Strike 3... but still batting

After seeing two houses for sale in Montrichard and not being attracted by either of them, realtor Bourdais told us he could meet with us the next day at 2:30 p.m. He wanted to show us houses in the Saint-Aignan area, which is 10 miles upriver from Montrichard. We didn't think we had ever heard of Saint-Aignan before, so with our free morning it seemed to be a good idea to drive over there and check it out. We did that, and it was beautiful. It seemed a little sleepier than Montrichard, and it was farther from Amboise, but still... The town had all the standard shops and businesses, a big church and an impressive château, plus a couple of supermarkets nearby. I was convinced it would be a good place to live. We saw the town and had lunch in a little restaurant (ten euros each for a three-course meal including a glass of wine). Then we drove back to Montrichard.

One of the places Bourdais showed us that Tuesday afternoon was the house in the photo above. It's in Seigy (pop. 1,000 or so), which is the village that borders on Saint-Aignan to the east. We knew immediately that we weren't interested, because the house was on a very steep hillside. The the back yard was nearly vertical. It had been nicely landscaped at some point, with little paths and box wood hedges and birdbaths. It had probably been very beautiful, but it was completely overgrown when we saw it. Living on the side of a hill like that is a problem for two reasons. Water runoff is a danger. The other problem is that the yard is basically useless for gardening. We're talking about a very steep hill. Below is a view of the house from the back yard.

Our house in San Francisco was on a hill like this one. Once, when we had very heavy rain for a couple of days, we had water flowing from the back yard, up above the house on the hillside, down under the house and pouring like a fast-flowing stream into our garage and under our electric washer and dryer. We wondered whether the foundations were going to be undermined. We had to scramble to move a lot of stuff we had stored in the garage to prevent things from being ruined by the water. Luckily there were drains in the garage floor to take the water out of the building. Our next-door neighbor told us she had water flowing under her house and into her garage every time it rained. At least ours was just a one-time occurrence in the eight years we lived there. We didn't want to repeat that experience.

Speaking of streams, this house had one nearby. It was just on the other side of the narrow lane out front. It's called the Ruisseau de Seigy. I don't know if it ever floods, but it might. The house wouldn't get flooded because it's on that steep hillside, but the road might flood and make it hard to get to or away from the house by car. And, Bourdais told us, the ruisseau crossed our property so we would be responsible for keeping the stream bed clear and the stream flowing. Merci, mais non...

Above is a Google Maps street view showing the Seigy house as it looks now. when we saw it, there were five small bedrooms inside, plus a small living room, a small dining room, and a kitchen that was just an empty room — no sink or cabinets of any time. It was carpeted throughout with gold-colored shag carpet, very 1970s, and the wallpaper all needed to be redone. There were neighboring houses close by. There was a big garage underneath. The attic was semi-converted and was used as a game room by the owners' grandchildren when they visited. The owners' were an elderly couple and the man had heart problems. He could no longer deal with the two steep staircases in the house so he and his wife were selling and moving on. We also moved on...

By the way, the Seigy house is now operated as a chambres d'hôtes establishment — a B & B. Here's a link.