Yes ! Normandy has one … An Earthship !!

EarthShip home – superbly designed house with an eco-twist 

 

Now here is a site if ever you saw one –

“Europe’s First Official Earthship Home, with a large permaculture garden containing newly planted fruit trees, in a peaceful location close to the attractive Normandy town of Mortain. Perrine is a fully sustainable off-grid earthship. The property reflects the standard Earthship package in design and has been adapted to suit the European climate.”

One of my agents, Jacqueline Lowe, asked me to join her as we needed “to valuate and list a kind of eco – built house” (and then followed a grin…).

So one sunny thursday she took me through the rolling normandy countryside (to be more precise : South in the department of the Manche, near the Mont Saint Michel) to the village of Ger and she drove up an alley. Imagine me stepping out of the car, asking her where the house was, as I could only see this rather large greenhouse … Oops…

I went through this “earthship” tumbling from one surprise into another.

An Earthship is actually built from all kind of discarded materials (including bottles, old tires and all else that the immediate surroundings provide) and must be self-contained. It’s origin is from the USA, and all around the world there are now appr 300 earthships, all adapted to their own specific surroundings.

The general criteria however are quite strict. Which means among others :

• filter it’s own water from a well.
• clean the air with a range of selected plants.
• create its own energy from solar panels.
• heating through wood and sun.

Walking through this house I was amazed what we can learn from nature if we live with it – and how friendly nature can be towards our needs. And all this in this quaint little Normandy village…

Obviously this is really a property for people with a large interest towards eco-design, eco-living and nature loving, but we have it as one of our gems on our listings.. because it is a tribute to the nature-and-man-bonding !

Only one question came to mind … how on earth(ship) do I value this at a proper price ???

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More details on this Normandy earthship : http://www.terresdefrance.fr/details-of-the-property?id=569