If only the walls could talk! Houses with a history…

British buyers have always loved properties that come with a rich and fascinating background, whether it’s playing a key role in history or being home to an interesting personality. They can also command a premium too. Here are five that come with a past.

In this very special part of the Pyrenees, there’s the mythical Mount Canigou and it is where a famous French opera singer – and danced with Tsar Nicholas II of Russia – chose to build the Château de la Sybille. Audiences flocked down from Paris to watch her perform there.

This one has another opera and also Russian connection! This fabulous Chateau in the Auvergne was owned by the famous choreographer Pierre Lacote and his wife Ghislaine Thesmar, a prima ballerina of the Paris Opera, who helped dancer Rudolph Nureyev upon his defection from Russia in 1961. Her dance studio still remains in the stunning 14-bedroom property.

This 14-bedroom medieval chateau in the Languedoc has a connection to classic author Robert Louis Stevenson – and a certain donkey in Cevennes. There’s also a secret passage involved to add to the intrigue.

This magnificent maison de maitre in the Haute Garonne comes with its own marble room (a previous owner loved the stuff), but also some gorgeous ancient trees, planted by Edmond Rostand (author of Cyrano de Bergerac) who used to write his famous stories in the garden. 

A 10-bedroom castle dating back from the 14th century, that was a defensive position defending the North from the South in the Loire – all a bit Game of Thrones? You are getting a historic monument in Mayenne here – and the price is hard to believe too.