4-Bed 1685 Stone House on 2.27 Hectares with Ponds – Rural Second Home in Mayenne, France



Livet, Pays-de-la-Loire, 53150, France, Livet (France)
4 Bedrooms · 2 Bathrooms · 240m² Floor area
€498,750
House
Parking
4 Bedrooms
2 Bathrooms
240m²
No garden
No pool
Not furnished
Description
Step off the gravel drive on a September morning and you can hear absolutely nothing except the wind moving through the oaks and the occasional plop of a frog jumping into one of the ponds. No traffic. No neighbors. Just 2.27 hectares of Mayenne countryside wrapping around a stone house that has been standing since 1685. That quiet — real, total quiet — is rarer than people admit, and here it comes standard.
This is a four-bedroom, 240 square metre residence in Livet, a rural commune in the Pays-de-la-Loire that most French people from Paris have never heard of, let alone British or Dutch buyers scrolling through listings on a Sunday afternoon. That obscurity is precisely the point. Prices in Mayenne remain well below what you'd pay for comparable stone properties in Brittany or Normandy, and the landscape — rolling farmland, dense forest corridors, hidden valleys — is every bit as compelling.
The house itself was built during the reign of Louis XIV, and while the walls are three centuries old and counting, the property is in good condition and ready to move into or rent out immediately. Wood-burning stoves, stone floors, exposed beams overhead: the bones of this place are the kind architects try to recreate and rarely quite manage. The ground floor kitchen runs to nearly 27 square metres and is anchored by a wood-burning stove that connects directly to the heating system — so on a cold February evening, one fire heats the whole downstairs, the smell of woodsmoke threading through the dining room and into the two reception rooms beyond. The dining room itself is almost 20 square metres, big enough for the kind of extended family dinners that French country houses seem to demand. Two separate living rooms give you options: one for the children, one for the adults, or one as a reading room, or one as a home office. The laundry room and back scullery keep the utility functions out of sight.
Upstairs, the mezzanine level opens onto a terrace with countryside views in every direction and not a single roofline to interrupt them. Four bedrooms, including one en-suite at 21.60 square metres, offer genuinely comfortable accommodation for families or groups. Two shower rooms serve the floor without anyone queuing. The landing area is a generous 11.60 square metres — in a French country house that kind of circulation space is a luxury in itself.
Outside is where this property really separates itself from the competition. The stone barn stretches to 75.60 square metres and is waiting for whatever vision you bring to it — a gîte conversion, a games room, a studio, a workshop. There's a smaller stone outbuilding at 9 square metres, a former stone stable, a garage, and a covered pergola with a summer kitchen that becomes the social hub of the property from May through October. The two ponds on the land give the whole setting a painterly quality on still mornings when the mist sits just above the water.
Mayenne as a department rewards slow exploration. The town of Laval, about 30 kilometres away, has a medieval castle rising directly over the Mayenne river, a Saturday market on the Place de la Trinité where local producers bring cheeses, rillettes, and fouées (small flatbreads split and filled with cream and rillons), and an old town quarter that took centuries to layer itself into something genuinely worth an afternoon. The town of Mayenne itself sits further north along the river of the same name and is excellent for kayaking from spring through autumn. The Forêt de Multonne and the natural reserves around the Coëvrons range offer marked hiking trails, mountain bike routes, and a landscape that shifts dramatically between seasons — copper and gold in October, green so saturated in May it almost looks fake.
For families, the Château de la Roche Pichemer near Loiron and the medieval village of Saint-Suzanne — listed as one of France's Plus Beaux Villages — are within easy reach. Saint-Suzanne sits on a promontory above the valley, its 11th-century keep visible from kilometres around. Kids who are bored of beaches tend to find it irresistible.
Practically, the location works. Laval's TGV station puts Paris Montparnasse at 75–90 minutes on the high-speed line, which means this property functions as a genuine weekend retreat from the capital as well as a summer base for international buyers. Rennes airport is around an hour away, with connections to the UK, Ireland, and beyond. Nantes Atlantique, one of western France's busiest airports, is roughly 90 minutes by car and serves a wide range of European destinations.
The climate here is oceanic, milder than it looks on a map. Summers are warm without the punishing heat of the south — July and August typically settle around 24–26°C — and winters are cool and damp but rarely harsh. The kind of weather that makes the countryside green and the stone walls of a 17th-century farmhouse feel like the most sensible place in the world to be.
For international buyers, Mayenne offers a relatively uncomplicated entry point into the French property market. Prices have remained stable and the region has seen steady interest from British, Irish, Dutch, and Belgian buyers over the past decade. The presence of multiple stone outbuildings including the large barn creates real potential for a gîte business or rental income to offset costs, subject to the usual planning considerations. Notaire fees run at approximately 7% on top of the purchase price, as is standard across France, and should be factored into your acquisition budget. The price here includes agency fees.
Key features at a glance:
- 4 bedrooms including one en-suite, sleeping 8 guests comfortably
- 2 shower rooms plus ground-floor WC
- 240 m² of living space across a well-preserved 1685 stone residence
- Wood-burning stove connected to the central heating system
- Two reception rooms plus formal dining room
- 2.27 hectares of private land with two ponds and open countryside views
- Stone barn of 75.60 m² with strong conversion potential
- Covered pergola with summer kitchen for outdoor entertaining
- Additional stone outbuildings including former stable and small outbuilding
- Single garage plus off-road parking
- No immediate neighbours
- Terrace with uninterrupted rural views off the first-floor mezzanine
- TGV connection from Laval to Paris in under 90 minutes
- 30 minutes from Laval's shops, restaurants, and Saturday market
- Rennes airport approximately 60 minutes by car
This is the kind of property that buyers describe, months after the purchase, as the decision that changed everything — the one that traded a crowded coastal resort for something with real permanence. A vacation home in Mayenne, France, at this price point and with this much land, history, and outbuilding potential, is an increasingly rare find. The Pays-de-la-Loire remains one of the most undervalued regions for holiday property in western Europe, and listings like this one don't sit on the market long once serious buyers find them.
Get in touch through Homestra today to arrange a viewing or request additional details. The ponds are particularly worth seeing in the early morning — bring coffee.
Details
- Amount of bedrooms
- 4
- Size
- 240m²
- Price per m²
- €2,078
- Garden size
- 8430m²
- Has Garden
- No
- Has Parking
- Yes
- Has Basement
- No
- Condition
- good
- Amount of Bathrooms
- 2
- Has swimming pool
- No
- Property type
- House
- Energy label
Unknown
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