Abbeville, Picardie 80100

A 460-m² 18th-century mansion in 9 hectares of parkland, near the Baie de Somme, 2 hours from Paris. The mansion was built in 1790 for Pierre Fanneau de la Horie, lord of La Touche and the King's engineer responsible for developments of the ports along the Picardy coastline and in the Baie de Somme. He acquired the fiefdom of Lanchères in 1774. The building that had previously stood there was entirely demolished. The architect of the residence, which was typical of the neo-classical school, was Antoine-Charles Aubert, who designed the Palais Bourbon in Paris as well as a range of buildings and townhouses that have since been demolished, including a folly that used to stand on the Chaillot hill. The canals and parkland were excavated and planted during the same era. A gate opens onto a large, round lawn, planted with pruned yew trees. An also circular drive enables parking for vehicles in front of the mansion. Two pavilions, one of which is used as a garage and the other as a storeroom, are situated at each side of the courtyard's entrance. A short distance away, a chapel and dovecote seem to watch over the property while to the west there is a walled orchard with period greenhouses, an orangery used as a workshop and a swimming pool. A former farm situated to the east is adjacent to a maze of hedges. The estate boasts 9-hectares of planted parkland with an ornamental garden (listed in the Mérimée archives), an orchard, pastureland, woods and canals that are linked to the network of marshes at Lanchères and Cayeux-sur-Mer.