Rue Notre-Dame, cours Xavier Arnozan, the quays, the market square. We search on your behalf, off-market included, from first conversation to completion.
The houses of the Chartrons were not designed for living alone. When merchants from Flanders, Holland, England, Ireland and Germany settled here in the seventeenth century, they built homes that were also places of work: wide vaulted cellars at street level, generous openings to let the barrels through, long plots running down towards the river. Three centuries later, that original requirement is what gives the quarter its charm — those cellars now hold kitchens, studios and reception rooms nobody would build that way today.
Three families sit side by side. The merchants' houses, tall and narrow, with their vaulted cellars and pale stone. The échoppes, single-storey or raised, often with a small courtyard behind. And the chais converted since the 1980s, whose volumes and roof timbers have no equivalent in new build.
Chartrons plots are long and narrow, inherited from the days when they linked the street to the river. What stands behind the frontage — courtyard, town garden, outbuilding, former chai — is never guessed from the street, and yet makes most of the value.
The perimeter is settled: between the Quinconces and the Jardin Public, along the Garonne, nothing will be added. Houses change hands rarely here, and a Chartrons address often passes within families or through the quarter's own network.
Bordeaux families wanting space without leaving the city. Executives arriving in the metropolis and looking for a quarter already formed. Buyers from across Nouvelle-Aquitaine moving closer to Bordeaux. And lovers of period building, drawn by one particular house.
The heart of the quarter: antique dealers, food shops, the covered hall Tuesday to Saturday and the quayside market on Sundays.
The former chais and the twin houses, facing the Garonne and the right bank.
The transition to the park, with grander houses and quieter streets.
The walk down to the esplanade and the historic centre, fifteen minutes on foot.
A Sunday morning, you walk back from the quayside market with oysters and bread, rue Notre-Dame is raising its shutters, and you take them down to keep cool in the vaulted cellar.
The vaulted cellar or the garden, the shopping street or the quiet, untouched period fabric or renewed comfort. In the Chartrons these choices lead to different streets, and we settle them before searching.
The quarter works like a village: owners, notaires, shopkeepers and antique dealers all know one another. A house is known to be available long before any listing exists, and that is the network we draw on.
We visit, we check the condition of the period fabric, the quality and ventilation of the cellars, the true depth of the plot and what it allows. You travel only once the house has been thoroughly examined.
Through to completion, alongside your notaire. We negotiate for you, and for you alone — never for the seller.
No. In the Chartrons, two houses of the same size may have one a twenty-square-metre courtyard, the other a former chai over three floors. The vaulted cellar, the depth of the plot and the condition of the period fabric weigh far more than the measurement. We start from the address and what the house holds in its own right.
Often yes, and it is one of the quarter's attractions. They were built to take barrels, so they are generously sized and well ventilated. We check their condition systematically and what they allow: living space, studio or wine cellar.
Many families do. The quarter has kept its schools, its local shops and its Sunday market, and the Jardin Public is reached on foot. Life is organised at the scale of the quarter, which is rare this close to a city centre.
Yes, and here it is decisive. The Chartrons work as a close circle: a significant share of houses passes on without any listing. Our network tells us in advance.
Agreed in advance and transparent. For a search mandate they fall due only on acquisition. The detail is set out at our first meeting.
One call is enough to frame your search in the Chartrons. We reply personally within 48 hours, in complete confidence.
07 86 71 33 13The Chartrons are one of the quarters we work in across Bordeaux. We cover many others, and we hold a certain idea of what this profession should be, better told elsewhere than on this page.
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