Académie équestre de Versailles

The Académie équestre de Versailles rents its riding hall and a gallery for corporate evenings, with the option of a private performance of its equestrian show. The hall takes up to 450 guests for a cocktail or 300 for a seated dinner, and the gallery takes up to 110 standing or 80 seated. The Academy sits in the Grande Écurie, directly across from the Château de Versailles.

Seminars and company events The site is offered for company events, with receptions built around the show. The format described by the Academy is an evening: guests watch the performance, visit the stables if wished, then move to a cocktail or a seated dinner. The show, titled La Voie de l'écuyère and choreographed by Bartabas, lasts one hour, and a shorter 50-minute version is available. It can be privatized for your guests. The official text speaks of evenings for businesses rather than working meetings, so check with the sales team before planning a seminar with a plenary session.

The Academy also sells private visits outside public hours. These cover the Grande Écurie and the riding hall, with a welcome cocktail in the gallery. The visits are set for groups of 2 to 120 people.

Rooms and capacities The riding hall, called the Manège, covers 500 m² and has a golden sand floor. It is lit by Murano glass chandeliers and styled like an opera hall, with wood and mirrors. After the show, the reception takes place on the sand, as a cocktail for up to 450 people or a seated dinner for up to 300.

The Salon Nuno Oliveira is a gallery of 120 m² with a wooden floor and a view over the Château de Versailles. It works for a cocktail of up to 110 people or a seated dinner for up to 80.

Catering The official text mentions cocktails and seated dinners but does not describe an in-house kitchen or a list of approved caterers. Ask the sales team how catering is organized for your date.

History and setting Bartabas founded the Academy in 2003 in the Grande Écurie of the Château de Versailles. It is a higher education institution that links the classical riding tradition known as Haute École with fencing, dance, song and Kyudo, the Japanese art of archery. Riders and horses perform in the same hall that hosts receptions, so the evening takes place in a working school rather than a neutral room.

Booking The Palais des Congrès de Versailles handles sales for the Academy's spaces. Requests for private visits go to the Academy's own contact. The address is the Manège de la Grande Écurie du Château de Versailles, 1 Avenue Rockefeller, 78000 Versailles.

Getting there The Grande Écurie faces the château in the center of Versailles. The Academy publishes both a driving route and a public transport route on its website. Trains from Paris serve several Versailles stations, and the walk from the RER C station Versailles Château Rive Gauche is short.