Buy a French chateau at (almost) half-price

An $18 million castle might not fit the traditional definition of a bargain, but then nothing about the Chateau d’Aubiry is what you’d call ordinary. Curbed reports the property is up for sale on a French version of Craigslist – Leboncoin – for nearly half its original listed price.

Dressed in Pyrenees  marble and decked out in Baroque style, the property has 15 bedrooms, a cellar, chapel, library, music room, billiard room and swimming pool – everything and anything the casual millionaire might require for their impressive mountain getaway.

And if that’s not enough, it also houses some frescos by Parisian painter Henry Perrault and a greenhouse designed by Gustav Eiffel (ie, the tower guy).

The Chateau d’Aubiry has been for sale since 2011, when it was reportedly listed through Sotheby’s for €21,000,000. It’s near the Spanish border in the Pyrenees-Orientales, and was built during the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th century.

Designed by Danish architect Viggo Dorph-Petersen, it was commissioned by Pierre Bardou-Job, a rich French industrialist who had made his fortune selling cigarette papers, as a gift to his son.

It was reportedly owned by the Bardou family until the early ’70s, and is now a protected French historical monument – so presumably any dramatic renovations are out of the question.

But then that would be missing the point, wouldn’t it? More information can be found (in French) at the listing.