After a long drive through the French countryside we parked up outside this old mansion, its decaying facade staring out at the top of a long track down at the surrounding fields. 

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On this particular tour, this was my favourite house. It had all the ingredients for a perfect explore and was perfect to capture through the lens. The huge decaying exterior - with its wooden shutters severely weather beaten as they hung perilously off their hinges. Vintage interior with no modernisation at all and a morbid dark feel to each of the rooms. Vintage artefacts everywhere just left behind along with the typical elegant beds we always find in overseas locations. Added to these ingredients, the mansion was very secluded with not a single house nearby so parking outside the house was possible [no long walk] and no chance of nosey neighbours spotting us and causing us problems. 

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Once inside the mansion after a stress free entry, we were met with a wonderful example of a true abandoned building which looked as though no one had been inside [except likeminded explorers] for decades. Each and every room - a moving testimony to an old-fashioned charm which characterises so many abandoned houses in France. 

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The main dining room was still adorned with vintage furniture, carved by craftsmen along with a piano which still worked albeit out of tune. The floor had started to sink on one side giving a lop-sided look to the room as the floor arches down before its inevitable collapse. A second ground floor room had another piano as well as a vintage pram - my favourite item to see in these places so I was more than happy. The back kitchen and dining room was in a very advanced state of decay, most of the plaster had crumbled away from the ceiling and was oiled on the huge wooden table and floor. Beyond this room was the left side of the mansion which had actually collapsed and was inaccessible. 

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Up the dark staircase and the main bedroom was a magnificent sight, one worth travelling many hours for. A beautiful vintage iron bed complete with dusty bedding took centre stage as the wallpaper peeled around it adding to the perfect 

atmosphere of this mansion. Unfortunately, the crucifix which was over the bed on the wall had vanished yet the room was still very photogenic and dripping in vintage charm. 

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We spent around 3 hours in here the only sounds to disturb us were the flapping of the window shutters in the winter breeze. 

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It has been impossible to find any history of this mansion - and the former inhabitants - apart from it seems the last resident was an older lady who died alone inside around 2013. Apparently she lived out her final years in some poverty and the mansion fell into a state of disrepair while she was still living there. The mansion was apparently passed on to two heirs yet they didn't take over the mansion - hence the parlous state of the mansion today. ​​