La Seigneurie du Bois Benoist hosts seminars, business meals, product launches, galas and weddings for 70 to 400 seated guests, and cocktail receptions for up to 800. The estate is a former noble house in Vallet, in the Loire-Atlantique department, about 20 minutes from Nantes.
Seminars and company events
The reception hall covers more than 400 m² and can be split into a working area and a dining area, so a study day can move from session to lunch in the same building. Breakfasts, lunches and business dinners are served for up to 400 people, and standing cocktails for up to 800 in the hall or the courtyard. A video projector, a microphone and a paperboard are supplied on request. The venue lists working meetings, study days, business meals, galas and product launches among the formats it takes, and quotes are prepared for each event.
Weddings and receptions
Weddings follow a turnkey formula: the venue sets up tables, chairs, tableware and glassware, cooks the meal and acts as the couple's single contact. Only one wedding is hosted per weekend. The cocktail is served in the inner courtyard when the weather allows, with garden furniture and parasols, and an indoor area keeps guests dry if it rains without taking space from the dining room. The day before, couples get a slot to bring their own decoration and check the setup. A nursery with two rooms, one with a TV and a changing table and one for baby cots, lets parents settle young children. Suppliers such as DJs, photographers and children's entertainers are suggested, not imposed.
Rooms and capacities
The modular reception space sits around a closed courtyard that is lit at nightfall. Its two rooms, Les Charmilles and Amédé, together take 70 to 400 guests. The equipment includes 300 upholstered chairs, 30 round tables for 8 to 10 people, an oval table for up to 16 and two trestle tables, all installed by the staff.
Accommodation
Three guest rooms, Topaze, Marfil and Passiflore, each have a private bathroom. For larger groups, the venue provides a list of other places to stay nearby.
Catering
The kitchen is in-house. Chef Benoit Garanger, who according to the venue worked in starred restaurants in Paris, built a menu that adapts gourmet cooking to group service. Couples taste the menu along with wines drawn mostly from local vineyards.
History and setting
Bois Benoist was recorded in the 15th century as a noble house dependent on the lordship of Clisson. The Chemynee family held it for about two centuries; after rapid changes of ownership from the mid-18th century, it passed to the Dubois de la Patellière family. The painter Amédée de la Patellière was born in the family house on July 5, 1890. The cellars and hornbeam walks of the property appear in many of the nearly 900 canvases he painted between 1922 and 1932.
Getting there
The address is 1 le Bois Benoist, 44330 Vallet. From Paris or Angers, leave the motorway at the Ancenis exit. From Nantes, follow the ring road toward Poitiers and Cholet, take the Vallet exit and follow the signs. Nantes, its airport and Cholet are about 20 minutes away, Angers and La Roche-sur-Yon about 45 minutes. The Nantes railway station is about 20 minutes by road.
