The Belcourt services
The Belcourt Audit
The Audit is the first step of any engagement. Our experts spend several days on site, then hand you a full report.
- The land
- Local climate and how it is changing
- Exposure to wind, frost and drought
- Access, driving times, railway stations
- Fibre availability
- The ground
- Geology of the parcel
- How the clay behaves
- Stability of the ground under the house
- A soil survey wherever the geological map calls for one
- The water
- Measured flow of existing springs and boreholes
- Water quality
- Potential for drilling and rainwater harvesting
- Existing waste-water treatment and what is needed
- The building
- Structure, roof frame, roofing, masonry
- Damp and services
- What can be restored, what must be rebuilt
- The cost of repair, element by element
- The autonomy
- Geothermal and solar potential
- Land for the kitchen garden and orchard
- Space for the cellar and cold room
- Feasibility of the five acts on this estate
- Title and planning
- Planning rules and protected surroundings
- Easements
- Existing rural tenancies
- The best way to hold the land
- The report
- Whether the estate can be brought to the Belcourt Standard
- The budget, act by act
- The order and timing of the works
- Handed over in person and talked through with you
The fee
€8,000
Deducted from any subsequent engagement.
The Belcourt Restoration
The Belcourt Restoration brings an estate to the Belcourt Standard: the benchmark of full autonomy. It applies in full, or not at all.
One certification, no levels: an estate meets the Belcourt Standard, or is on its way to it.
The Restoration is led by the house, as a single undertaking: one point of contact, one calendar, a budget settled act by act at the close of the Audit. The trades are chosen among the craftsmen of the terroir, and the works interweave: solar panels rise with the roof, probes are drilled with the groundworks. Nothing is restored twice.
The building is judged element by element: restored where it holds, remade where it has failed. What is remade is assumed as such, drawn in today's language and built to yesterday's rules. Never pastiche.
A restoration runs from eighteen months to three years, depending on the condition recorded. Each act is received, documented and photographed, and entered in the Belcourt Record: the estate reaches the Belcourt Standard with its history already written.
The works, in five parts
The building
Structure, roof, walls and sanitation brought back to lasting condition. What holds is restored, what has failed is rebuilt.
Energy
Geothermal heating and cooling, solar panels and batteries, simple home automation. The house produces its own comfort, without relying on the grid.
Water
A borehole and rainwater harvesting, each able to supply the house on its own. Water filtered and monitored continuously, wastewater treated by a reed-bed garden.
The table
A kitchen garden and orchard suited to the local soil, with a cellar and cold room large enough to store a whole season's harvest.
Connectivity
Fibre and a satellite link, each able to serve the house on its own. Internet everywhere, to the garden and outbuildings: work from the estate as you would from the city.
The Belcourt Standard makes every estate self-sufficient. The pleasures make it unique. Each owner chooses their own, according to their wishes and the way they want to live on the estate: we design and build them together. Here are the ones chosen most often.
Beyond the Standard, everything an estate can welcome.
Some pleasures call for a regular presence on the estate: the matching level of stewardship is shown on each tile.
Heated pool
A pool warmed by the estate's own geothermal loop.
With the Belcourt Stewardship
Walled kitchen garden
A kitchen garden enclosed by walls, sheltered from wind.
With the Belcourt Stewardship
Wine cellar and tasting table
A vaulted cellar, a temperature-controlled wine cabinet and a table to taste.
Treehouse
A cabin built in the trees, for the little ones. And the grown-ups!
Cool room
A vaulted room below ground, cool and comfortable, for the hottest days.
Library under the roof frame
A reading room built under the old roof timbers.
All the pleasures
Heated pool
A pool warmed by the estate's own geothermal loop.
With the Belcourt Stewardship
Natural swimming pool
A swimming basin filtered by plants, without chlorine.
With the Belcourt Stewardship
Outdoor stone shower
A stone shower in the open air, by the garden.
Swimming pond
A natural pond kept clear for summer swimming.
With the Belcourt Stewardship
Cool room
A vaulted room below ground, cool and comfortable, for the hottest days.
The greenhouse
A collector's greenhouse, warmed by the sun and the estate's ground.
With the Belcourt Residence
Bread oven
A wood-fired oven for bread baked at home.
With the Belcourt Stewardship
Heritage orchard
An orchard of old varieties, grafted on site.
With the Belcourt Stewardship
Hives and honey house
Beehives and a small room to extract the honey.
With the Belcourt Stewardship
Walled kitchen garden
A kitchen garden enclosed by walls, sheltered from wind.
With the Belcourt Stewardship
Summer kitchen
An outdoor kitchen and table under the trees.
Henhouse and poultry yard
A well-made hen house, the hens free on the grass.
With the Belcourt Residence
Wine cellar and tasting table
A vaulted cellar, a temperature-controlled wine cabinet and a table to taste.
Clay tennis court
A tennis court in clay, drained and levelled.
With the Belcourt Residence
Stables and arena
Boxes for horses and a sand arena beside them.
With the Belcourt Residence
Spa and hammam
A steam room and spa set in an outbuilding.
With the Belcourt Stewardship
Gym in a barn
A quiet room under the roof timbers, mats, wall bars, light weights and classes on screen.
Petanque ground
A gravel court for petanque under the lime trees.
Landing area
A clear, marked meadow for helicopter and drones, set away from the house.
Library under the roof frame
A reading room built under the old roof timbers.
Artist's studio
A studio lit from the north, steady light all day.
Guest pavilion
An independent pavilion for guests and family.
Garden office
A real remote workstation, fully equipped and wired, in a quiet outbuilding.
Treehouse
A cabin built in the trees, for the little ones. And the grown-ups!
Cinema room
A room fitted for films, screen and sound.
Games room and poker
A room for poker, cards and the arcade cabinet.
Open-air cinema
A screen set up outside, bean bags and chairs, for mild evenings.
Campfire circle
A built fire pit with seating, for evenings outside.
The estate, watched over
On Thursday, you let the estate know you are arriving the following evening.
When you push the door open, the house is aired and warm. The beds have been made, the shutters opened, the drive cleared. The refrigerator and the cellar are stocked, the bread has been bought. On the table, a basket from the kitchen garden and a note from the steward about what has grown this week.
You had nothing to arrange.
This degree of attention requires a regular presence. We offer three levels.
The Belcourt Watch
A visit every month.
Every month, the estate receives a visit from a regional steward. The round is made on foot, and whatever needs putting right is put right.
Each quarter, a fuller round is made with a forestry technician, over a full day. The attention goes to what no automated reading can see: the health of the trees and the remarkable specimens, the spread of woods and hedges over meadows and paths, surface water, fences, accesses, the orchard, the outbuildings seen from outside.
A visit follows without delay after any notable weather, a storm, a hard frost, a long dry spell, to check that the estate has not suffered and to put right whatever needs it.
From €1,500 a month.
The Belcourt Stewardship
The Watch, and a dedicated steward one day a week.
What Stewardship includes
- A dedicated steward
- attached to your estate, present one day a week, to the rhythm of the seasons.
- The kitchen garden and orchard
- tended through the seasons, sown, pruned and harvested.
- The house
- multi-technical maintenance and everyday works followed throughout the year.
- The estate's own table
- harvests preserved as they come: jars, juices, confits from your own orchard, laid down in the cellar with your wines.
- Your arrivals
- the house open and warmed, the table laid with what the estate has grown.
From €6,000 a month.
The Belcourt Residence
A steward living on the estate, present every day.
The estate is never alone. The kitchen garden, the house and the table are kept day by day, and arrivals are prepared without delay.
The estate must have independent quarters. The profile, the rhythm and the budget are defined at the Audit.
Some pleasures only live at this level: the animals of the estate, a clay court, a heated greenhouse. They need someone every day.
Defined at the Audit.
What the subscription covers
Included
- The people who come to the estate, and their replacement during holidays and absences
- Coordination of the trades: calling them, scheduling them, receiving them, checking what has been done
- Recruiting, training and managing the steward, who is employed by Belcourt
- The Belcourt Record and news from the estate
Charged at cost
- Works and repairs, on a quotation you have approved
- Supplies for the estate: plants, seeds, wood, cleaning products
- Consumption: back-up energy, mains water if the estate remains connected
- No commission on these costs: they are charged on to you at the price paid, with receipts.
The subscription pays for people and their organisation. What the estate consumes is charged on to you as it comes.
The Belcourt Record
The tool behind all three levels.
The life of the estate, written in one place and open to you at any time: the weather past and present, the plantings and the harvests, visits and works, every notable event.
Every visit is entered in the Belcourt Record: a written state of the estate, season by season, and a ranked list of works for the year ahead. Year after year, the Record becomes the history of the property, and passes on with it.
Each month, news from the estate reaches you: a letter written by those who have been there, photographs included. A deer seen at first light in the orchard, an old lime tree that has lost a branch, a particularly fine crop of plums. Your estate goes on living, even when you are away.
Continue your visit
