The Domaine de l'Abbaye de Maizières can host conventions, plenary sessions, product launches, residential seminars, gala dinners and weddings, for 20 to 400 guests depending on the layout. It offers four large halls, around ten smaller salons and 30 bedrooms on site. The estate lies at Saint-Loup-Géanges, in Saône-et-Loire, about 10 km from Beaune, in the heart of the Burgundy wine country.
Seminars and company events
The estate sells seminars, conventions, conferences, trade shows and client presentations, with technical spaces for large events. A residential seminar can take the whole estate privately, with the spa, pool, tennis court and park. Meals are prepared by the estate's chefs with produce from its biodynamic farm. For larger groups, shuttles take participants to hotels in Beaune at night and bring them back in the morning.
Team building uses the 12-hectare walled park and the surrounding land: mountain biking, archery, fishing, orienteering, wine tasting, a talk on the history of the abbey, barrel making, and an investigation game called Le Secret de l'Abbaye de Maizières. Local providers can add other activities.
Weddings and receptions
Weddings use the château park for a secular ceremony and the drinks reception, then the halls for dinner. The Grande Halle takes 100 to 180 guests for drinks; the outbuildings, the monks' former cellars, take up to 250; the Orangerie hosts the dinner. The halls have a giant screen, projector, sound and lighting, and a catering area. The team works with local partners for other services.
Rooms and capacities
The Orangerie, 500 m² of glass and steel in a 9-hectare park, seats 300 and takes 400 for a cocktail. The Dépendances, 350 m², seat 200 and take 300 for a cocktail. The Grande Halle, 200 m² with stone walls and an oak frame, seats 130 and takes 180 for a cocktail; it has a 5 m screen, a Bose sound system and stage lighting. The Petite Halle, 100 m², takes 90 for a cocktail and suits workshops or a board meeting. For breakouts, the Palais Abbatial has two salons of 45 m², the château three salons of 60 m² and two dining rooms, and the mill a 30 m² conference room and a 24 m² exhibition room. The restored 13th-century vaulted cellars host meals and cocktails.
Accommodation
The estate gives 30 bedrooms for residential seminars: 13 upper-range rooms (8 in the château, 5 in the Palais Abbatial) and 17 unusual rooms (9 doubles and 1 single in the Villages des Novices, 7 doubles in the Chambres des Moines). The wedding page counts 33 rooms sleeping 80. A separate hotel on the estate, the Hameau des 40 Arpents, has a spa and restaurant, and four tree houses stand at the forest edge.
Catering
The halls have catering areas and the château and Palais Abbatial have professional kitchens. For seminars, the estate's chefs cook with vegetables, meat, grain and fruit from the biodynamic farm. The Hameau des 40 Arpents runs a restaurant.
History and setting
The abbey was founded in 1125 as a daughter house of La Ferté, the first daughter of Cîteaux. It held woods, ponds, mills and vineyards that produced wines of Beaune, Chassagne and Pommard until it was sold off as national property on April 7, 1791. The current owners have spent fifteen years bringing the estate back together. It covers 750 hectares.
Getting there
Take the Beaune Centre exit on the A6 and follow Saint-Loup-Géanges. Beaune is 10 minutes by car and Dijon 35 minutes. Paris is about 1 h 30 by train and Lyon 1 h 45. Shuttles can collect participants at Beaune station, and private jets land at Dijon airport.
