Le Pigeonnier du Perron can host board meetings, training days, team-building days and small residential seminars for up to 30 people in conference layout, with a private lunch for groups of 14 to 40. It is a three-star hotel of 16 bedrooms in a former seigneurial house at Availles-en-Châtellerault, in the Vienne countryside, about 10 minutes from the A10 motorway and from the center of Châtellerault.
Seminars and company events
The hotel lists executive and strategy committees, team building, product launches, press events and training seminars among the formats it takes, and offers to reserve the place for a single group. A typical day runs from a morning session in the seminar room to lunch in the hotel restaurant, an afternoon activity on the grounds and a dinner together, with a short meeting the next morning before departure.
Day packages, half-day packages and residential and semi-residential packages are offered. They combine the room, coffee breaks, lunch and, for the residential formats, a night in a single room with breakfast.
Team-building activities can be arranged on site: a cooking workshop, archery, guided rides on electric off-road scooters, a wine tasting with a wine educator from La Rochelle, a digital wall game with a trophy, an escape game and group challenges such as olympiads. Nearby, the hotel suggests a chocolate and pastry workshop in Châtellerault, a visit to a walnut oil mill and a karting track 25 minutes away by car.
Rooms and capacities
The seminar room, Salle Descartes, measures 52 square meters. It takes up to 18 people in a U-shape, 16 in classroom layout and 30 in conference layout. It has daylight, a fireplace lit in winter, two flipcharts, a 65-inch interactive touchscreen on a mobile stand that also works as a digital flipchart, network sockets and free wifi. The room is accessible to guests with reduced mobility.
The restaurant room on the ground floor is reserved for one group at a time for weekday lunches, for 14 to 40 guests.
Accommodation
The hotel has 16 non-smoking bedrooms in four categories: Classique, Confort, Premium and Supérieure. Two of them are apartment units with a kitchenette, and one is laid out in the spirit of a country guest house. One ground-floor room is adapted for reduced mobility and opens onto a terrace and the garden. All rooms have air conditioning, free wifi and a flat-screen television, and the Premium and Supérieure rooms add a coffee and tea tray. Rooms sleep from one to six people, so a team can share or each person can have a single.
Catering
The kitchen cooks French classics with fresh produce, much of it local and organic: vegetables from a market gardener in Availles, honey from a local beekeeper and fruit from the hotel orchard. Breakfast is a buffet. Weekday lunches are served only to booked groups, from Monday to Friday, and dinner is offered to hotel guests on reservation. The summer terrace faces south-west.
History and setting
The house dates from the 15th century and keeps its square dovecote of the same period almost intact. In the early 17th century the philosopher René Descartes owned the estate and took the title of lord of Le Perron. The farm later sheltered refugees during the Second World War, fell quiet in the 1970s and reopened in 2001 after a full renovation. The Thiollet family runs the hotel. Guests also have an outdoor heated pool, table tennis, a boules court, a lounge bar with a Gaveau piano and charging points for electric cars. The hotel holds the EU Ecolabel.
Getting there
The hotel is at 22 lieu-dit Le Perron, 86530 Availles-en-Châtellerault, about 10 minutes by car from the A10 and from Châtellerault. Parking is on site. The Futuroscope park and the spa town of La Roche-Posay are within reach for an extra activity.
