Buy Of The Week: France

Back in 1987, when property developer Trisha Mason first discovered this watermill buried deep in the rural countryside of the Limousin region of central France, it was in pretty poor shape.

"The place hadn't been lived in for more than 30 years and the grounds were completely overgrown," she says. "The mill was a shell - all the doors and windows had fallen out and there was no water or electricity."

However, she recognised its potential. She particularly liked its shape - two wings bridged by a central arch - and its eclectic architectural blend of a sharply pitched terracotta-tiled roof with prominent overhangs and walls of local stone twinned with the quirky half-timbered central archway and gables. "It's a very arts-and-crafts style," she says.

She was also impressed by its secluded position - tucked away at the end of a lane amid 20 acres of undulating meadows and woodland - while only a 20-minute walk from the charming village of Dompierre Les Eglises and a half-hour drive from the bustling city of Limoges, with its regular flights to the UK.

Trisha made enquiries and learnt that the building had been commissioned in the mid-19th century by a wealthy family from Chartres who had used it as a working mill and holiday home. It had served as a Resistance hideout during the Second World War. The last miller had left in 1954.

Trisha tracked down the owners and when her offer was accepted she knew she was facing an enormous task. However, the potential rewards were great, too - she was hoping to eventually transform the building into a whopping 500sq m of living space. Apart from the mill-house itself - occupying the west wing - there was an equally cavernous grain barn in the east wing linked to the main building by an archway with a clock-tower on top.

Trisha decided to tackle the west wing first and spent the next few summers camping out in the grounds with her two young children and groups of visiting friends - sometimes as many as 30 of them - working on the house during the day, then partying by night.

First they cleared the worst of the undergrowth, then replaced windows and doors, fixed the roof and arranged for the reconnection of basic services.

The huge living room was fashioned from the working part of the mill. Much of the heavy machinery was ripped out but quite a few of the original beams were retained, as were the giant internal and external cast-iron mill wheels. Although now serving as a decorative feature, these are in working order and could be used to generate electricity. "I don't like keeping things just for show," Trisha says.

Next to the living room are equally spacious kitchen and dining-room areas, while a pair of spiral staircases ascend to the upper level. A games room occupies the space above the living room while three en-suite bedrooms and a spare room lead off towards the clock tower. A passageway to the east wing has been converted into a library.

The back of the main mill-house is ringed with south-facing terraces and balconies overlooking the river and stream.

It took four years to make the west wing properly habitable, after which Trisha switched her attention to the east wing. Again, the works took several years, but the result was a new living space with three en-suite bedrooms and a study on the upper level, and a living room, kitchen and dining room below.

The house today is wonderfully adaptable. "It can be used as one enormous space or you can lock up the double-doors in the library and have two self-contained wings," says Trisha.

She even managed to squeeze in an additional one-bedroom flat on the ground floor of the east wing that serves as a caretaker's apartment.

By the late 1990s, Trisha and her two children were more or less living in the mill-house full-time while her parents had moved into the east wing. However, as the project neared completion, Trisha became restless. "I'm a compulsive restorer," she says.

She found the perfect outlet for her energy two years ago when she bought a derelict farmhouse near Avignon. She has been transforming it into a new home for the family ever since and now, six months from completion, has reluctantly decided it is time to sell off the old watermill.

What will she miss most? "The background burble of the mill stream. I find it endlessly fascinating - the same feeling of wonder you get from gazing into a fire."

Get the spec

What's for sale: a seven-bedroom 19th-century watermill with six bathrooms plus self-contained one-bedroom flat in the Limousin region of central France.

Getting there: the mill is about half-an-hour's drive south of Limoges, where the airport offers regular flights to various UK destinations, including London's Stansted Airport (about 90 minutes).

Serious kit: distinctive Arts-and-Crafts-style beamed architecture; extensive terracing and balconies to the rear of the house; working clock tower above the archway linking the house's two wings; many original features remaining, including mill wheels and mechanisms with potential to generate electricity supply.

How big? 500sq m of living space that can be divided up into three self-contained apartments, plus 20 acres of rolling meadows and woods.

Extras: trout fishing and swimming in the River Bramme, plus own millstream and pond.

Buy it: the watermill, close to the village off Dompierre Les Eglises, is for sale through VEF (020-7515 8660 or www.vefuk.com) for £800,000 (€1,200,000).