HK expat among those keen to buy a restored piece of history in France
History is on the block in France, with the restored, 1,000 year-old, Le Donjon du Faucon Noir (Fortress of the Black Falcon) on the market for Euro1.65 million (about $14.96 million).
The property, described as Europe's oldest castle, has attracted potential buyers including a British expatriate working in Hong Kong, a leading Singapore businessman and the president of an oil company who arrived on a private jet to view the property. Most interest, however, has come from the United States and Scandinavia.
'We are very excited by the response. The sale has generated a great deal of interest from the four corners of the world,' said Harry Atterton, who has spent Euro1 million converting the property from a wreck to a trophy home and tourist attraction.
Although it is in central France, on the edge of the town of Montbazon in the Loire Valley, the huge stone castle can be considered English. It was built in 991 by the Count of Anjou, an ancestor in lineage of Queen Elizabeth II. His descendents fought on the English side during the Hundred Years war that raged across France during the 14th and 15th centuries.
Mr Atterton and his wife Jacqueline Courtot have been restoring neglected French ruins since the 1980s, and will use the money generated from this sale to invest in more properties.
'We have chosen monuments that are important in historical terms, and that have been neglected.'
