Charming Historic Estate with Vast Potential in Brassac

On a still Sunday morning in southwest France, you wake to the sound of water. Not traffic, not neighbors — water. The mill race running alongside this extraordinary converted stone mill creates a constant, unhurried rhythm that sets the tone for every single day here. Open the shutters and there it is: a river view framed by ancient stone walls, koi drifting in a clear pond below, and the kind of light that photographers chase across continents. This is what 645,000 euros buys you in Lot-et-Garonne, and it would be cheap at twice the price. This is not a farmhouse with a stream running past it. This is a working water mill — original sluice gates, fully functional, still controlling the river level within the grounds — that has been meticulously converted into a 320-square-metre family home without stripping away a single thing that makes it remarkable. The exposed stone walls are original. The heavy oak beams have been there for centuries. The sweeping stone staircase that anchors the interior feels more like architecture than furniture. The kitchen is fitted in proper French oak, with a colombage wall — that distinctive timber-frame plasterwork you see throughout old Gascon farmhouses — and an insert log-burning stove that earns its keep from October through March. In the living room, a working chimney means winter evenings here are genuinely cosy rather than the aspirational marketing version of cosy. Gas central heating handles the rest, and underfloor heating runs beneath the marble floors in the dining and living room as well as the entrance hall — a thoughtful combination that means the house is as comfortable in January as it is in July. Five bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an L-shaped heated swimming pool with ... click here to read more

Sunday morning in the Quercy Blanc. You push open the French doors off the kitchen and the smell of woodsmoke and wild thyme drifts in from the garden. Somewhere down the lane, a rooster is doing his best. Your coffee is hot, the terrace is still cool in the shade of those old stone pillars, and the only thing on your schedule is deciding whether to walk the ridge path before lunch or after. This is the specific quality of life this 1849 stone farmhouse delivers — and it does it with a quiet confidence that most properties can only gesture at. Originally a working barn, this single-storey house in a tucked-away hamlet near Montcuq was converted with the kind of care that you rarely see. The bones of the building — thick limestone walls, hand-hewn oak beams, original stone surfaces — were kept intact and then paired with a modern interior that doesn't compete with them. Travertine floors run throughout the main house, cool underfoot in summer, warm-looking in winter firelight. The kitchen is the real heart of it: granite countertops, bespoke oak cabinetry, integrated appliances, and those French doors that frame a covered terrace as if the whole room were designed around the view outside. It was. The covered terrace, held up by stone pillars that have been standing since before the Third Republic, is where summer lunches stretch into afternoon conversations and where dinner happens most nights from May through October. The living room earns its keep year-round. A wood-burning stove sits in the fireplace, gas central heating backs it up when the Lot winters bite, and exposed beams overhead give the space an unhurried, grounded feel. Another set of French doors opens onto a second terrace — this one faces west, which mean ... click here to read more

On a clear morning in Boussan, the Pyrenees appear close enough to touch. You open the tall French doors off the living room, coffee in hand, and the only sounds are a wood pigeon somewhere in the oak forest and the faint clang of a cowbell drifting up from the pasture below. Two other houses exist in this hamlet. That's it. The quiet here isn't the absence of something — it's the thing itself, full and rare. This 1850 manor house sits on 17 hectares of mixed woodland and open pasture in the rolling Haute-Garonne countryside, about five kilometres from the medieval hilltop village of Aurignac. The property includes a separate one-bedroom gîte, two stone barns, and a 10x5m swimming pool. At 271 square metres of living space across the main house alone, this is the kind of place that stops feeling like a property and starts feeling like a small world of its own. The manor was built with the proportions that 19th-century landowners understood intuitively — high ceilings, thick stone walls, rooms that breathe. Inside, marble fireplaces anchor the principal reception rooms, ornate plasterwork frames the ceilings, and exposed timber beams run the length of the upper floors. These aren't cosmetic details slapped on for effect; they're structural to the character of the house. The restoration has been handled with genuine care — a new roof, a fully renovated kitchen, a fresh pool lining — significant investment that means the next owner walks into something that works, not something that needs saving. The kitchen is the gravitational centre of the house. Fully equipped, country in scale, and open in spirit, it connects naturally to the main living and dining room. That room has French doors on the garden side and a wood-burni ... click here to read more

On a still summer evening in Lot-et-Garonne, the swallows dip low over a glassy 10x5m swimming pool, the scent of warm stone rises from the courtyard, and somewhere beyond the vine-draped pergola, the rolling hills of Aquitaine dissolve into a haze of gold. This is what you came to France for. Not a postcard version of it — the real thing. This 4-bedroom, 196 sqm stone barn conversion sits about three kilometers outside Tournon-d'Agenais, one of the most characterful bastide towns in the Lot-et-Garonne. The original structure dates to the 18th century, but it was reimagined two decades ago by its architect-owner with the kind of precision that most renovation projects only dream of achieving. The result is a home that honors its agricultural past while functioning brilliantly as a modern residence — and it shows in every detail. You arrive through a gated entrance that opens onto an ornamental pond and a courtyard that already tells you something about how this place was put together. It's composed. Considered. The gardens are established and deeply planted, not the kind of thing you throw together in a season, and the views across the surrounding countryside are the sort that make you stop mid-sentence. Step inside and the scale of the main living space takes a moment to absorb. Full-height beamed ceilings — properly high, the way only old barns can deliver — span the open-plan ground floor where the fitted kitchen, living, and dining areas flow together. The kitchen itself uses the original animal feeders as a clever spatial divider, a small architectural flourish that's both functional and quietly witty. Tiled floors underfoot, underfloor heating for the cooler months, a stone fireplace for the evenings when the te ... click here to read more

On a still Tuesday morning in July, you open the ancient shutters of your top-floor bedroom and the Tarn-et-Garonne countryside rolls out in every direction — sunflower fields, oak-lined lanes, and a sky so wide and blue it takes a moment to convince yourself it's real. The church bells from the village drift up the hill. You don't need to be anywhere until lunch. That's the whole point. This 17th-century stone presbytery in the quiet hamlet of Roquecor is one of those properties that stops you mid-scroll. And rightly so. Built with the authority and permanence that the Catholic Church demanded of its residences in this part of France, it has aged into something extraordinary — all vaulted ceilings, original stone sinks, wide-plank floorboards, and a fireplace so substantial it practically has its own postcode. The priests who once lived here would barely recognise the interiors now: the present owners have brought the kind of quiet, confident taste that lets the architecture do the talking, with muted colours, carefully chosen furniture, and not a single unnecessary gesture. You enter up a grand exterior stone staircase — the kind of entrance that makes guests stop and reach for their phones before they've even crossed the threshold. Inside, the layout unfolds across three floors. The ground level delivers a sitting room anchored by a monumental stone fireplace fitted with a wood-burning stove (the winters here are mild, but November evenings around that fire are something else), a snug that earns its name, and a country kitchen with original tiled floors, a fitted range, and a stone sink so characterful it would be the centrepiece of a lesser house. Below the kitchen, a vaulted stone cellar doubles as a wine store an ... click here to read more

Step onto the terrace on a July morning and the view stops you cold. Rolling hills in every direction, sunflower fields catching the early light, the occasional church spire poking through the haze — and absolute silence, save for the swifts cutting arcs above the rooftops. This is Lauzerte at its most honest, and from this stone tower house on the village's most prized street, you get front-row seats every single day. Lauzerte isn't a discovery anymore — it earned a place on the "Most Beautiful Villages of France" list years ago — but it hasn't turned into a tourist circus either. The Saturday market still draws locals as much as visitors. The boulangerie on the main square still sells out of pain au levain by nine. There's a real community here: French retirees, a handful of Dutch and British families who came for a holiday a decade ago and never quite left, artists who set up studios in the old stone buildings and sell work out of their front windows. The Camino de Santiago passes right through the village, so from spring through autumn there's a gentle current of walkers moving through, giving the cafés on the terrace a particular energy that's hard to find elsewhere in Tarn-et-Garonne. The house itself sits on the Rue de la Garrigue, the kind of address that locals mention with a slight nod of respect. From the street it reads as a proper medieval tower — thick stone walls, a certain gravity to it — but push open the front door and the interior has been completely rethought. The current owners spent years on a renovation that prioritised quality over speed, and it shows in every detail. Travertine floors run throughout the ground level, cool underfoot even in August. The staircase is original stone, the kind that ... click here to read more

On a clear October morning, you step out through one of four sets of glass doors onto the stone terrace, coffee in hand, and the whole of Moissac spreads out below you — the Romanesque abbey tower catching the early light, the Tarn glinting silver beyond the rooftops, and on days when the air is sharp and clean, the white line of the Pyrenees etched along the southern horizon. This is the view that the current owners fell for. It's the kind of view that makes you stop mid-sentence every single time. Built in 1975 by an architect who clearly had opinions, this 278-square-metre Tower House sits at the top of the Bel Air quarter, behind electric gates, at the end of a long private driveway lined with mature trees that form a canopy in summer. The grounds feel more like a private park than a garden — established oaks, flowering shrubs, wide lawns, all of it enclosed and genuinely quiet. You'd never guess you're a ten-minute walk from a town centre that comes seriously alive on market days. The house itself has been modernised and upgraded by its current owners at considerable cost, and the quality of the work shows. Step inside and the first thing you notice is scale. Cathedral ceilings with exposed timber beams give the main living space a sense of real drama. The oak herringbone floor in the sitting room is the kind of detail you'd find in a Parisian apartment — warm underfoot, with a log-burning stove anchoring one end of the room. Four pairs of doors open directly onto the terrace, so in warmer months the line between inside and outside practically disappears. The kitchen is modern and properly fitted — integral appliances, clean lines, no compromise. Six bedrooms and three bathrooms across the property means this wor ... click here to read more

Pull up the gravel drive on a July evening and the first thing you notice isn't the swimming pool or the outbuildings or the countryside rolling out in every direction — it's the towers. Two of them, flanking the entrance like something lifted from a minor aristocrat's estate, framing a period stone facade so symmetrically confident that you half-expect a butler to appear at the top of the stone steps. This is a house with a clear sense of itself, and it has been waiting patiently for an owner who matches that energy. Tournon-d'Agenais sits in the Lot-et-Garonne, one of France's quietest and most underrated departments — a stretch of the southwest that most people drive through on the way to the Dordogne without ever stopping. Their loss. The market town itself is a classic bastide, perched on a ridge with views that drop away in three directions, and on Thursday mornings the square fills with vendors selling Agen prunes (the real ones, sun-dried and full of flavor), foie gras from farms you could walk to, and vegetables that were in the ground forty-eight hours ago. The café on the corner opens at seven and the owner knows how to make a proper café crème. Life here moves at a pace that used to exist everywhere and now doesn't. The farmhouse occupies a setting that earns the word "exceptional" without having to try. The surrounding countryside — low hills, rows of sunflowers in summer, the amber and ochre of vineyards in October — unfolds from every window with the unhurried quality of a landscape painting. On clear mornings, when the mist sits low in the valley and the stone walls catch the early light, the whole property feels like it belongs to a different century. The silence is the kind you can actually hear. Ins ... click here to read more

Sunday morning in southwest France sounds like this: a wood pigeon calling from the walnut tree outside, coffee brewing in a kitchen built from bleached oak and old stone, and absolutely nothing else demanding your attention. That's the daily reality of owning this 208 sq m restored stone farmhouse in a quiet hamlet just outside Beauville — a property that took its time becoming what it is, and shows every bit of it. The house sits among the rolling valleys of Lot-et-Garonne, a département that most international buyers fly over on the way to Dordogne without realizing they're passing one of the most quietly rewarding pockets of rural France. Prune orchards, sunflower fields, truffle-rich oak woods — the landscape shifts with every season, and you'll find yourself noticing all of it from the covered stone terrace where lunch tends to run well past three o'clock in July. The farmhouse itself is genuinely old, and the restoration didn't try to disguise that fact. Exposed limestone walls, hand-hewn oak beams, flagstone floors worn smooth over generations — these aren't decorative choices, they're what was already there. The work involved knowing what to keep and what to quietly modernize: double glazing sits behind deep stone reveals, a heat pump system hums efficiently behind a centuries-old façade, and a bespoke kitchen in bleached oak with stone countertops and integrated appliances would look entirely at home in the pages of a serious interiors magazine. The pantry off the kitchen is the kind of detail that only makes sense once you're shopping at the Friday market in Puymirol and coming home with more than you planned. There are four bedrooms across the main house, each with air conditioning and heating through the ... click here to read more

Stand at the kitchen window on a Tuesday morning in October and watch mist lift slowly off your own private lake. The woodlands beyond it are turning amber. A heron stands perfectly still at the water's edge. There's no traffic, no neighbor noise — just the kind of quiet that city people pay a fortune trying to find for a week. Here, it's yours every day. This nine-bedroom estate in Genouillé, a small commune in the Vienne department of Poitou-Charentes, sits on roughly 14 hectares of meadow, woodland, and water. It's not a property you stumble across. It's the kind of place that takes decades to assemble — the right land, the right buildings, the right bones — and rarely comes to market at anything close to this price point. The main house anchors the estate with the kind of architectural weight that only comes with age. Stone walls that have stood for centuries, exposed timber beams overhead in the reception rooms, and four generous bedrooms, each with its own private shower room. That last detail matters more than it sounds: when you're hosting a family gathering or a group of friends from abroad, nobody's negotiating bathroom schedules. The layout is genuinely sociable. Wide reception areas open naturally for long lunches that drift into evenings, and the in-ground swimming pool just outside keeps things moving between meals and conversation. Separate from the main house — properly separate, with its own front door and its own world — sits a fully independent gîte. Four to five bedrooms, a second swimming pool, and complete privacy from the main residence. This is where the property's income potential becomes very real, very quickly. The Poitou-Charentes region draws steady summer tourism, and well-presented rural ... click here to read more

Saturday morning in Néré. The sun hits the stone façade at an angle that makes it look almost golden, and somewhere across the garden, the pool filter hums quietly while dew still sits on the lavender. This is what 511 square metres of southwest French countryside feels like before anyone else is awake — and with 14 bedrooms spread across a main house and five independent gîtes, there's a lot of space for quiet mornings before the families roll out of bed. This is a serious property. Not just in size, though the scale is genuinely impressive — it's the kind of estate that only comes along once in a generation in a market like Charente-Maritime. The combination of a fully functioning gîte complex with a private residence, a heated swimming pool, outbuildings, a landscaped garden, and two on-site wells is rare at any price point. At €525,000, it's the sort of opportunity that draws in buyers from Paris, London, Amsterdam, and beyond, usually too late. The main house anchors the whole property. Its entrance hall leads into a living room that's genuinely liveable — not a showroom — followed by a dining area that gets good light through the day, and a fully fitted kitchen ready to handle a Sunday lunch for twenty without complaint. Three bedrooms complete the main residence, one of which has its own shower room, so guests or extended family can come and go with real independence. It's laid out with logic, the kind of floor plan that grows on you the longer you spend time in it. Then there are the gîtes. Five of them, each self-contained, each with its own lounge and dining area, fitted kitchen, shower room or bathroom, and WC. Between them they deliver 11 additional bedrooms — which means the estate can sleep multiple fami ... click here to read more

Pour the wine first. That's the thing about this particular house — the moment you pull off the country lane and the façade comes into view, all 19th-century honey-stone and crowned by its original dovecote, the decision has already made itself. You haven't opened a door yet, haven't walked the garden or dipped a toe in the pool, and yet you know. Some properties earn their keep slowly. This one doesn't have to. Lauzerte sits in the Tarn-et-Garonne department of southwest France, high on a hilltop above a patchwork of sunflower fields and vine-striped valleys. It's officially listed among Les Plus Beaux Villages de France — one of only a handful in the region to earn that designation — and it wears the title without fuss. The medieval lanes wind up to a church square where locals play pétanque in the shade and the Wednesday market brings out the cheesemakers, the honey sellers, and the couple from the next village who make a duck confit that borders on illegal. This is not a sanitised tourist village. People actually live here, grow things here, eat extremely well here. The house itself is five minutes from that square by car, set back from the road on its own grounds with open countryside rolling away in every direction and not a neighbor in sight. Built from the dense local limestone that absorbs the afternoon heat and glows amber by evening, it was restored with the kind of restraint that takes real confidence — nothing fussy, nothing false. The original terracotta floor tiles run throughout the ground floor, worn to a satiny finish by a century and a half of footfall. Overhead, the oak beams are left exactly as they should be. Exposed stone walls anchor every room. Old stone steps connect the levels with the kind o ... click here to read more

Stand on the terrace on a clear July morning and you can see the entire silhouette of Tournon-d'Agenais sitting up on its ridge—the church tower, the medieval ramparts, the rooftops catching the early light—while down below you, the saltwater pool glints and the Lot-et-Garonne countryside rolls away in every direction without a neighbor in sight. That view is the first thing you notice. It won't be the last thing you remember. This is a serious property. A 19th-century stone farmhouse of 297 square meters, a fully renovated guest cottage, a massive old tobacco barn, multiple outbuildings and workshops, a ten-car garage, and nearly two hectares of established gardens—all sitting behind a gated entrance on a quiet rural lane just minutes from one of the most photographed bastide towns in Aquitaine. Properties that combine this scale, this condition, and this setting in Lot-et-Garonne come along rarely. This one is move-in ready. The renovation has been thorough and thoughtful rather than cosmetic. Travertine floors run throughout the main house, cool underfoot in summer and warmed from below by an efficient heat pump system in the cooler months. Exposed stone walls and original oak beams have been kept exactly where they should be—everywhere—while the infrastructure underneath has been quietly modernized: double glazing throughout, an air circulation system, underfloor heating, radiators as backup. The bones of the 1800s, the comfort of the present. The main living space opens into a generous open-plan room with a soaring mezzanine above and wide glass doors that fold back onto the terrace. On a warm evening this isn't a room that ends at a wall—it spills outside. The covered dining room with its summer kitchen is where ... click here to read more

On a still July morning in Beauville, the kitchen window frames a view that looks like it was painted rather than photographed — rolling hills striped with sunflower fields, a pocket of woodland, a sky so blue it almost seems theatrical. You make coffee on the balcony off the main kitchen and hear nothing except wind moving through the linden trees below. No traffic. No sirens. Just that particular French country quiet that city people pay a lot of money to find, and usually don't. This is a rare one. A 19th-century stone house built for a local merchant who clearly had opinions — Bordeaux-faced stone door surrounds, hand-cut corner stones, proportions that tell you the builder wasn't cutting corners in any direction. The property has been in the hands of owners who understood what they had, and the restoration they've carried out is the kind that respects original character rather than erasing it. Exposed limestone walls, heavy timber beams, terracotta-tiled floors worn smooth by a couple of centuries of footsteps. It feels old in the right way — solid, warm, rooted. The main house runs across 251 square metres and lives well across its five bedrooms. The sitting room anchors the ground floor, large and unhurried, centred on a log-burning stove that earns its keep from October through to March when the Lot-et-Garonne mornings carry a real bite. The fitted kitchen is modern in the practical sense — properly equipped, well-designed — and opens onto a balcony where the habit of morning coffee will become a daily ritual you'll plan your whole schedule around. Double glazing throughout, solar panels, a heat pump, and oil heating mean running costs are sensible and the property is comfortable in every season, not just the p ... click here to read more

Sunday morning in the Quercy Blanc and the kitchen smells of coffee. The French doors are already open—you pushed them wide at seven, when the air was still cool and the light was doing something extraordinary across the stone terrace. Somewhere beyond the garden wall, a tractor moves along the lane. That's it. That's the whole soundtrack. This 1849 stone farmhouse, converted from a traditional barn into a single-storey country home of real distinction, sits in a quiet hamlet just outside Montcuq-en-Quercy-Blanc, and life here moves exactly the way you always hoped it might. The house itself is 158 square metres of considered, unhurried living. It was clearly converted by people who understood what to keep and what to update. The original stone walls stayed. So did the heavy oak beams overhead in the living room, where a wood-burning stove sits inside a proper fireplace—the kind you actually want to light in November, not just look at. Travertine floors run throughout, cool underfoot in July, warmed by the gas central heating when the Lot valley turns grey in January. French doors open from the living room onto a covered stone terrace: evening drinks territory, with views across the gardens as the light fades behind the oak trees. The kitchen is the kind that makes you cook differently. Granite countertops, bespoke oak cabinetry, integrated appliances that stay out of sight, and another set of French doors—these ones facing a second covered terrace framed by original stone pillars. Lunch out there in late September, with figs from the garden and a bottle of Cahors Malbec, is not a hypothetical. It's just a Tuesday. Both bedrooms in the main house are genuinely well-proportioned and finished with the same restraint you ... click here to read more

On a still Tuesday morning in the Quercy Blanc, the kind where the mist sits low over the valleys and slowly burns off by nine, you can stand on the wisteria-draped terrace of this 1880s stone farmhouse and watch Lauzerte materialize above you on its hilltop like something from a medieval illustration. The bells from the village church drift down. A rooster somewhere across the lane. Then silence, proper silence, the kind cities charge a premium to simulate. This is what 515,000 euros buys you here: not just 230 square metres of meticulously renovated stone and timber, but a completely different pace of life, tucked into one of France's most quietly celebrated corners. The property started life as a duck farm—canard, naturally, this being Tarn-et-Garonne—and the bones of that agricultural past still give the place its character. Stone walls half a metre thick keep the interior cool through the height of a Quercy summer without any help from the air conditioning. Original ceiling beams, darkened by a century and a half of cooking fires, run the length of the main living room, where a substantial fireplace fitted with a wood-burning stove becomes the social centre of the house from October through March. The fitted kitchen is properly equipped with integrated appliances, but the tiled floors and exposed stone walls make sure it doesn't feel clinical. This is a house where you actually want to cook, and given that Lauzerte sits at the heart of foie gras, cassoulet, and Cahors black wine country, that instinct will be well rewarded. The layout across three bedrooms and three bathrooms gives visiting family or friends their own space and dignity. The master suite has an en-suite bathroom and a dressing room—not an aftertho ... click here to read more

Saturday morning in Lauzerte: the weekly market on the Place des Cornières is already buzzing by nine, the smell of warm chestnut bread drifting from the boulangerie on the corner. You walk down through the village — one of France's designated Plus Beaux Villages — pick up a wedge of Tomme de brebis from the sheep farmer who's been coming here every week for thirty years, and you're back at the house with coffee on the terrace before the church bell strikes ten. That's the kind of morning this property was built for. Set just outside the medieval hilltop village of Lauzerte in the rolling Tarn-et-Garonne department of the Midi-Pyrénées, this six-bedroom, two-house estate sits on around 1.2 hectares of mature gardens with views that remind you, daily, why people have been choosing this corner of southwestern France for centuries. The Quercy Blanc — named for its pale limestone plateaus and dry stone walls — is quieter than the Dordogne, less trafficked than Lot, and all the better for it. The property is actually two fully restored stone country houses side by side, and this distinction matters enormously. The main house is the heart of the estate: thick walls that keep it cool through July's 30-degree afternoons, original oak beams running the length of the ceilings, exposed stonework that took decades of weather to look this good, and original fireplaces that make January here feel like a privilege rather than a hardship. Travertine floors run through the ground floor — warm underfoot in summer, and the kind of surface that ages gracefully rather than showing every scuff. The kitchen deserves its own paragraph. It's centered around a Smeg gas range and built for real cooking — a generous worktop, ample cupboard space ... click here to read more

On a still Tuesday morning in late June, you open the kitchen's ancient wooden shutters and the first thing you hear is nothing. Not the compressed silence of earplugs—actual, honest quiet, broken only by a wood pigeon somewhere in the oak trees and the faint clank of a tractor working a field two valleys over. The smell drifting in is warm stone and cut grass. That's it. That's the whole morning's agenda if you want it to be. This four-bedroom, three-bathroom country house in the hamlet just outside Roquecor sits on the kind of land that reminds you why people first started building in southwest France. The Tarn-et-Garonne countryside rolls in every direction—soft green ridges, sunflower fields gone gold by July, the occasional red-roofed farmstead catching the afternoon light. From the sun terrace beside the saltwater pool, you can see for miles. No rooftops crowding the view. No road noise. Just the particular stillness that this corner of Midi-Pyrénées does better than almost anywhere in Europe. Roquecor itself is five minutes by car or a genuinely pleasant forty-minute walk through the fields—the kind of walk that makes you feel you've earned the pastis waiting at the café. The village has a proper restaurant that locals actually eat at (not the tourist-facing kind), a reliable café, and enough daily life happening around the square to feel connected without ever feeling crowded. The Wednesday morning market in Lauzerte, twelve kilometres northeast, is the one to pencil in first. Lauzerte is a bastide village on the Pilgrimage of Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle route, and the market spills down the medieval lanes with regional producers selling duck confit, aged Caussade walnuts, raw-milk Tomme, and the kind of straw ... click here to read more

Welcome to this enchanting chateau nestled in the picturesque Midi-Pyrénées region, specifically in Tarn-et-Garonne, Brassac, France. This captivating 5-bedroom estate, sprawling across 299 square meters, is an embodiment of charm and elegance, offering a serene living experience combined with ample potential for diverse possibilities. Let's dive into the heart of the property. As you step into the main house, which covers a generous 203 m², you'll immediately notice the majestic dovecote—a feature that truly sets this chateau apart. On the ground floor, the cozy kitchen provides direct access to the courtyard, making it perfect for those lazy summer breakfasts or al fresco dinners. A hallway leads you to a practical shower room and toilet, and beyond that, you're welcomed into a lovely lounge that's perfect for relaxation. You'll also find a useful cupboard and a library that could double as an additional bedroom. Ascending to the first floor, you'll be enchanted by a quaint porch that ushers you into an entrance hall. Here, the charm multiplies with a bathroom and toilet, a small lounge that could serve as an intimate sitting area, and two bedrooms that evoke the timeless style of chateau living. A utility room is conveniently located on this floor, rounding out your daily needs. But the real showstopper is the large lounge, an expansive space where gatherings with family or friends could become cherished memories. Head up to the second floor, and you'll discover a charming mezzanine equipped with a study area—ideal for those quiet moments of concentration or reflection. This level also offers a cozy bedroom area and access to the enchanting dovecote, a unique space that inspires imagination and serenity. The outbu ... click here to read more

Exceptional Chateau Property in Brassac, Midi-Pyrénées Nestled in the historic heart of Brassac within the stunning Tarn-et-Garonne region, this extraordinary chateau offers a unique blend of character and heritage, making it an ideal choice for those wishing to experience the quintessential French country lifestyle. This stately home is set within nearly 4 acres of lush, wooded grounds, promising a tranquil and picturesque setting. Property Features: - Five cozy and comfortably sized bedrooms. - Four well-appointed bathrooms. - Expansive living space spanning approximately 299 square meters across various living areas and outbuildings. - A traditional kitchen with courtyard access. - Additional living spaces including a library which can also serve as a bedroom, a spacious living room on the ground floor, and a charming small living room on the first floor. - A captivating mezzanine space on the second floor that includes a study and bedroom area with exclusive access to the historical dovecote. - Practical utility rooms which contribute to the efficiency of the household. - Delightful outbuildings including a large barn covering 157 square meters, a practical workshop, and inviting guest rooms complete with en-suite facilities. Outdoor Amenities: - Extensive terraced areas ideal for outdoor dining and entertainment. - Unique stone cellars and a cozy winter living room with a fireplace for the colder months. - A charming courtyard along with ample parking space. Despite its charm, it is important to note that parts of this property require some refreshing to bring them up to modern standards. This presents a fantastic opportunity for the new owners to infuse their personal style and upgrade the home to their taste, ... click here to read more

On a Sunday morning in Castelsagrat, you wake to the smell of bread from the boulangerie two doors down. Not the supermarket kind — the kind where the baker has been up since four, and the baguettes are still warm when you tuck them under your arm on the way back. That's not a lifestyle you manufacture. That's just Tuesday here. This 160-square-metre stone house, built around 1700 and sitting on a quiet alley in the heart of one of Tarn-et-Garonne's most genuinely loveable villages, has been renovated by its current owners with the kind of obsessive care that you either recognise immediately or hear about later when someone tells you what it cost. Everything works. Everything fits. And yet none of it feels like a renovation show — it still feels like a house that's been lived in for three centuries, because it has. Step through the oak front door and the exposed stone does the talking. Thick walls, cool in summer, slow to lose heat in autumn. The open-plan kitchen, dining and living space at the heart of the house is where the day happens — a well-equipped contemporary kitchen with integrated appliances opens directly through glazed doors onto a private courtyard. Out there: a covered terrace, a built-in barbecue, and the particular pleasure of eating outside in the Gascon sun from June through September without ever needing to explain yourself to anyone. The wood-burning stove in the main living area earns its keep from October onward. The separate lounge, with its traditional stone fireplace and original tiled floor, is for reading, for wine, for the kind of quiet that's harder to find than people think. A grand entrance hall with walnut stairs leads up to three bedrooms, each with built-in wardrobes, and the landin ... click here to read more

On a quiet summer evening in Bourg-de-Visa, you pull a chair into your stone courtyard, pour something cold, and listen. Swallows cutting low arcs over the square. A muffled football commentary drifting from Rémy's café across the way. The smell of bread from the village boulangerie still hanging faintly in the warm Quercy air. This is not a simulation of French village life — it's the actual thing, and this 19th-century stone house sits right at the center of it. The house occupies an almost theatrical position on a secondary square, its stone frontage running nearly the full length of one side. That matters more than you might think. In a village this size, your address is your identity, and this one announces itself with quiet confidence. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, three barns, a sheltered courtyard, off-street parking, and a small garden — all of it in genuinely good condition, all of it inside walking distance of everything Bourg-de-Visa has to offer. Step through the entrance and you're into a large open-plan living space that the current owners have transformed with real care. A log-burning stove anchors one end — a genuinely useful thing here from October through April, when Tarn-et-Garonne mornings carry a sharp chill. The kitchen is modern and properly fitted, which anyone who has renovated a French country property will tell you is a gift not to be taken lightly. It opens directly onto the courtyard, that private outdoor room that becomes the true heart of the house from May onwards. Aperitifs out there on a June evening, the old stone still warm from the afternoon sun, is the kind of simple pleasure this property was made for. Period features survive throughout — exposed stonework, original proportions, ... click here to read more

This three-bedroom house, located in the heart of Midi-Pyrénées, Tarn-et-Garonne, Castelsagrat, France, is a veritable slice of history nestled in the backdrop of a quaint 13th-century village. If you’re searching for a property that offers both charm and character, this is a perfect candidate. This house spans 173 square meters, making for spacious and comfortable living. On the ground floor, a substantial entrance hall welcomes you in warmly before leading you to the cosy lounge, complete with a fireplace. This is a room designed for relaxation, and gathering to share stories over a glass of local wine, with high ceilings and period parquet flooring complementing an imposing marble fireplace beautifully. The kitchen is spacious as well, featuring its own sitting area which brings a laid-back air to meal preparations and the enjoyment of dining. The kitchen leads to a private, landscaped courtyard which is your own slice of tranquility. Coupled with the storage space measuring 25 square meters, practicality is also an integral aspect of this unique property. Moving to the first floor, a landing provides the path to two bedrooms with built-in wardrobes, and a shower room furnished with a toilet. The comfortable master bedroom and the utility room are also located here, providing all the essentials for a cozy dwelling. The second floor further opens up the fixation with possibility; here is an attic ripe for the creative minds, subject to necessary permissions. This space can be remodeled into anything you might need, whether it be an extra bedroom, a home office or even a den. Characterized by high ceilings, original mouldings and a marble fireplace, the aesthetics of this house indeed invoke nostalgia but also i ... click here to read more

Step out of the front door on a Sunday morning and the smell of fresh bread from the boulangerie two streets over drifts past you before you've even decided where to walk. That's Castelsagrat. A proper bastide village perched above the rolling farmland of Tarn-et-Garonne, where the main square still functions exactly as it was intended — people gathering, locals arguing cheerfully over pétanque, market stalls spilling color onto the old stone paving. This three-bedroom house sits just off that square on a quiet side road, and the address alone tells you something: you're in the middle of the action, but shielded from it. The building has its own quiet history. Before it became the house it is today, it was a workshop where craftsmen built wooden horse-drawn carriages — you can still feel that purposeful, practical quality in the bones of the structure. Thick 19th-century stone walls that keep rooms cool through the heat of July. Ceiling beams worn smooth. Wide wooden floorboards that creak in exactly the right places. The previous owners had the good sense to leave all of that alone and simply update around it — the kitchen is fitted and contemporary, the bathrooms are clean and modern, and part double glazing means the winters are manageable without the kind of heating bills that haunt older stone properties. The layout makes everyday life easy. The sitting room is on the first floor, elevated above the lane below, so the log-burning stove does its work while you watch the light change across the valley through the windows. In autumn, when the plane trees along the road start dropping leaves and the air sharpens, this room becomes the reason you bought the house. The kitchen opens directly onto a balcony — not a symbo ... click here to read more

Saturday morning. The log burner is crackling in the sitting room, the smell of woodsmoke drifting toward the open window, and out past the terrace, the rolling valleys of the Tarn-et-Garonne stretch as far as you can see — all golden fields, dark tree lines, and absolutely nobody else. This is the kind of quiet that people spend years trying to find. This 19th-century stone house in the commune of Castelsagrat sits in one of the most underrated corners of southwest France. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, 110 square metres of honest, well-kept interior — and then the land, the views, the silence. At €229,000, it's the sort of property that makes you recalculate your priorities. The house itself has real bones. The rendered stone facade is classic Tarn-et-Garonne — solid, thick-walled construction that keeps rooms cool through the scorching July and August heat without you touching a dial. Inside, the sitting room centres on a log-burning stove that earns its keep from November through March. Terracotta-tiled floors run underfoot, exposed oak beams cross the ceilings above, and the country kitchen feels like the kind of room where Sunday lunches start at noon and end somewhere around four. Electric heating supplements the wood-burner during shoulder seasons when it's more chilly than cold. The whole ground floor has a relaxed, unhurried feel — this isn't a house that's trying to impress you. It just works. The storage rooms are worth special mention. Large, with genuine potential — convert them into a gite, a guest annex, a studio, or leave them as generous working storage for a household that actually uses its land. The groundwork is there for anyone who wants to expand the footprint without touching the main character ... click here to read more

Welcome to the beautiful and stunning location of Midi-Pyrénées, Tarn-et-Garonne, Bourg-de-Visa, France. Here, nestled amidst the lush green beauty of the countryside, lays a unique and special residence, ripe with potential and charm. This property is not just a house but a piece of local history dating back to the 1900s. Its roots are deep in tradition, having initially served as the former railway station of Bourg de Visa. The stone and brick structure still retains the nostalgic charm of its original platform and water tower, along with some tantalizing scope to add a few finishing touches to make it your own wonderland. This handsome residence comprises three well-proportioned bedrooms that offer comfort and tranquility after a hard day's exploration in the French countryside. These blend seamlessly with the open-plan layout of the living space, an area designed for both relaxation and entertainment. The modern fitted kitchen is nestled in the heart of the house, a space designed for heady gastronomic adventures and lingering family meals. Adjoining this kitchen is a conservatory, a serene nook where you can enjoy the picturesque views of the surrounding flora and fauna throughout the changing seasons. The property also benefits from a generous workshop and wine cave. For enthusiasts of craftsmanship and viticulture, these additions provide endless opportunities for exploration and creation. In terms of comfort, this home is thoughtfully equipped with high-quality aluminium windows that are double glazed, ensuring both great insulation and uninterrupted views of your picturesque surroundings. Additionally, an oil central heating system ensures that those chilly French winters remain only a charming view from y ... click here to read more

Step off a private lane — maintained by the town hall, used by absolutely no one but you — and suddenly the noise of the world just stops. That's not a figure of speech. Standing on the covered terrace of this early 19th-century stone farmhouse in the Tarn-et-Garonne, the only sounds you'll reliably hear are the wind moving through the established gardens and, on summer evenings, the faint hum of cicadas. Three hectares of countryside roll away in every direction, and there isn't a neighbor in sight. This is the kind of property that people describe to friends at dinner parties and watch their eyes go wide. A real farmhouse, built from local stone sometime in the early 1800s, with the bones to prove it — thick walls that hold the cool in August, a sitting room dominated by a stone fireplace with a log-burning stove, beamed ceilings that have watched two centuries of life pass beneath them. And yet none of it feels like a museum. The kitchen is modern and properly fitted with integral appliances. The bathroom is stylish rather than retrofitted. Oil central heating keeps winter comfortable, and a solar hot water system means the sun does useful work from May through September. This is a farmhouse you can actually live in, without a renovation project hanging over your head. The layout gives you room to breathe. Four bedrooms plus a dedicated study means the property functions just as well for a family with kids needing their own space as it does for a couple who want a guest room and a home office. The sitting and dining room flows naturally toward the large covered terrace outside — the kind of shaded outdoor space where lunch starts at one o'clock and somehow it's four before anyone notices. A built-in barbecue makes a ... click here to read more

Nestled amidst the picturesque landscape of Tarn-et-Garonne in the Midi-Pyrénées region, this three-bedroom detached house located in the tranquil village of Bourg-de-Visa offers a unique opportunity for international buyers seeking a blend of rustic appeal and contemporary living. This 18th-century stone farmhouse is situated at the end of a quiet lane, ensuring peace and serenity, an ideal escape from the hustle and bustle of urban life. Let's start by imagining yourself waking up to the unobstructed views of the rolling French countryside, a panorama that can be best appreciated from the comfort of your own living room. With its prime location, this residence is a dream for those who prioritize privacy and scenic beauty. ### Everyday Life in Bourg-de-Visa Bourg-de-Visa itself is a quaint village, steeped in history and rich with tradition. Living here offers a laid-back lifestyle, with a strong sense of community spirit. The locals are welcoming, and the pace of life is delightfully slow. For expats and overseas buyers, this is a perfect spot to immerse oneself into the tranquil rural French way of life. The village is dotted with charming cafés, local bakeries, and weekly markets, where fresh produce and artisan goods are available. Embrace the French art de vivre with leisurely strolls, friendly chats with the locals, and savor the delightful regional cuisine. ### Local Attractions and Climate The surrounding area of Tarn-et-Garonne boasts numerous attractions. From beautiful vineyards waiting to be explored to the historic sites scattered across the region, there's no shortage of things to do. Outdoor enthusiasts will appreciate the walking and cycling paths that meander through the lush countryside. Don't mi ... click here to read more

Nestled within the scenic backdrop of Midi-Pyrénées in Tarn-et-Garonne, this enchanting 2-bedroom stone house offers a delightful opportunity for those looking to immerse themselves in the tranquil French countryside. Positioned in the quaint village of Bourg-de-Visa, the property combines traditional charm with modern conveniences and is set on a generous plot of 1.3 acres, complete with an inground swimming pool and a sizeable wooden hangar. As you step into this serene abode, you are greeted by the timeless beauty of its Quercy stone exterior. Entry to the main living area is via an external stone staircase leading up to a wooden deck terrace, revealing an open-plan living room bathed in natural light with ample space of 33 square meters. Adjoining this is a well-equipped kitchen sized at 16 square meters, perfectly laid out for family meals or entertaining guests. The main bedroom, with a footprint of 16.50 square meters, is conveniently located on the same floor, alongside a newly-appointed shower room. Descending to the ground level, you’ll find an additional bedroom measuring 13.80 square meters, complemented by an ensuite bathroom and office space, ideal for those who work from home or require extra privacy. A notably large utility room offers abundant storage, seamlessly blending functionality with the home’s rustic charm. The exterior grounds are as impressive as the interior. The wooden framed hangar provides versatile space, suitable for car storage or conversion to stables. The surrounding garden area of 3212 square meters is fully fenced, securing a private and peaceful retreat. Across the lane, an additional 2070 square meters of pasture extend your realm, accompanied by a 6x3 meter chlorine swimming po ... click here to read more

On a still weekday morning in Bourg-de-Visa, the smell of fresh bread drifts from the boulangerie four minutes' walk up the lane before you've even thought about making coffee. That's the pace of life here — unhurried, rooted, real. This 1850s stone barn, once a working forge, has been carefully converted into a two-bedroom house that sits quietly behind a stone wall on the village edge, its garden opening up to rolling Tarn-et-Garonne countryside that stretches further than you'd think possible for somewhere so easy to reach. Midi-Pyrénées is one of those parts of France that doesn't announce itself loudly. No famous coastline, no ski resort posters plastered at Charles de Gaulle. What it has instead is the kind of slow, unselfconscious rural beauty that people spend years searching for and rarely find — and Bourg-de-Visa sits right in the heart of it. The village has genuine life to it. A weekly market, a café where the same retired farmers have been occupying the same chairs since the 1980s, and those summer night markets that run through July and August: outdoor tables, local wine, grilled meats, children chasing each other between the stalls until well past dark. It's the France visitors imagine and tourists rarely stumble across. The house itself carries its history well. The original stone walls are thick enough to keep rooms cool through the heat of a Quercy summer — and this corner of France runs hot from June through September, with long golden evenings that make the tiled terrace off the kitchen feel like an extension of the living room. Step through the gated entrance off the lane, and the first thing you notice is the well at the centre of the lawn, flanked by established trees that throw proper shade. The ... click here to read more

Enchanting 4 Bedroom Stone-Built Farmhouse in Occitanie Experience the charm of rural France with this elegant stone-built farmhouse that dates from the early 1800s. Located near Bourg-de-Visa in the tranquil Tarn-et-Garonne department of Occitanie, this property offers a blend of authentic character and contemporary comfort, ideal for a family looking to embrace the French countryside lifestyle. House Details: - Spacious living area of 190m² spread over three floors - Four well-sized bedrooms with two bedrooms featuring en-suite bathrooms - Cozy living room with an open fireplace and terracotta tiled flooring - Dining room with direct access to the terrace and garden, perfect for al fresco dining - Modern fitted and equipped kitchen with terrace access - Utility and boiler rooms adding functional space - Second-floor storage room with potential to convert into an additional bedroom Outdoor Features: - Saltwater swimming pool (10m x 6m) surrounded by a paved terrace - Over an acre of well-maintained gardens with mature trees providing scenic views - A variety of paved terraces, ideal for outdoor entertainment - Detached barn with a new roof includes a garage, covered terrace, and games area, offering potential for conversion into additional living space This farmhouse not only promises a serene escape but also proximity to medieval villages like Bourg-de-Visa and Beauville, which are just a 5-minute drive away. These villages offer a snapshot of historic architecture and cobblestone charm, along with essential amenities for comfortable living. Whether for grocery shopping, the weekly market, or dining out, the local infrastructure supports all needs. Amenities: - Central heating - Swimming pool - High-speed fiber op ... click here to read more

Nestled in the picturesque village of Saint-Paul-d'Espis, this exquisite 19th-century home offers a harmonious blend of historical charm and modern comforts. As a busy real estate agent, I can assure you that properties like this are rare gems, especially in the heart of the enchanting Tarn-et-Garonne region. This home is not just a place to live; it's a lifestyle waiting to be embraced. ### A Glimpse into Saint-Paul-d'Espis Saint-Paul-d'Espis is a quaint village that captures the essence of French rural life. With its rolling hills, lush vineyards, and serene landscapes, it's a haven for those seeking tranquility and a slower pace of life. The climate here is mild, with warm summers and cool winters, making it an ideal location for year-round living. The village is steeped in history, with its cobblestone streets and charming architecture. It's a place where you can enjoy leisurely strolls, stopping by local cafes for a croissant and coffee, or visiting the weekly market to pick up fresh produce and artisanal goods. For families, the area boasts excellent schools and a strong sense of community, making it a perfect place to raise children. ### The Property: A Perfect Blend of Old and New This three-bedroom, two-bathroom house has been meticulously restored to maintain its historical integrity while incorporating modern amenities. The stone and brick construction, along with exposed beams and stonework, exudes character and warmth. The open-plan sitting and dining room, complete with a built-in granule burner, offers a cozy space for family gatherings. The modern kitchen is a chef's dream, featuring integral appliances and ample counter space. Each of the three bedrooms is tastefully decorated, providing a serene ret ... click here to read more

On a warm July evening in Saint-Maurin, the smell of grilled duck and lavender drifts up from the village square, where the weekly summer night market has spilled across the cobblestones beneath strings of amber light. You pull open the tall French doors in your living room and step straight into the garden, glass in hand, the low Lot-et-Garonne hills rolling out ahead of you in that particular shade of gold that only exists in southwest France at dusk. This is what owning this 19th-century stone house actually feels like. Not a renovation fantasy — a life. Saint-Maurin sits quietly in one of the most genuinely lovely historic villages in the Lot-et-Garonne, the kind of place that shows up on lists of the most beautiful villages in France and somehow still hasn't been discovered by the crowds. The old Benedictine abbey anchors the village center, its warm stone facade unchanged for centuries, and the weekly rhythms here are comfortingly real: a proper épicerie within walking distance, a café where the same faces appear every morning, and a village that actually lives rather than merely performs its heritage. Summer brings the marchés nocturnes that the whole surrounding area comes to — a proper, food-forward evening market with regional producers, live music drifting across the square, and a festive atmosphere that feels earned rather than manufactured. Come September, the vendanges and walnut harvests begin in the surrounding farms, and the air carries that unmistakable mix of woodsmoke and ripe fruit that marks autumn in Gascony. The house itself is 189 square metres of original 19th-century fabric, and it has kept its soul intact. Step inside and the sequence of original details is genuinely impressive: exposed ston ... click here to read more

On a still July evening, the only sounds you'll hear from the sun room terrace are the cicadas starting up in the oaks, the faint clink of glasses drifting from the village café a few hundred metres down the lane, and the occasional splash from the pool where someone couldn't resist one last swim before dinner. That's the rhythm of life at this 169 m² single-storey house on the edge of Saint-Maurin, one of the most quietly compelling villages in the Lot-et-Garonne — and a property that genuinely earns the word "immaculate" without you having to take anyone's word for it. Built in 1989 and then thoroughly reimagined by its current owners over the years since, the house sits on 6,875 m² of private grounds just a short walk from the medieval heart of Saint-Maurin. The village itself is the kind of place that still makes you stop walking and stare — a 12th-century abbey, honey-coloured stone arcades, a weekly market that the locals actually use, not one staged for tourists. Summer brings the famous night markets, where the square fills with tables, local Gascony producers set out their charcuterie and Armagnac, and at some point someone wheels out a projector for the open-air cinema. You can walk to all of it in five minutes, then come home to complete silence. Step inside and the architecture does something clever: it keeps things open without feeling exposed. A wide entrance hall with a feature arch sets a quiet tone of quality that the rest of the house follows through on. The living room is generous and very well lit, with three sets of French doors that fold the indoors out into the garden. A handsome brick fireplace with a wood-burning stove anchors the room in winter, while underfloor heating — the sort of detail th ... click here to read more

On a still Sunday morning in Saint-Maurin, the church bell in the 11th-century priory rings out across the valley and drifts through the French doors of this single-story stone country house while the coffee percolates. The kitchen smells of woodsmoke and walnut. Outside, the fishpond catches the early light. This is what you came to France for. Saint-Maurin is one of those villages that hasn't been discovered yet, not really, and locals are quietly grateful for that. Classified among the Plus Beaux Villages de France, it sits in the rolling hills of Lot-et-Garonne, a département that routinely tops French quality-of-life surveys but somehow still flies under the radar compared to its flashier Dordogne neighbor to the north. The village square, shaded by plane trees, holds a small café where the patron knows your order by your second visit. There's a boutique, a boulangerie within walking distance, and in summer the whole village transforms for the Wednesday night markets, where producers from across the Agenais set up under fairy lights and sell duck confit, Agen prunes dipped in Armagnac chocolate, and bottles of Buzet red that cost less than a London sandwich. The open-air cinema runs through July and August. You bring a blanket, somebody always brings too much rosé, and the film starts at dusk against the backdrop of the medieval priory. These aren't tourist attractions in the manufactured sense. They're just what life is here. This three-bedroom vacation home sits on the edge of the village, close enough to walk in for a pastis at 6pm, private enough that you can swim in the 10x5 metre pool without a neighbor in sight. The grounds extend to 6,875 square metres — nearly 1.7 acres — planted with mature specimen tre ... click here to read more

You wake up on a Saturday morning in late September and the first thing you hear isn't traffic or a neighbour's lawnmower—it's the low, rhythmic creak of old stone and timber as the mill mechanism stirs in the morning air. Step to the window and the view is all soft mist lifting off the Tarn-et-Garonne countryside, a dovecote catching the early light, and rows of trees slowly turning amber at the edges. This is what owning a piece of southwest France actually feels like. Not a postcard. A life. This five-bedroom stone watermill in Lacour sits just over an hour's drive from Toulouse-Blagnac airport—close enough for a long weekend, far enough that you'll never hear a flight overhead. The mill itself is a genuine rarity. The original mechanical workings are still intact and fully operational. You can set them turning if you like, grind your own flour, or simply let them stand as the extraordinary conversation piece they are. Either way, the ground floor—where the machinery lives—is unlike anything you'll find in a standard country house renovation. It's part living history, part childhood fantasy. The residential accommodation spreads across the first and second floors, covering 198 square metres in total. Five bedrooms give you space for the whole family, a rotating cast of friends, or a combination of both across a long summer. Two bathrooms, stone floors worn smooth over centuries, exposed beamed ceilings, and a living room built around a working fireplace with an opening wide enough to take serious logs. On a January evening with the fire going and a bottle of Cahors Malbec open on the table, you'll understand exactly why people fall headlong for this part of France and never quite manage to leave. The property sits ... click here to read more