In France, a Renovated Farmhouse
Hidden at the end of a long grassy track, beyond a maze of winding country lanes in the Aquitaine region of southwest France, stands La Pradelle, a 16th-century farmhouse.
“The local residents are fond of grand entrances, but we weren’t interested in that,” said Petra Nettelbeck who, in 1992, bought the nine-hectare (22-acre) property with her husband, the German film critic Uwe Nettelbeck, who died in 2007, and her daughters, the director Sandra Nettelbeck (“Mostly Martha”) and Anouchka Nettelbeck, a primatologist.
The Nettelbecks have lived at La Pradelle, a four-bedroom three-bath farmhouse for 16 years. Once an oblong building, typical of the houses in the area, La Pradelle has been converted into an airy residence with two wings, blending French style with a rustic, Mediterranean feel, for a total living area of about 480 meters, or 5,160 square feet.
Mrs. Nettelbeck has photographs of the house before it was renovated. It was a rundown place with a barren swimming pool in a garden sectioned off by dozens of fences. “When we bought the property, it was a real bargain because the house wasn’t much of a house and there was virtually no landscaping,” Sandra Nettelbeck said in an e-mail message. She has written four of her five screenplays here, including “Helen,” her latest film, starring Ashley Judd.
“The old part of the house consisted of dark, small rooms with low ceilings,” she said. “We completely relandscaped the rolling hill towards the lake and added the serpentine pool.”
Before they moved to France, the Nettelbecks lived in Germany in a home with a grass-covered roof, which they sold to live in La Pradelle full time.
In those days, the family spent many summers in France Garden Landscaping . (As well as being a film critic and publisher, Uwe Nettelbeck was also a wine lover.) Hoping to move to a nontouristy area with good wine and food, the family had all but given up their search when a local real estate agent showed them the house. They bought it the next day.
Shortly after moving in, the Nettelbecks knocked down the walls in five rooms — half the farmhouse’s original footprint — to create a spacious open-plan living room/dining area and kitchen. Old brass pots and a salamander oven with colorful Mediterranean tiling decorate the kitchen. They also added an upstairs bedroom, accessible by a winding staircase.
The rest of the original space was turned into a darkroom (Mrs. Nettelbeck is an amateur photographer), a second bedroom, a bathroom, a guest toilet and an entrance room Garden Landscaping .
The spacious second wing, added in 1993, includes a large master suite with a bathroom, a dressing room with built-in closets of French cedar and a library/office space.
Mrs. Nettelbeck, who now lives alone at La Pradelle, has decided to move to Berlin to be near family. She put the house on the market for $1.17 million euros ($1.48 million).
Throughout La Pradelle hang the paintings of the Croatian artist Vlado Kristl. Mrs. Nettelbeck sold a signed copy of Andy Warhol’s “Marilyn,” among other things, to buy the collection.
Hanging on the original 16th-century walls of one of the outbuildings are the letters TAO. “The letters were just lying around here, so we hung them up,” Mrs. Nettelbeck said. The Taoist philosophy, however, seems perfectly suited to the serene atmosphere at La Pradelle
“I have found peace here, inspiration and lots and lots of the best food and wine I have ever had in my whole life,” Sandra Nettelbeck said.
Tags: five screenplays, Garden Landscaping, serpentine pool0
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
