Château de la Napoule

Corporate retreats, product launches, cocktail evenings, galas and weddings for 20 to more than 400 guests can be held at the Château de la Napoule, on the seafront at Mandelieu-la-Napoule, about 7 km from Cannes. The château is home to the La Napoule Art Foundation and is available for hire every day of the year, across seven indoor and outdoor settings.

Seminars and company events

The foundation lists product launches, cocktail evenings, corporate parties, retreats and galas among the events it hosts. The compound also has indoor and outdoor studios and spaces for lectures, performances and teaching, used for the foundation's art retreats; their use for a company programme is confirmed with the team. The events team plans each event with the organiser, from layout to lighting, decoration and sound. Booking fees help fund the foundation's artist residencies and the upkeep of the building, museum and gallery.

Weddings and receptions

Weddings are one of the château's main private uses, for parties from 20 guests to more than 400. The foundation does not assign a fixed use to each space, so ceremony, drinks and dinner are placed with the team among the gardens, the courtyard, the sea terraces and the rooms. The setting combines stone architecture, Roman towers, fountains, historic sculpture and modern art, with views of the sea.

Rooms and capacities

Seven settings are named: the French formal garden, the Lover's garden, the Cour d'Honneur, the sea terraces, the Gothic Dining Room, the Salon Marie and the Galerie Spencer. The foundation states a range of 20 to more than 400 guests for the site as a whole; capacities for each space are not published.

History and setting

The Romans first came to the site more than 2,000 years ago. In the Middle Ages the Villeneuve family built a fortress here, destroyed and rebuilt several times and later turned into a seaside villa. The American artist Henry Clews and his wife Marie discovered it in 1918. Over 17 years Marie, acting as architect and landscape designer, added a turreted gatehouse, high ramparts, seaside terraces and gardens, while Henry carved the mythical creatures that decorate the building. Henry died in 1937, and in 1951 Marie created the La Napoule Art Foundation in his memory. The foundation still invites artists in residence, and the château is a listed historic monument.

Getting there

The château stands on avenue Henry Clews in Mandelieu-la-Napoule. La Napoule station, served by regional TER trains, is directly opposite; TGV travellers change at Cannes. Nice Côte d'Azur airport is about 30 minutes by motorway, via the A8 exit 40, Mandelieu Centre. The château has no private car park: Parking St Fainéant (50 spaces), Parking Soustelle (40 spaces) and some spaces on avenue Henry Clews are nearby, so guest shuttles are worth planning for a large event.