The Abbaye de Reigny can host seminars, management meetings, team building days, receptions and weddings, with up to 400 guests seated in its Gothic refectory and an 80 m² room for working sessions. The whole site can be hired privately. This former Cistercian abbey stands at Vermenton, in the Yonne, on the banks of the Cure, and has been a listed historic monument since 1920. It is a private, lived-in house run by its owners, Louis-Marie and Béatrice Mauvais.
Seminars and company events
The abbey sells day and evening events for companies and event agencies, with specific rates for them. The rooms have wifi, a screen and a video projector, and can be used in daylight or blacked out. The Scriptorium, 80 m², works as a meeting room, a screening room or a dining room. The 18th-century salons and dining room suit a board meeting or a working lunch, and the larger rooms take plenary sessions, dinners and dance evenings. The site says it can receive groups from 10 up to 1,000 people across its spaces. The park, its canals and the riverbank give room for outdoor breaks and activities.
Weddings and receptions
Weddings are a main activity. Guests arrive through an 18th-century wrought iron gate, along an avenue of lime trees between two canals, to a formal box garden and a large car park. The cocktail is served under century-old lime trees, or in the vaulted cellar if it rains. Dinner is in the refectory, which seats up to 400 guests and is followed by dancing. The next day, a brunch can be held as a garden party in the park or a buffet by the river. A secular ceremony can take place in the park; religious ceremonies use the churches of the parish. Couples can arrive a few days early and have wine and decorations delivered the week before.
Rooms and capacities
The refectory of the monks, a Gothic hall of 450 m² with its original polychrome decoration, is the main room. The cellar, built by the monks in the 18th century on the base of the 12th-century church, covers 250 m² and is used for dance evenings and lunches. The suite of salons, the 18th-century dining room and the grand staircase serve smaller receptions. The Scriptorium (80 m²) is the meeting room. The reception room has underfloor heating and is accessible to wheelchair users.
Accommodation
The estate has 14 bedrooms, each with a private shower room and toilet, across the guest rooms of the abbey and two gîtes, one of them accessible to wheelchair users. A hotel annex of 44 single or double rooms stands in a village of the Chablis area, and a large gîte, the Logis Saint-François, is in Vermenton. In total the abbey says it can sleep up to 135 people.
Catering
You choose your own caterer. The abbey has a caterer's kitchen with a clean area for plating and equipment, and a separate area for returned dishes. The owners give a list of suppliers who already know the site.
History and setting
Étienne de Toucy, a monk of Clairvaux, founded the abbey in 1128 under the authority of Saint Bernard. It housed up to 300 monks in the Middle Ages and became a royal foundation in 1493. The refectory, the salons and dormitory of the monks, an 18th-century gateway and a 17th-century dovecote with 3,500 nesting holes remain. The Cistercian water network is preserved. The estate covers more than 100 hectares.
Getting there
The abbey is less than 200 km south of Paris and 350 km from Lyon, 10 km from the A6 motorway, with direct access from the N6. Follow the road to the gate.
