Château de Chéronne can host weddings for up to 280 guests at dinner and 500 at the cocktail, as well as study days and team-building seminars, on an estate reserved for a single group. The château stands at Tuffé, in the Sarthe department, about 1 h 45 from Paris.
Seminars and company events
The estate takes study days and longer seminars. Its strength for companies is the range of activities it can run on site: axe throwing, a murder party, a leather workshop, building full-size cardboard cars for a team race, outdoor games, an introduction to French boxing and wine tasting. The 4-hectare park and the gîtes give a group room to work and to stay together. Meeting room names and capacities are not published, so ask the owners for the set-up that fits your program.
Weddings and receptions
Weddings run from May to October. The estate states that it has hosted about 180 weddings in 15 years. Guests gather for the cocktail in the English-style park in front of the château, with up to 500 people, and dinner is served in a lit marquee behind the château. Three packages are offered.
The Confort package, on weekdays only, gives exclusive access to the park from 2 p.m. to 10 a.m. the next day, tents of 130 m² for the cocktail in case of rain, outdoor furniture, a heated marquee of 300 m² on a wooden floor seating 250, an entrance marquee of 50 m², tables and chairs, a tent for the caterer and three toilet blocks. The Prestige package moves the event to the weekend, from Friday 3 p.m. for set-up to Sunday 5 p.m., and adds the bridal suite and the eight-person mill gîte for the Saturday night. The Exclusive package adds every bedroom on the estate for the Saturday night, a five-minute firework display over the pond and a photo booth.
The evening has no set end time, and a brunch can be held the next day.
Rooms and capacities
The reception spaces cover more than 500 m². The main dining space is the heated marquee of 300 m², listed for 250 seated in the packages and up to 280 guests on the wedding page. The cocktail takes place in the park, with tents of 130 m² as a fallback.
Accommodation
The estate has 22 bedrooms between the château and its gîtes. The four gîtes hold 16 rooms and 10 bathrooms for up to 34 people. La Buanderie has four rooms and can be joined with Le Séchoir upstairs for seven rooms and up to 16 guests. Le Moulin has four rooms for eight people and faces the château across the pond. The farmhouse gîte has five rooms for ten people, opposite the gatehouse. For larger groups, the owners share a list of 250 to 300 places to stay within 15 km.
Catering
The packages include a tent set aside for the caterer, and the owners share a list of certified suppliers to help you choose one.
History and setting
The estate has passed down within one family and, as the owners put it, has never been sold since 1370. The oldest building is the gatehouse, listed in the national heritage inventory and now under restoration. The château grew from a 16th-century west wing with a massive tower and spiral staircase into a moated quadrilateral in the 17th century, and its south facade was rebuilt in neo-Renaissance style in the early 20th century. Between the two world wars, the mill was turned into a small power plant.
Getting there
The postal address is Château de Chéronne, 72160 Tuffé. The estate is about 1 h 45 from Paris by road.
