Château de la Tour d'Oyré hosts weddings, company evenings, foundation galas, small residential seminars, retreats and photo or film shoots. Its main room is a 16th-century tithe barn of 320 square meters that seats up to 300 guests, set in a park with a château terrace and a lime-tree avenue for outdoor moments. Three gîtes sleep 16 people on site. The estate lies in Availles-en-Châtellerault, in the Vienne department, about 35 minutes from Poitiers.
Seminars and company events
Companies can take over the barn and, in the warm months, the park, to gather a team in the countryside. Accommodation covers up to 16 colleagues in the gîtes. The barn and the grounds also host yoga retreats and art workshops, company parties, foundation galas, hot-air balloon gatherings and classic car rallies.
For film and photo productions, the estate offers a varied set: the landscape park, the ruins of a dovecote, bedrooms in the château, a listed salon and a bedroom hung with Braquenié fabric. There is room for trucks and trailers, and the barn's 320 square meters can serve as covered storage for equipment. The château itself is not open to the public.
Weddings and receptions
The owners designed the reception and lodging spaces as a small hamlet around the barn. A ceremony can take place under the lime trees or elsewhere in the park, the cocktail on the château terrace overlooking the park and the forest, and the dinner in the barn, sheltered from the weather. The area around the barn opens onto the park, with a pond and an ice house, and onto a courtyard lined with cottages.
Couples can move into the gîtes from Thursday to set up the decoration, and the next-day brunch can run until 4 pm.
Rooms and capacities
The tithe barn measures 320 square meters and seats up to 300. The château terrace has no stated limit, and the lime-tree avenue can host a ceremony or an outdoor dinner. A pool sits next to the château.
Accommodation
Three gîtes, a few steps from the barn, sleep 16 in total. Les Vignes, an 18th-century house, has four bedrooms and two bathrooms for eight. Les Chaumes, also 18th-century stone, has three bedrooms and two bathrooms for six. La Laiterie, the former dairy where goat cheese was made, has one double bedroom for two. Each gîte has a fitted kitchen and a living room, and beds are made on arrival.
Catering
There is no in-house catering. The owners recommend trusted local caterers, florists, photographers, furniture and sound hire, and even balloon or helicopter rides, but they do not manage these suppliers on the day.
History and setting
The château was built around 1180 for Raoul de Faye, uncle of Eleanor of Aquitaine. In 1262 the fief passed to the bishop of Poitiers and became the country residence of the cathedral canons. Charles d'Anjou bought it in 1447. In the 16th century it became a Protestant fief. During the Revolution two thirds of the château and its archives were burned, so the present house is the surviving third. Ludovic Halévy, librettist to Offenbach, set a novella of 1883 in the park, and Charles Gounod stayed here. The family of Adrien Treuille acquired the estate in 1880 and his descendants still own it. The facades, roofs and a salon with a 17th-century painted decor are listed as historic monuments.
The barn's timber frame dates from 1509 and has barely changed since. The English landscape park of 14 hectares, recorded on the Napoleonic land register, has a river crossed by two stone bridges, a large pond and old trees including bald cypresses and sequoias.
Getting there
The estate is 35 minutes from Poitiers, one hour from Tours and 20 minutes from the Futuroscope by car.
