay, Bishop of Avranches, in execution of the intentions of André de Froullay, his grandfather, founded a mass in the chapel of the castle on Sundays and holidays, on the site of Geslinière, acquired from Yves du Moutier. Dictionnaire de La Mayenne, published by Joseph Floch.



The castle can be reached by going through the gate and down an avenue of lime trees which opens onto a lawn. It was built on a 15th century base, reworked in the 17th and 19th centuries and consists of a main building, extended by two wings on either side, all embellished with 4 turrets which give the building a chic and strong impression. Built in stone, the castle is covered in slate; the base, stringcourses, chainwork, frames and cornices are in granite. The pediments of the upper storey dormers are each topped with charming ashlar "nobility balls", which would indicate that the owners were tax-exempt at the time.
The chateau comprises:

On the ground floor, a vast vestibule (54 sqm) with the start of a Louis XV style stairway, which opens into a large dining room (54 sqm) with herringbone oak parquet flooring and a claw marble fireplace and, in the extension, a large lounge (54 sqm) with a moulded ceiling, Louis XVI style wainscoting and a 19th century white marble fireplace. Two small lounges of 27.5 sqm each with oak parquet flooring and marble fireplaces, one of which has wood panelling painted with mountain landscape scenes. Kitchen, old kitchen with its vegetable garden and fireplace, pantry and toilet.

On the first floor, a corridor leads to 8 fire-place bedrooms with parquet flooring, 6 bathrooms, toilets and 2 wc.

On the second floor, 6 attic rooms with parquet flooring, 3 of which have toilets, a bathroom and 5 rooms used as attics.

Cellar under almost the entire castle, including the boiler room.

Almost all of the reception rooms and bedrooms are covered with high quality stretched fabrics in good condition, bringing a lot of warmth to the interiors.

The outbuildings comprise:
-Beautiful stone stables;
-Nearby, a second building, formerly a stable;
-Then garage buildings, these three buildings forming a courtyard close to the castle;
-Further along the wall, two other shed buildings;
-A caretaker's cottage with 2 rooms located at the gate and 2 stable buildings; the small one is in a state of ruin;
-A former dovecote, carefully restored and certified about ten years ago;
-An old clay tennis court.

The park offers beautiful views. One can admire the curvature of the fields and the undulating landscape from the southern rooms of the castle and from a belvedere to the south, overlooking a stream. The fundamentals of a beautiful property are respected: a beautiful avenue of lime trees, remains of moats or water ditches, a formal garden in the extension of the castle, old tree alignments. One part is enclosed by walls where we find fruit trees, the vegetated outlines of a vegetable garden and old greenhouses. Plots of woodland and mostly meadows are laid out around the castle for a surface area of 28.70 acres.