La Bâtisse Verte - hide away in an idyllic rural retreat immersed in nature

Welcome to La Batisse Verte - a secret retreat in nature tucked away in greenery in the peaceful environs of the Limousin. A beautiful historical building from the 1750s with high ceilings, and so many unusual architectural features - we can guarantee you you won’t have stayed anywhere like it. Beautiful stone staircases, massive living spaces - its a place to indulge and let your heart expand.

Incredible views out onto the woods and lake on one side of the house, and onto the beautiful enormous lime tree on the other, and surrounded by woodland and meadows its a place to come and unwind, switch off and bathe in bird song.

With three double bedrooms and one bedroom of four singles it makes a great location to come for one or two families or a small group to hide away. With a terrace that catches the evening light on the side of the house as well as a pool for the Summer months, a huge garden, meadow and woodland walks as part of our land to explore, you can easily while away the weeks here with no reason to leave.

To be clear this was our home where we lived for several years. It is warm and inviting packed full of plenty of memories and mementoes, not a rental project! We are opening our doors with open arms and hope to attract people who will love and cherish it's wobbliness and quirks with the intensity we do when we aren't there.

The local town of St Yrieix la Perche is just a few minutes down the road, with amazing farmer’s markets every week, wonderful food shops, restaurants, historical attractions, and several supermarkets so getting supplies is simple.

There are night markets on Thursdays in the Summer where you can sit out and eat the food of local producers to live music, as well as on Tuesday nights in the idyllic village of Segur-le-chateau, just 20 mins away. There are also important historical chateaus in the area including the Chateau de Jumilhac and the Chateau de Hautfort as well as many historical sights in neighbouring villages. You can also visit St Yrieix’s lake, Lac D’Arfeuille, where there are often free canoe trips in the holidays which you only need register for, and swimming is possible at certain times of year as well as at other lakes in the area.

As a family we are very environmentally conscious and we are both keen designers having built and designed the interiors ourselves, and so all of our mattresses are of natural materials and extremely comfortable, all of our linen provided is 100% cotton and the pillows are filled with organic wool or feathers. The house is designed with nature in mind using natural materials and we don’t use air conditioning but provide fans in each room in the hotter months. We don’t have wifi but find phone reception coverage is good. We use the house and land as a way to switch off and disconnect while we are there and hope this appeals to you too.
With huge metre-thick walls of stone the house regulates it’s temperature well in Summer and the kitchen provides a cool retreat to the sunshine and we encourage you to use the shutters to keep it cool in the Summer.

Our pool uses a solar-powered ioniser to clean it which means it require barely any chemicals, which is much safer for all around and you may find the odd frog jumping in to have a swim with you from our pond which will remain unharmed by the water! It is open from June-September.

The house is surrounded by woodland and there are several acres of our land to explore including beautiful walks in the woods as well as swings, hammocks and a zip -wire that is not for the faint-hearted in the garden! If the weather unexpectedly fails you can retreat inside, we have lots of board games, books and toys in the shelves for children as well as a wood-burning stove if there is an unexpectedly cold evening.

As with all old stone houses there are occasionally visitors and you may hear in the Summer months the occasional “Loir” which are like a very small cute squirrel with big black eyes and a fluffy tail, often translated in English as an ‘edible doormouse’ - they are actually a protected species and sometimes might visit in the roof. It’s extremely unlikely you’d actually see one in the house but you may hear them. The garden is teaming with nature and deer often visit, and whilst sitting on the steps you will likely catch others sunbathing on or near the house, from lizards to geckoes, beetles to butterflies, birds of prey and even hedgehogs as well as the constant hum of the visiting bees.