AboutTheHouse

The property consists of an old farmhouse and barns around a courtyard. It is set in around 6,000 sq metres of land including several barns that enclose the courtyard, an old walled vegetable garden and a field that goes down to the river Authie.

Its a lovely quiet, rural setting at the edge of the small village of Bealcourt.

The house (above) is two thirds of the largest building with the remaining third an as yet unconverted barn. Turning this into a separate Gite will be the next big project. In the main house, downstairs there is a Hall/snug with a wood burning fire - there is a store of logs in the small barn. The toilet and shower are through a door off the Hall (opposite the front door) -– with stairs up to the first floor. The house has new central heating and the boiler is in the cellar.

The kitchen/diner has an electric oven and gas/electric hob, fridge freezer, microwave, toaster etc. There is a kitchen table that can seat 6-8 and additional tables (from the hall) can be brought in to seat 14+. Off the hall is the lounge which has 2 sofa’s that fold down into double beds. There is a TV/Video and a free to air satellitte (BBC1-4, Skynews etc and hundreds of Radio stations) and a door down to the small cellar. There is a washing Machine (hidden away off the dining room).

A door on the other side of the hall leads to the large kitchen/dining room - There is a downstairs double bedroom off the lounge. This is next to the downstairs bathroom/toilet. Also off the dining room is a the door to a second flight of stairs to the bedrooms - these stairs go directly up to another double bedroom which has a view over the field to the river. The stairs also give access to the other bedrooms.

The largest bedroom has en-suite toilet and washbasin and a second shower is waiting to be installed. There is a door on to the large family bedroom which currently has a double bed and a sofa bed - the stairs down to the kitchen are here too. Quilts etc will either be in the chests of drawers or maybe in storage chests at the end of the beds. Please bring sheets and towels.

Outside. Turn left out of the front door. In front to the left is a small barn. To its left is a partly walled garden this is now a lawned area and is a nice place to sit or play badminton or volleyball. Out of the left corner of the garden is the field which goes down to the river Authie – our property extends to the right as far as a line with the end of the walled garden. We have fishing rights and a fishing licence can be bought at hunting and fishing shops in Somme - we're not sure where non-residents can buy these yet but have been told that the shop in Auxi can only sell those for Pas de Calais and the house is in Somme. There are garden chairs, a barbecue and two outside tables on the patio area.

There are three barns. To the left of the house as you face it, the rest of the same building is the first of the barns. On the right as you come in is a concrete open barn with a small room in it and then opposite the house is the large barn. We've had the large barn sorted out structurally but children should still be careful.

The electricity has been upgraded but may still suffer from the vagaries of rural French electricity. Most of the house has been recently rewired (there are a couple of exceptions) and downstairs there are also UK sockets. There should be plenty of UK adaptors. The toilet is an fosse (aka septic tank) which means you CANNOT use bleaches or other chemical cleaning agents and must avoid disposing of anything such as sanitary towels down the toilet. General waste should be put in the green wheelie bin in the small barn, cardboard, paper and plastic have to be separated out and put in the wheelie bin with the yellow lid. Glass must also be seperated and put in the bottle bins such as the one on Bealcourt on Rue du Grand Marais. Recycled ubbish is collected at about 5.00am on Thursday morning but MUST be out by 6.00pm on Wednesday evening. The general rubbish must be out by 6.00pm Thursday for collection at 5.00am Friday. We think someone lists the bins to be collected in advance! There are sheep and cows in the fields and these sometimes get into our's so our neighbours appreciate our keeping the gates to the property closed.

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