Château des Landes hosts weddings, birthdays, family parties and seminars for up to 180 seated guests, with three spaces that can be hired together or alone. The whole site is reserved for one event from Friday at 10 a.m. to Sunday evening, and there is no curfew on the party. Up to 80 guests can sleep on site. The château is a family home in the countryside at Cléré-sur-Layon, at the southern tip of Maine-et-Loire, about 40 minutes from Angers.
Seminars and company events
For a seminar, every room can be booked as needed and fitted with tables and office chairs. The bar room seats 70 and the Salle des Marronniers 30, so a plenary session and a smaller working group can run at the same time; the marquee takes larger groups. Meals can be brought in by the village restaurant, or a caterer can be hired. The estate notes that individual bedrooms are limited to 17 for a seminar group, with dormitory and chalet beds on top.
Weddings and receptions
Weddings are the estate's main use. The cocktail is served in the château courtyard, lit at night, where a ceremony can also be held. Guests then move into the marquee, draped in white, for dinner and the party, at round or rectangular tables with a view over the countryside. One side of the marquee opens onto a lit garden with small round tables, benches and a gazebo, a place for the champagne tower or the coffee. A covered yard takes cocktails and meals outdoors. On cooler nights the marquee is heated by a blower.
Rooms and capacities
The marquee covers 200 square meters and seats up to 180 guests. It backs onto the main room of 100 square meters, which has a bar and can be hired alone for up to 70 seated. The Salle des Marronniers, in the château courtyard, seats 30 and has its own kitchen. When the guest list goes beyond 70, the marquee is used.
Accommodation
The estate has 80 beds. Seven individual rooms have a double bed, three of them in the château; Bali, Portland and Altiplano are among their names. Two group gîtes add 22 beds: Philéas sleeps 14 in six bedrooms, with two showers, a kitchen, a living room and a terrace, and Bucolique sleeps 8 in three bedrooms. A dormitory has 12 places, and eight wooden chalets with electricity next to the château add about 30 beds, four per chalet. Sheets and towels are provided in the rooms and gîtes, and are optional in the dormitory and chalets.
Catering
The rooms can be hired with or without a caterer. The estate has a professional kitchen with an oven, a gas range and a warming cabinet, ready for the caterer's team. For seminars, the village restaurant can deliver meals on site.
History and setting
The château is a family house in the Anjou countryside, set around a courtyard, with a garden and outbuildings that now hold the event rooms, the gîtes and the chalets.
Getting there
The estate is about 30 minutes from Cholet and Saumur, 40 minutes from Angers, 1 h 15 from Nantes, 1 h 30 from Niort and Tours, and about 3 h 30 from Paris by car.
