Authentic Stone Farmhouse, Private Spring, Two 3-Star Gîtes, Dolce Via Greenway, Eyrieux Valley, Heart of Ardèche

Property Description

Summary
An old stone farmhouse in the Ardèche mountains, restored with care and authenticity and now combining family living with two independent, award-winning gîtes.

The main house, restored in 2019, looks out over the Eyrieux river and the valley woodlands to the south-east. It features four bedrooms, one bathroom and a large living-dining room around an elegant Nordica Rosa XXL wood stove, with an open kitchen. It has a big terrace off the living space downstairs and on the first floor another terrace directly bordering on the garden, forest and mountains.

The separate gîte is a charming stone house, renovated in 2019, with views of the Eyrieux river and the Dolce Via cycle route, with a shaded terrace off the kitchen-livingroom, and a garden-level bedroom. It is located next to our house, on the lush green terraces typical of the Boutières region.

On the other side, the gîte adjoining the main house was fully renovated in 2022, with a wood terrace and exceptional north-facing views over the Eyrieux valley. It has its own private entrance.

An elegant independent room, with its own entry and shower room, joins the complex on the first floor terrace.

This farmhouse, originally built in 1723, with genuine autonomy and an established income, is nestled in a landscape protected at both national and European levels. The property is in the commune of Gluiras; Saint-Sauveur-de-Montagut, five minutes away, is your nearest village for daily life, with all essential shops and services.

Location
Central Ardèche is unspoilt, deeply green, authentic and quietly stunning: steep chestnut terraces, granite and volcanic peaks, and villages that have changed little in a century. Five minutes away, on the Glueyre, the Plage de Fontugne is a supervised river beach in July and August, with food and concerts in season. Walking and mountain biking start from the house. Markets and local produce — chestnuts, goat cheese, honey, charcuterie — are part of weekly life, and history and culture are everywhere.

Saint Sauveur de Montagut, 2 km away by road or greenway, has all essential shops and services, including a local-producers restaurant and organic grocery shop, a pharmacie, an ATM machine, supermarkets and a service station. You will also find the famous Terre Adelice icecream maker here.

One of France's finest greenways runs past the end of the land. La Dolce Via follows the old railway line for some 90 km down the Eyrieux valley, between La Voulte-sur-Rhône and Lamastre, through tunnels and over viaducts, and can be joined just across the bridge, 300 m from the house. For a gîte business this is not scenery — it is a steady source of cyclists and walkers from spring to autumn.

An hour or so west, the Ardèche plateau rises to Mont Gerbier de Jonc, where the Loire begins. The biodiversity and geology of our area are exceptionally rich.

This is the Parc Naturel Régional des Monts d'Ardèche.

Access
The estate is close to the Rhône Valley and the A7 motorway - it is easy to travel to Paris and other places in Europe.

Trainstation TGV Valence 1 hr
Airports: Grenoble Alpes-Isère 1h45, Lyon-Saint Exupéry 1h50, Nîmes-Garons 1h55, Marseille-Marignane 2h15

Interior
The estate measures 198 m² in all, with a main house of 112 m², with a bright living-dining room, a wood-burning stove, four bedrooms - of which one on the ground level by the living room with the bath room and a separate toilet. There is a pantry off the large entry and two cellars and a workshop on street level.

The 33 m² adjoining gîte sleeps four: The ground floor offers a kitchen, a dining table, and a comfortable, elegant living area with stone walls and a sofa bed. The well-equipped kitchen includes a washing machine, a ceramic hob, and also a beautiful wood-burning stove with an oven for the cooler months.

The bright upper floor houses the bedroom, a shower, and a sink. The double bed (160x200) is on a mezzanine with breathtaking views. The composting toilet is separate.

The 37 m² gîte sleeps three: Upstairs, the bedroom overlooks a private garden. It features a double four-poster bed (160x200 cm), a shower, and a sink. The composting toilet is separate. On the ground floor you will find a kitchen, dining table, and cozy living area. A sofa bed could sleep one here. The well-equipped kitchen has electric hobs and, for the cooler months, a wood-burning stove with an oven. It opens onto a large terrace, shared with the main house, for outside dining.

The independent room on the upper terrace has its own entrance and shower room with toilet, for a total surface of 16m2. It can be used with one of the gîtes or separately for a bed and breakfast activity with a double bed for two.

Both gîtes are compact and deliberately so: beautifully finished, easy to run, and best suited to couples or a couple with children. They are holiday accommodation rather than year-round homes.

Renting is entirely optional: the gîtes work just as well for family and friends, or a mixture of both, and we do exactly that.

Outside the main house, the property can host a maximum of nine people in all.

Exterior
Two large terraces extend the living space outdoors — one from the dining room facing south-east over the river, the other on the bedroom level to the north-west, connecting to the independent bedroom — both with open views over the Ardèche mountains and forest. Each gîte has its own outside space, a romantic garden for one and a wood terrace with a splendid northern view for the other. There is a walkway to the garden from the wood terrace.

A covered lean-to behind the house, well set back from the road, offers dry storage and a natural bike store for guests arriving on two wheels.

The grounds extend to roughly 9.5 hectares: 9 ha of mixed sloping woodland giving an endless supply of firewood, and 0.5 ha of terraced gardens around the house with a young permaculture-planted orchard already beginning to crop (nashi, pear, apple, persimmon, feijoa, pomegranate, almond, jujube, olive, peach, apricot, fig and more), two vegetable plots, a pond, a seedling greenhouse, a fitted hen house and a Douglas fir wooden cabin. All renovation work was carried out with authorisation within this Natura 2000 protected area — the setting is not merely rural, it is formally recognised for its natural value.

Our land borders the Eyrieux, and you can walk down to meet the river. A pleasant place to observe and let yourself be captivated by the water, its sound, its light.

Another short walk on the property will take you from our spring water reservoirs up to a one-house hamlet to the north. You'll return at mid-mountain level via a small shaded path. You'll then descend via the small road that runs alongside our spring, back to the house. Many more hiking trails exist around the property.

Additional Details
The two gîtes have been let since 2022 in low capacity at €80 per night per gîte, with the independent bedroom at €40 per night when let with one of them. When upping the capacity of the gîtes and renting the independent room out as bed and breakfast, prices can be increased. Both hold 3-star Atout France classification and the "Valeurs Parc" brand of the Parc Naturel Régional des Monts d'Ardèche — official recognition of the quality of the accommodation and of the property's environmental commitment.

Much of what the property needs, it provides itself. A private spring feeds the house and two tanks holding 60 m³ by gravity, backed by a mains water connection as a summer safety net. Photovoltaic panels produce 5 MWh a year, of which 1.5 MWh is sold back to EDF under an existing contract. Flamme Verte certified wood stoves heat each dwelling: the Nordica Rosa XXL in the main house, a smaller glazed Nordica in each gîte, and two modern electric heaters with a small wood stove in the independent bedroom. Composting toilets serve every dwelling, with a compost area completely renewed in 2026 to current standards; the grey-water system needs finishing (grease trap and simple soakaway). There is no foul drainage to install or maintain.

A quality stairlift was installed in 2025 on the main staircase of the house, its warm colours blending with the stone wall.