Château de Colombières

Seminars and company events

Château de Colombières takes bookings for seminars, receptions, family celebrations, tastings and weddings, and quotes each event on request. It is a moated fortress in the village of Colombières, in the Bessin area of Calvados, between Bayeux and Isigny-sur-Mer. The owners, the Maupeou d'Ableiges family, live in the château and receive groups themselves.

For a company, the château works best as a setting for a small seminar or a working day combined with a guided visit. Tours cover around a thousand years of history, from the companions of William the Conqueror to June 1944, and groups are received by appointment from April to October. The official site publishes no meeting room capacities, so numbers and layout need to be agreed with the family.

Weddings and receptions

Weddings and receptions are part of the château's offer, with a dining and reception room inside the fortress and photographs taken around the moats, the inner courtyard and the stone staircases. The estate has also hosted commemorations of the 1944 landings and a medieval festival, which shows that outdoor gatherings in the grounds are possible.

Rooms and capacities

The rooms shown to guests include a medieval kitchen with its bread oven, well and fireplace, a dining room, a vaulted chapel, a library and a salon in the tower. The dining and reception room is the one used for meals. No capacities are given on the official site.

Accommodation

Three guest rooms are let as chambres d'hôtes: the Chambre Louis XVI, the Suite Tour and the Suite Guetteur. Arrivals are between 6 pm and 8 pm and departures between 9 am and 10.30 am. A larger group will need hotels in Bayeux or along the coast.

History and setting

The site was a fortified place in the 11th century. The Bacon du Molay family built the present fortress at the end of the 14th century: a square plan with four towers, walls about 2.7 metres thick and 11 metres high, water-filled moats and a drawbridge. Charles V judged it able to resist a siege in 1371. The Bricqueville family added two Renaissance towers after 1450 and held the fief for about three centuries. In 1759 the estate passed to the Girardin family, ancestors of the present owners, who turned it into a classical residence. In June 1944 the château was spared, then became a press and radio centre for the American forces and a headquarters of General Bradley's 12th Army Group. It is a classified historical monument.

Getting there

Lison station, on the Paris Saint-Lazare to Cherbourg line, is 15 km away, and Bayeux station 24 km. Caen-Carpiquet airport is 50 km away and Deauville airport 100 km. By road from Caen, follow the N13 towards Cherbourg, leave at Formigny (exit 30) after Bayeux, then take the D30 to Trévières and the D29 towards Saint-Lô.