Domaine de Mestré hosts study days and residential seminars for up to 25 people in its meeting room, and cocktails for 10 to 60 guests, with 19 bedrooms and a restaurant on site. It is a three-star hotel in the former main farm of Fontevraud Abbey, two kilometers from the abbey at Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, in the Loire Valley between Saumur and Chinon.
Seminars and company events
The hotel sells three seminar packages. The day package covers the equipped room, a welcome coffee or afternoon snack, and a seasonal lunch of starter, main course and dessert with drinks. The semi-residential package adds the night and a sweet and savory breakfast buffet, with a quarter bottle of wine per person at lunch and dinner left free. The residential package adds a seasonal dinner and an aperitif served in the salon or on the terrace. Every package includes a flipchart, projection equipment and wall, mineral water and unlimited Wi-Fi.
The meeting room is spacious, airy and lit by daylight. Lunches can be served at the time the group chooses, in express, full or gourmet formats. The hotel also takes private events and company receptions, with cocktails for 10 to 60 guests.
Rooms and capacities
The meeting room seats up to 25 people. Cocktail receptions take 10 to 60 guests. For dinners, the restaurant uses three dining rooms in the main house: the Empire room with period furniture, the Draperies room and the Red dining room, which takes the large tables. A terrace faces the garden in fine weather.
Accommodation
The hotel has 19 bedrooms and family suites in four categories: six Charme, four Romantique, three Insolite and six Familles. For a seminar the hotel can house 16 people in single rooms, or 13 in single rooms and six in double rooms. Guests have access to a covered, heated indoor pool with spa and sauna, and massages can be booked.
Catering
Chef Jean Baptiste Porquet runs La Table de Mestré, which serves dinner from Tuesday to Saturday with four starters, four mains and four desserts, always with a vegetarian option. The menu follows the season and the estate's vegetable garden. The bar lists about 40 whiskies and a wine list of 120 references centered on Saumur, Saumur-Champigny and Bourgueil. An aperitif with three local wines can be taken in the vaulted cellar dug by the monks in the 12th century.
History and setting
Mestré was the main farm of Fontevraud Abbey. The buildings range from the 12th to the 17th century: a 12th-century barn that housed pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela, a small chapel with a 12th-century crypt, a 16th-century house with mullioned windows, and two large buildings added in 1802 and 1860 with notable roof frames. The family has owned the estate since March 7, 1791, and opened the hotel in 1981. The dining rooms keep a collection of Joseph Dufour wallpapers. The estate also has an artisan soap workshop and shop.
Getting there
The hotel is at the lieu-dit Mestré, 49590 Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, two kilometers from the abbey, between Saumur and Chinon in Anjou. Free parking is on site, and the hotel is accessible to guests with reduced mobility.
