France: €15.5 millionYves Saint Laurent is selling his château in northern France and agents think it may suit Irish buyers, writes Kate McMorrow
It's a sign of respect for the buying power of the Celtic Tiger that French agency Emile Garcin is pinning its hopes on an Irish buyer for the best house on its books.
Château Gabriel is near fashionable Deauville, a Normandy seaside town renowned for horse-racing and bloodstock sales and a favourite with Europe's aristocrats for centuries.
The 1874 Anglo-Norman house on 75 acres has been the weekend residence of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé for the past 28 years. The retired designer now lives in Morocco and finds the upkeep of the mansion and grounds an expensive business for just a couple of visits a year.
Emile Garcin's Irish representative David Stanley is quoting €13 million for Château Gabriel, which has ravishing interiors befitting the home of a fashion legend.
The house first went on the market in summer 2005 for €20 million, including a dacha/summerhouse in the garden, but failed to attract a serious bid.
Having reduced the price, the owners will now include the picturesque 100sq m (1,076sq ft) dacha and five hectares for an additional €2.5 million.
The summerhouse was inspired by a trip to St Petersburg for a YSL retrospective and Yves Saint Laurent designed his collections here over the years.
The château sits amid wooded acreage on Mont Canisy at Bénerville, about 2km from Deauville, overlooking the sea.
The grounds extend to the boundary of Deauville racecourse, a bonus that could tempt an Irish racing enthusiast.
Inside, the couple collaborated with decorator Jacques Grange to create a fantasy interior from the 862sq m (9,000sq ft) of living space.
On the ground floor, the living and diningrooms, library and winter garden take their cue from Monet's Water Lilies, while furniture echoes the period of Napoleon III. Decor is beautifully over-the-top and French, with antiques at every turn.
Each of the nine bedrooms is named after a character in Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, with name-plates on doors.
Three grand bedroom suites with dressing rooms and baths take up the next floor, while there are six bedrooms and five bathrooms off the second landing.
At garden level are a kitchen and service quarters, billiard room, diningroom, summer salon and a laundry.
The gardens are as magical as the house, with a waterfall and lake, rose-beds, topiary and statuary, shady walks and an apple orchard that produces cider.
There are houses for the estate manager and staff, stables, helicopter pad and a hangar.
The dacha is surrounded by a birch grove.
Tel: 01-663 6363
www.emilegarcin.com
