Château de Vollore hosts weddings, seminars and receptions for 80 to 100 seated guests in its former guards' hall, with exclusive use of the park and terraces and five guest bedrooms in the château. It stands above the village of Vollore-Ville in the Puy-de-Dôme, in Auvergne, and is still the home of descendants of General de La Fayette.
Seminars and company events
The reception hall is offered for seminars as well as for private events, which suits a management meeting, a board retreat or a client day for a group of up to about 100 people. Hire comes with exclusive use of the park and terraces, so a team can take its breaks outside and the château is not shared with another party on the day. The site sets no closing time for the hall, which leaves room for a working day that runs on into a dinner. Five guest bedrooms in the château can lodge a small leadership group. The site attaches them to the wedding package, so ask the owners whether rooms can be added to a seminar booking.
Weddings and receptions
Weddings are the main package on the site. The couple has the château for two days of celebration, with tables and chairs, the five bedrooms, and the park and terraces reserved for the wedding party. The guards' hall seats 80 to 100 guests for the dinner, and the terraces give a setting for the drinks reception and photographs. The hall can be used without a time limit, a point couples comparing venues often ask about.
Rooms and capacities
The event room is the Ancienne salle des gardes, the former guards' hall inside the château, for seated events of 80 to 100 people. The château also has an entrance hall, a dining room, a gallery, two Salons La Fayette and a Grand Salon, furnished with period pieces. These belong to the family home and to the visit, and the site does not present them as rooms for hire.
Accommodation
The château offers five guest rooms, each named after a woman of the La Fayette family: the Chambre Bleue, an apartment named for Marie-Louise, Comtesse de Pusy La Fayette; the Chambre Verte, for Émilie, Comtesse de La Fayette; the Chambre Jaune, a suite named for Mathilde de La Fayette; the Chambre Rose, for Julie de La Fayette; and the Suite Adrienne, Marquise de La Fayette. All five are included in the wedding package.
Catering
The site does not state whether the château works with a set caterer or lets hosts choose their own. Ask about catering rules, kitchen access and service staff when you send a request.
History and setting
Vollore appears in the history of Auvergne from the sixth century: in 532, Thierry, a son of Clovis, laid siege to the site. The old Vollore family built a fortress here in the twelfth century, and its Romanesque keep still stands. The estate later passed to the de Thiers and de Chazeron families, and in the seventeenth century the Montmorin family remodeled it into the château seen today, with its east and west facades of that period. The same family has owned it for more than two hundred years. The park is laid out on terraces, and each July the château takes part in Les Concerts de Vollore, a classical music festival that has run for more than forty seasons.
Getting there
The château is in Vollore-Ville (63120), in the hills east of Clermont-Ferrand, near Thiers and Courpière. Clermont-Ferrand has the closest airport and main railway station. A car is the practical way to arrive, so for a wedding or seminar plan road transport from Clermont-Ferrand for guests coming by train or plane.
