The Château de Vair hosts study days, conferences, congresses, team building, product launches, fashion shows, company evenings and weddings for 50 to 500 guests. It stands in Vair-sur-Loire, in the Loire-Atlantique department, on the old border between Brittany and Anjou, between Nantes and Angers. The château is rented exclusively, so one group has the whole site for its event.
Seminars and company events
For meetings, four connecting salons can each be set up separately: up to 70 people in conference layout, 32 in classroom style or 18 around a U-shaped table per salon. The salons together seat 160 for lunch and take 200 for a cocktail, and they open onto a 250 square meter terrace. The Galerie de Vair adds a plenary or dinner space for up to 300 seated, with a projection screen. The château offers a list of activities to build a program around the work sessions: hot-air balloon departures from the grounds, a treasure hunt in the park, cooking classes, wine tastings, casino nights, magicians, comedians, private concerts and fire performers. The estate is also used for filming.
Weddings and receptions
Couples choose their own suppliers freely, and the château shares a list of more than 200 suppliers it has selected. The three main salons seat 160 and take 300 for a cocktail, the gallery seats up to 300 and has room for a DJ or a band, and the terrace overlooks the park and the orangery. A nursery room with a changing table, microwave, high chairs and a television is set aside for young children, and a list of babysitters is available on request.
Rooms and capacities
The château has more than 900 square meters of reception space. The four salons cover 165 square meters in a row: the Salon de Bretagne (50 square meters), the Salon Yrigoyen (40 square meters, reached by the main staircase), the Salon d'Anjou (50 square meters) and the Salon de Musique (25 square meters). The Galerie de Vair is an Italian-style gallery of 280 square meters open to the grounds. The terrace measures 250 square meters. The site also has a swimming pool. Services include parking for 300 cars, lighting of the château and the moats, heating, a cloakroom, round and rectangular tables, chairs and armchairs, and final cleaning.
Accommodation
Group accommodation on site sleeps 30 people. Many holiday cottages, guest rooms and hotels are nearby, and the château provides a list and shuttles on request.
Catering
There is no in-house restaurant. Organisers bring a caterer of their choice, who works in a dedicated catering area with a freezer, two professional refrigerators and 14 meters of stainless steel worktops for plating.
History and setting
A fortress surrounded by water-filled moats stood here in the twelfth century. In the fifteenth century it gave way to a château, of which two round towers and the dovecote remain. In 1518 King François I and Queen Claude de France stayed at Vair, and the queen remained about two months, with the young Anne Boleyn among her ladies-in-waiting. In the seventeenth century the Marquis de Cornulier, president of the Parlement de Bretagne, added two square towers, the chapel, the orangery and the two entrance pavilions. The central building and its row of salons date from the nineteenth century. An avenue leads through a triple ring of gates and moats to the château, set in a 6-hectare park with century-old trees. The site is listed as a historic monument.
Getting there
Vair-sur-Loire lies on the north bank of the Loire between Nantes and Angers, which makes the château reachable from both cities for a day event.
