Sunday morning in the Loire Valley sounds like this: a wood-burning stove crackling under cathedral ceilings, the faint ring of church bells drifting across the fields from Amboise, and the smell of butter and stone that only old French farmhouses seem to hold. This is the kind of place you stop looking once you've found it.
Built in the 19th century and sitting on an enclosed 398 square metre plot near the village of La Croix en Touraine, this authentic Touraine farmhouse carries the bones of its era without the headaches. The stone walls are still there. The exposed beams are still there. But so is a heat pump, a fitted kitchen, a 2022-built workshop, and south-facing terrace access from virtually every ground-floor room. It's been lived in properly, looked after, and it shows.
Step inside and the ground floor sets the tone immediately. The kitchen opens directly onto the sunny terrace — the kind of layout that turns a Tuesday lunch into something you actually look forward to. The living and dining room runs to roughly 40 square metres under a genuine cathedral ceiling, with parquet underfoot and that wood-burning stove as the clear centerpiece. On cold January evenings when frost sits on the vines outside, this room earns its keep. A bedroom with French doors, a home office, a full bathroom with both bathtub and walk-in shower, and a utility room round out the ground floor — more practical square footage than you'd expect at this price point.
Upstairs, two more bedrooms and a second WC occupy the attic floor. Above the living room, a mezzanine adds around 20 square metres of bonus space — a reading loft, a kids' sleeping area, a home studio. The property's 149 square metres in total include that vaulted cellar tucked beneath the house: proper stone, proper cool, exactly right for a collection of Vouvray or Chinon bottles you'll start accumulating the moment you move in.
Outside, a carport shelters two cars, a garden shed handles the tools, and that recently built 20-square-metre workshop gives hobbyists, artists, or remote workers a dedicated space that the main house doesn't need to absorb.
Now, the location. Amboise sits on the Loire itself, roughly 25 kilometres east of Tours along the D751, and it punches well above its size. The Château Royal d'Amboise dominates the skyline above the river — this is where Leonardo da Vinci spent his final years, and his former home, the Clos Lucé, is a ten-minute walk from the château gates. On market days (Friday mornings, mostly), the quayside fills with producers selling rillons, goat's cheese rolled in ash, and tarts made with Reinette apples grown in orchards you can see from the ridge roads. This isn't a manufactured food scene. It's just what people here have always eaten.
The Loire Valley's designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site isn't abstract — it means the landscapes around this farmhouse are actively protected, and the cycling infrastructure reflects that priority. The Loire à Vélo route runs right through the valley, and you can pedal east toward Chenonceau (its château is genuinely worth the 12-kilometre ride), west toward Vouvray's cave cellars, or south into the Amboise forest without sharing the road with anything louder than a tractor. The Forêt d'Amboise itself covers over 5,000 hectares — mushroom foraging in autumn, wild boar trails in winter, bluebell paths in April.
Spring and summer here are everything the tourism brochures imply, but what surprises most buyers is how the valley holds up in autumn. October light on the Loire is extraordinary — long, low, amber — and the vendanges (grape harvests) at nearby estates like Château de la Bonnelière or Domaine Huet turn the weekends into something close to a recurring festival. The region's winters are mild compared to much of France; frost is possible but snow is rare, and the off-season quietness makes it a surprisingly workable base for anyone who splits time between here and a northern city.
Tours-Saint-Pierre-des-Corps station, about 24 kilometres away, puts Paris Montparnasse within 55 minutes on the TGV. Tours Airport handles connections to the UK and several European hubs. For buyers arriving by car from the Channel ports, Amboise is roughly four hours from Calais on the A10/A85.
For international buyers, the Loire Valley represents one of France's more stable second-home markets. Indre-et-Loire consistently draws buyers from the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, and increasingly Scandinavia — partly for the accessibility, partly for the property values, which remain more rational than Provence or the Côte d'Azur. At 302,000 euros for a fully equipped, move-in ready farmhouse with outbuildings and a workshop, this property sits at a price point that's hard to replicate in the region. Rental demand in and around Amboise is genuine and year-round, driven by cultural tourism, cycling tourism, and the château circuit — should you wish to generate income during periods of non-use, the short-term rental market here is active and well-managed by several local agencies familiar with international owner arrangements.
French property purchase for non-residents is straightforward relative to much of Europe, though buyers should engage a notaire early and take independent tax advice on the implications of SCI ownership structures if purchasing jointly or through a company. The agency fees here are included in the listed price.
Key features at a glance:
- Authentic 19th-century Touraine stone farmhouse near La Croix en Touraine, Amboise
- 149 sq m total living space on a fully enclosed 398 sq m plot
- Cathedral-ceilinged living and dining room, approx. 40 sq m, with wood-burning stove and parquet floors
- 3 bedrooms (one on the ground floor with French doors, two on the attic floor)
- 1 full bathroom with bathtub and walk-in shower, plus 2 separate WCs
- South-facing terrace directly accessible from the ground-floor living areas
- Heat pump system providing heating and air conditioning on the upper floor
- Vaulted stone cellar beneath the house — ideal for wine storage
- Mezzanine above the living room, approx. 20 sq m of additional usable space
- Carport for two vehicles, garden shed, and 20 sq m workshop built in 2022
- Original stone walls and exposed beams preserved throughout
- 25 km from Tours, 24 km from TGV station (Paris in under 1 hour)
- Walking distance to Amboise town centre, the Château Royal, and the Clos Lucé
- Loire à Vélo cycling route and Forêt d'Amboise accessible directly from the area
- Move-in ready condition — ideal as a vacation home, second home, or rental investment
Properties like this — genuinely old, genuinely cared for, with space to breathe and a workshop for good measure — don't reappear quickly on the Amboise market. If the Loire Valley has been on your list, this is the kind of house that makes the decision easy. Get in touch with the team at Homestra today to arrange a viewing or request the full property dossier. We're here to make your second home in France a real thing, not just a plan.
