Chateau de Borie

Chateau de Borie may have been built between 1775 and 1800 as a large farmhouse and added onto in 1876. The house was the heart of a wine estate, until the mid-1850s when a nationwide plague afflicting grape crops across France wiped out a huge swath of French vineyards, almost decimating the French wine industry. The wine enterprise on the Borie estate, then owned by the Marraud family, never recovered and the vineyards were converted to other crops. In the late 1930s, the estate was purchased by a local surgeon who completed another major renovation, and in 1965 Chateau de Borie was purchased by Madame Gouachon, who raised her family here and lived until her death at the age of 97. Her daughter continues to live in the Bergerie, a sheep barn on the original property that she and her husband converted into a home.

The estate’s grounds are particularly unique in that the house is nestled into a limestone cliff face, known in France as “troglodytes” and there are some cave-like “rooms” carved into the cliff including a bakery with three ovens, once the summer kitchen. A small caretaker’s cottage built against the cliff wall is in the process of being renovated.

The house itself has large, bright, sunny rooms including 12 bedrooms and beautiful gardens with many private areas to enjoy the views and soak up the atmosphere in peace. There are several common areas, a large kitchen and living room, and three terraces, plus an array of “pools” that catch spring water.