Weddings, private dinners and cocktail receptions for up to 220 seated guests, or 400 standing, are held at the Château de Beaujeu, in the village of Sens-Beaujeu in the Cher, a few kilometers from Sancerre. The estate is hired as a whole for the event, with two linked reception halls, three cellars, a terrace above the river and five bedrooms in the château.
Weddings and receptions
The château is offered for weddings, dinner parties and cocktail receptions, and the hire gives the hosts the estate for the night. The halls are booked for 24 hours, from 8 a.m. to 8 a.m. the next day, and a further 12-hour day can be added. The five château bedrooms are booked with the event night, and the separate Pavillon, when taken, is hired for the whole weekend. Bookings are confirmed by contract with staged deposits. On request the château arranges a DJ, fireworks, a florist and decoration, and baby-sitting. For the evening, garden tents, parasols, lighting and candles are offered as options.
Rooms and capacities
The main hall covers 130 square meters and seats 130. It opens into a smaller hall of 83 square meters seating 83, and together the two rooms, 213 square meters, seat 220 or take 400 for a cocktail. Both open onto the Communs courtyard, which faces the dovecote and can hold the drinks reception outdoors. Below the halls, three connected cellars totaling 104 square meters lead out to a south-facing terrace 80 meters long and 6 meters deep overlooking the river. The château supplies 25 round tables for eight, eight rectangular tables and 230 chairs, with six toilets, dressing rooms and parking supervised by staff on the day.
Accommodation
The château has five en-suite rooms: the Suite Jaune for four, and the Chambre Louis XVI, the Suite de la Tour, the Chambre du Pigeonnier and the Chambre des Communs for two each. The Pavillon, a separate house, has three bedrooms for eight people, a living room and a kitchen. Outside events the château also works as a bed and breakfast, with breakfast served in the banquet hall, and it provides a list of nearby hotels and guest houses for other guests.
Catering
There is no in-house caterer. The château keeps a list of local caterers it has worked with, and hosts may also bring their own. Caterers have independent access to their own preparation room. Bordeaux reds and whites and champagne can be supplied by the château.
History and setting
In the 14th century the Ménil-Simon family left their earlier seat near Neuilly-en-Sancerre and built a new Beaujeu across the Sauldre valley, at the foot of the Sens hill. A stone on the building carries the date 1566 and the name of Jean du Ménil-Simon. In the early 19th century Pierre-Maurice de Pommereau bought the estate from a former lady-in-waiting of Marie-Antoinette and restored it; the owning company is still represented by a Madame de Pommereau. The château is a long, regular house framed by two large round towers on its south front, each extended by a wing. The outbuildings along the courtyard, in line with the lime avenue, have doorways in alternating white stone and dark sandstone and hold the largest dovecote in the area. A lawn slopes down to the river.
Getting there
Sens-Beaujeu is about two hours by road from Paris: the A6 toward Lyon, then the A77 toward Nevers to exit 24, Sancerre, followed by about 12 km of local roads. The château stands at the bottom of the hill on the D74, at the end of a tree-lined drive.
