French ambassador's house for sale - at asking price €60m

You have to admire the style of the French. The property boom is well and truly over and, voila!, they  put their embassy residence on the market - for a staggering €60 million.

The 11-bedroom mansion on Ailesbury Road in Ballsbridge will be the most expensive home ever sold in Ireland if it achieves the price suggested by sale agents Lisney. It is also one of the largest, at over 11,000sq ft - 10 times bigger than the average three-bed semi - with a garden of 1.75 acres.

French ambassador Yvon Roe d'Albert says the house is so large, he has not yet been in all the rooms.
"It is so big that sometimes I have to call my wife on her mobile phone if I want to talk to her."

Built in 1900, 53 Ailesbury Road has been owned by the French government since 1930 and is now being sold along with the Chancery, the French embassy offices opposite the residence, at 36 Ailesbury Road. This is a modest two-storey house with an acre of garden and a price-tag of €20 million.

The Chancery has an interesting history: a republican safe house during the War of Independence, it had a secret room, from which leading IRA figure Ernie O'Malley was sprung in a gunfight that left a Free State soldier dead.

The residence is likely to be bought as a home by one of Ireland's new super-rich. Built to impress, it has a sweeping driveway, a magnificent drawing room that can take 200 for drinks (and  possibly Ferrero Rochers) and a dining room that comfortably seats 45. On Bastille Day, more than 1,000 guests have been invited to a garden party.

The large and lavish bedrooms include the Charles de Gaulle room, where the former president once rested briefly on a state trip to Ireland. All bedrooms have en-suite bathrooms, though they are in need of updating. The entire house is likely to be refurbished by any new owners, with one estate agent  eckoning €5 million could be spent.

The sale could set a trend for other embassies, with the Canadians already in negotiations to offload  their nine-acre Killiney residence. Their ambassador is now living in a rented apartment in the Four Seasons Hotel.

However, the French seem set on purchasing another, more manageable, residence in Ballsbridge, and may end up swapping their residence for a smaller house along  with a cash payment.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times