The "Maison de Maître"

The agency Leforestier has specialized since 1997 in the transaction of properties of character. In this category, the "Maison de Maître" has had great commercial success. But what exactly is a "Maison de Maître" ?

A little reminder of history: After the revolutions of 1789 and 1830, the French bourgeois deliberately entered into competition with the aristocracy. To position themselves socially, they built magnificent and beautiful buildings, mostly rectangular, stone, brick or alloy of the two, more or less sober according to the tastes and budgets of each. The modern construction techniques allowed them to benefit from many large openings allowing natural light to enter. Very often, a central entrance hall was the first room the visitor discovered. A beautiful staircase stood in the center marking the look by its rough and voluminous forms. And, particularity of the house of master, always an office, room strictly reserved to the master of the places, where this one could exercise its activity, to receive its tenants, farmers, share-croppers, workers, suppliers, customers or patients, in short to impose its authority.

In the country, the "Maison de Maître" belonged to wealthy landowners. In the city, it was the residence of the medical, legal, industrial or commercial professions. The "Maison de Maître" saw its apogee in the 19th century, and particularly in the period of the Second Empire. In the countryside, the mansion is lined with a park with pretty outbuildings: stable, garage, kennel, bakery, habitat for domestic. In towns and villages, in a more restricted space, the "Maison de Maître" is often on three levels. In the countryside as in the city, the ground floor of the "Maison de Maître" has reception rooms whose noble and worked materials reflect the wealth of the owner: parquet floors, marble fireplaces, woodwork, moldings and other decorative paintings, stairs surrounded by elegant railings, paved with colored cement in the more functional rooms, sometimes even stained glass windows with certain openings ... Everything must breathe comfort and ease, nothing can be neglected to receive with pomp its guests.
On the floors, the apartments can accommodate large families. Even though running water systems did not exist, ingenious rainwater recovery systems made it possible to have a sink in every room, and sometimes even real bathrooms on the floors. Coal transported by railroad tracks gradually replaced the stoves of fireplaces by becoming the fuel of the central heating.

Real estate of this time still belongs to the historical heritage of France. Buying a "Maison de Maître" is always a great investment on the future. It will retain a privileged position in the real estate market.