our Beautiful Boulou!
It is very easy, when trying to describe the scenery in this part of the world, to throw around words like spectacular, awe-inspiring and majestic, but it would be impossible to paint a picture of this whole area without resorting to cliché. It is OUT STANDING!
Boulou is the local name for our mountain paradise. A barn, a ruined farm house and 2.5 hectares of woodland and meadow. It is set in the heavily sort after gob smackingly gorgeous mountain scenery of the Vallee de Lesponne in the Hautes Pyrenees, South West France . In the middle of nowhere but only 10 minutes walk from two auberges (B&B bar restaurants) down in the village of Lesponne.
We came here in 2004 to live a more eco friendly sustainable life style and set up a permaculture small holding. We are currently about 60% self sufficient in meat and veg.
YOU LUCKY PEOPLE…….
an
amazing opportunity to purchase our
PYRENEAN MOUNTAIN BARN
For the loverly sum of
55,000€
Due to a change in our circumstances we are now selling the entire small holding!
Therefore this offer has now changed to the Barn; farmhouse ruin (as seen in photo at beginning of this page) and 2.5hectares of woodland and meadow for
NOW REDUCED TO
70,000
There is further information on the land and the ruin in our september blog. However all the information on this page is still relevant.
Thank you!
Barn Description
Built - 1859
Made of – Local stone, lime mortar and traditional round timber wood work. In other words, whatever they had to hand!
Interior dimenstions - 8m x 4m (first floor same but with sloping ceilings)
Ground floor – is made out of the ground (!) and has an original stable door.
First floor – Originally the hay loft. Window in the valley facing gable and large door in the other. New floor beams. <><><><><><><><> <><><><><><><><> <><><><><><><><>
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Inside the barn (for the last 6years we have been living in the barn! – using the ground floor only) |
Roof – New slate-blue metal sheet roof to be completed before sale :) Please note that the photographs included in this document were taken prior to roof completion, hence the blue tarpaulin acting as a temporary roof!
Walls – Re-building and some re-pointing already done.
Garden – Large – Around 300m² - Exact size to be agreed with you, friendly purchaser :). Flat area next to barn, the rest is sloping and begging to be terraced. Mature fruit giving walnut and chestnut trees.
It is difficult to photograph the garden in its entirety but hopefully these pictures will give you an idea of the area. In the top picture, the garden area roughly extends back to inline with the thick tree trunk that can be seen in the far right hand side and extends up past the far left of the picture. We had the plan to place a door in the wall of the barn seen in the bottom picture to allow easy access to the garden and possibly replace the current front door to the barn. The orange netting seen in both pictures is our current temporary chick enclosure!
Altitude – 857m
Aspect – East, South-East
Aspect – East, South-East
Facilities – No mains anything:
No electric, No gas, No sewerage, No mains water, No phone line!
There is however, a captured mountain spring 10m below the barn and a pretty decent mobile phone signal.Also there is a 2birth caravan inside the farmhouse ruin that has a gas fridge, 2 gas rings and a gas grill. The caravan is protected by a temporary roof made of trees, straw bales and tarpaulin!!!!
In the barn there is a wood burning stove/cooker and a wood burning fire.
Access - 3km forest track – About 10mins drive from tarmac road. 4x4 necessary in winter cause of all that lovely white stuff!
Footpath from village – 15mins walk up and 10mins walk down, depending on how many litres of cheap plonk you are carrying or have drunk!! J
The ruined farmhouse is on the left hand side of the barn (see photo) and access to the barn itself is from above and behind the buildings.
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| Track leaving from Boulou (The buildings are behind photograph position to the left) |
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| Forest track in a little snow!! |
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| Access track to behind the barn (The track leaving in boulou is behind the photograph position and buildings are to the right) |
There is a communal footpath right alongside the barn. However this footpath is impassable just above the property and has been, since before we arrived. In the seven years we have lived here the few walkers we have seen, use our access track instead, situated on the other side of the ruin from the barn. Unfortunately, you will not be able to purchase the footpath.
The
Surrounding Area
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| Looking up the Lesponne valley (taken from about 30 mins walk above Boulou) |
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| Looking down the valley (Taken from about 15min walk above Boulou) |
The Adour River
For you nature lovers, the mountain flora and fauna includes the lamergeier (largest bird of prey in Europe), egyptian and griffin vultures, various eagles and other birds of prey, roe and red deer, badgers, foxes and pine martens, all regularly seen from Boulou. Wild blue berries and strawberries mingle with the edible fungi and beautiful mountain wild flowers. Two years ago one male and two female brown bears were re-introduced into our valley – last heard of crossing the Spanish border and yes they do do it in the woods ;-)
The highest thermal town in the pyrenees - Bagneres de Bigorre - is 30 mins drive away (including the forest track) and has all the normal amenities of a small mountain town, including thermal spa, supermarkets, bars, restaurants and other shops. Bastille day, 14th July, is definitely not to be missed!!!
The nearest major town, Tarbes
Airports:
Lourdes/Tarbes (Ossun) 30 minutes from Lesponne village
P
There is a bus service from Bagneres to Tarbes
Ok - this is us – this is solely our opinion, but in our experience of like-property prices in this area, current market value should be around €65,000. We don’t want to be rich, we just want to fulfil our dream (and pay back our parents!) hence our asking price.
If after reading this you have an overwhelming urge to help us fulfil that dream and at the same time, become the proud owners of a bit of mountain, then do not hesitate to contact us at –
(please bear in mind we have to visit our mates to pick up our email – yes we are talking mountain here and yes we have really good mates!! :)
or phone us on our mobiles
Andi – 0033 (0)6.33.23.27.82
Bex – 0033 (0)6.33.23.36.91
For even further info and photos
- you lucky, lucky people ;)
- check out our facebook community page -
Boulou
- you lucky, lucky people ;)
- check out our facebook community page -
Boulou
Thank you for taking the time to read this!
:)
Yes these really are photographs of the views from the barn!!
Stunning isnt it?! :)
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