Brand new 4 to 5 bedroom house near shops, schools and transport — central Paramé, Saint-Malo

A serviced and surveyed 435 m² plot in the middle of Paramé, with free choice of builder, and with shops, schools and public transport all within walking distance. For a family moving permanently rather than for the summer, this is the practical end of Saint-Malo.

The house is our 150 m² design of four to five bedrooms, with two bathrooms and a garage.

One detail from the advertisement, stated plainly: the plot comes with shared ownership of roughly 50 m² of access road. That is a normal arrangement and simply means the access is held in common with the neighbouring plots; we check the terms with the notary before you commit.

About Paramé

Paramé was a separate commune until 1967 and still has the feel of one. It is the part of Saint-Malo where daily life actually happens: the schools, the shops, the doctors, the buses, the weekly rhythm of a working town rather than a tourist quarter.

It also has the best of the beach. The Plage du Sillon runs from the walled city all the way along Paramé's front — nearly three kilometres of sand with the promenade behind it and the wooden breakwaters marching out into the water. When the big tides come up and the wind is onshore, the waves break over the sea wall here hard enough to draw a crowd, and it is one of the sights of the Breton coast.

Behind the front, the Rochebonne quarter has the belle-époque villas from when Paramé was a seaside resort in its own right, with the thalassotherapy centre on the sea front.

The walled city is ten minutes by bus or bike along the front. The hospital, the covered market and the commercial port are all close. Rothéneuf and Cancale lie east; Dinard is across the estuary; Dinan is half an hour up the Rance; Mont-Saint-Michel fifty minutes.

The ferry port and the TGV station are both in the town: Portsmouth, Poole via Guernsey, Jersey most days, and Paris in under three hours.