French B&B in great outdoors

FANCY a change of lifestyle for the New Year, or a little ‘sporting’ French investment with business and leisure scope?

How about buying a house or potential B&B in a part of France by a kayak slalom course and water-sports centre, with riding and biking trails, as well as fishing... and some cheap wine?

Truly, the world is getting smaller, as the fluidity and mobility of Irish investment and cash has shown.

A bite-sized example is this former hydro-electric station manager’s house, a renovated three-storey, four-bedroomed home on an acre in Kerousse, 20 minutes from Lorient in France.

Price? just €315,000.

It was bought almost four years ago by an Irish couple, who started renovations and who, along the way, fell into a business venture with a local French woman and her partner, Katherine and Lance Ensiln.

Lance had met Katherine when he was working on the Cork Main Drainage scheme and when she was working in a Cork hotel.

They moved back to France, and the Cork/Irish connection kicked in again when they met up with the Cork couple who’d initially bought this affordable French investment.

They agreed to run it jointly as a B&B, tapping into all of the natural amenities very much on the property’s doorstep.

But, with a move back to Namibia for Lance and Katherine who were the ‘hands-on’ operators, it has been put up for sale.

Location is on the River Blavet by the village of Lochrist, up river from Lorient and 45 minutes from beaches at Carnac, Quiberon and Etel. (Aer Arann flights link Lorient with from Cork, Kerry, Waterford and Galway airports.)

The kayaking and slalom course Parc Eau Vive, (www.parc-eau -vive.com) is in a converted steel-works, with permanent slalom course and a lift to get you back and your canoe to the top of the centre is just a few hundred yards away.

There are options to take a bike 50 km up-river via trails, and canoe back down along the river and its varied canal locks.

You can rent all the equipment.

The area is mountain bike heaven, with 50 hectares of bike trails, and there’s a Veloparc and bike museum at Plouay.

For those more into horse riding than pedalling, the Haras National d’Hennebont (www.haras-nationaux.fr), in an old Cistercian monastery, promotes all things equestrian.

The three-storey semi-detached house now being sold — and which could be kept as a private holiday home or run as a business — was originally built to house the manager of the small hydro electricity generating station, and the house next door housed the workers.

Proportions of the rooms in the ‘managers’ house are grander, with high ceilings, and two new bathrooms have been installed to cater for the four bedrooms (one is en suite, with a nursery) is big in comparison to the pokey rooms of the workers house.

Ground floor space includes kitchen, living room, dining room, office and ‘cave’ or wine cellar. There’s a garage needing repair, and a poultry house needing poulets.

The acre of ground it is on is mostly woodland, and as the valley is a protected area, no more building can take place.

The French notaire handing the sale is Bruno Fischer, 00 33 297 362077.