£1.23m French chateau to be won in £10 competition

Ruth Phillips, 61, owns Chateau de Cautine, which boasts nine bedrooms, a 12m swimming pool and 30 acres of land.

But now the property will be passing to a new owner, as Ruth has put the house up as the prize in a competition.

The chateau, built in 1667, is located in the most easterly point of the Dordogne, in the Department of Corrèze.

The kitchen is full of antiques and has a farmhouse table, and the rest of the renovated rooms can be described as ‘quintessentially French’.

Outside benefits from a swimming pool, 30 acres of stunning land, a piggery and even a separate three-bedroom cottage and two large stone barns.

It has been valued by a French estate agent at €1.4m, or £1.23m but could cost the new owner just £10.

All profits made from the competition will fund a community interest company run by Ruth, The Eco Village Development Company, which will build affordable, alternative housing.

Five per cent of all ticket sales income will also be donated to St Petroc’s Society, a Cornish charity for homeless people.

Ruth, from Truro, Cornwall, said: “It’s captivating, the place, when you walk through the gates you feel stunned.

“Not only is the house beautiful but the location, it’s on a hill and drops away into a valley and you are in deep nature.

“It’s a magical place in the middle of the wilderness – you feel like you have fallen into a deep cushion of trees and green.

“I’m really happy that someone else is going to get it and have chance to appreciate it, it’s a magical property – everyone who comes says that.”

Ruth has lived in the chateau for almost a decade and made efforts to turn the property into an eco village.

Her aim was to provide sustainable and affordable housing for those who can’t afford their first step on the housing ladder.

But now, Ruth is selling up to spend more time with her family back in the UK.

She continued: “I’ve been starting with this eco village in France, it’s the work I have done for the past seven years.

“It took a long time to get the planning permission and my kids by then were firmly settled in England.

“My ex-husband has been running a restaurant that I started 13 years ago but he said he wanted to retire and asked if I wanted it back.

“I said OK and that’s when I realised I had to move back to the UK and put the chateau on the market.

“When I came across this competition idea I thought this would enable us to raise funds for the continuation of the Eco Village Development plans in England.”

In France, Ruth had been working with a Dutch architect to develop affordable eco-homes.

Together, they designed a 20sqm home, big enough for two, which will cost a fraction of the average house price in the UK.

With the profits made from the competition, Ruth will run an asset-locked community interest company that will bring the homes to the UK.

She added: “What we have developed is the design of an affordable kit house which can be built anywhere and it is off grid.

“We anticipate in September starting to build the first kit house, then we hope by the following spring, 2019, to have raised sufficient funds to buy the land and build the first project.

“Affordable housing is one of my main interests as I feel it is everyone’s right to have a home.

“It is impossible nowadays for people to afford a home because of the extremely high prices.

“We also need to build houses which do not damage the environment and which have built in systems which do not harm nature.

“This will provide a solution, the kit houses can be put together in a week and aim to cost less than 10 per cent of the price of an average house in the UK.”

Not only does the chateau benefit from incredible scenery and unspoilt views, a rich history is also included.

During World War II, the chateau was used as a refuge for Jewish families, who hid in a secret compartment in the attic.

Ruth added: “We received a visit from a Jewish lady in 2007, she lived in Australia and gave us a photo of her and her family at the front of the chateau with all their possessions piled onto a truck.

“In the photo, the baron and baroness were standing with her and her parents.

“They hid them in the chateau, I know that there’s a low ceiling at the end of one of the corridors upstairs and in the attic there is a hidden space.

“That would be the most likely space they were hidden.”

And the history of the property dates back further still, as dotted around are hints that the Knights Templar may have built the property.

“The family crest over the fireplace in the dining room and over the front door, it is full of the symbology of the Templars – the star, the crescent moon, the Maltese cross.

“I feel there is a Templar connection, but we can’t prove it.”

A total of 500,000 tickets will be up for grabs for £10 each, and anyone entering must first answer two skill-based questions.

Then they will be entered into the competition to win the property.

To enter the competition, visit winafrenchchateau.co.uk