The Domaine du Champ de Bataille rents its Orangerie for weddings and private receptions of up to 120 seated guests or 200 at a cocktail, and opens garden pavilions, greenhouses and a château dining room for smaller dinners and evening events. The estate stands at Sainte-Opportune-du-Bosc, in the Eure department of Normandy, five minutes from Le Neubourg.
Seminars and company events
The estate's rental pages cover weddings and private hire rather than seminars. No meeting room, plenary layout or audiovisual equipment is published. A company can still book the Orangerie or a garden space for a client dinner or an evening reception.
Weddings and receptions
The Orangerie is the wedding room. It opens onto the lawns, and a marquee can be put up beside it for a larger party. The estate's team cleans the room after the event.
For a ceremony or a cocktail outdoors, the Théâtre de Verdure, an enclosed green room of hedges and water next to an antique-style folly, is offered for concerts, cocktails and family ceremonies.
Rooms and capacities
The Orangerie covers 130 square meters, measuring 24.80 by 5.20 meters with a ceiling height of 4.15 meters. It is listed for 200 guests at a cocktail and 120 at a seated dinner. A 24-square-meter catering office with a WC and hand basin sits alongside, and a 12-square-meter washroom block offers four WCs and step-free access.
Three other spaces are offered for private hire, without published capacities. The Théâtre de Verdure is in the gardens. The Palais Moghol, an Indian-style palace with a sequence of salons, pools and a dining room, is reached by boat at nightfall. The Serres, the greenhouses, suit a small dinner among tropical plants. For a formal dinner, the estate also offers a candlelit meal in a classical dining room furnished in early Louis XVI style, with French service by staff in livery on the Talleyrand tableware.
Accommodation
Le Relais du Champ de Bataille offers six themed bedrooms on the estate: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Comte de Chambord, Madame Butterfly, Madame de Pompadour, Madame du Barry and Coco Chanel. A stay includes breakfast and a visit of the gardens, and of the château when the dates fall on its opening days.
Catering
The estate does not publish an in-house catering offer for weddings. The Orangerie comes with a catering office for the caterer's team. On visiting days, the Café Créqui serves lunch, salads, crêpes, tea and wine, indoors in rooms decorated by Jacques Garcia or on the terrace.
History and setting
Count Alexandre de Créqui laid the first stone in 1651, after he was exiled to his lands for his part in the Fronde. He called on Louis Le Vau, and the result is two long brick-and-stone buildings, the château and the stables, facing each other across a closed square courtyard. Jacques Garcia bought the estate in 1992, restored the interiors and filled them with furniture and objects of royal provenance; the collections carry three stars in the Michelin guide. The 45-hectare park was recreated from a drawing by André Le Nôtre, with box parterres, follies and 20 pools and fountains, and the garden is listed as a historic monument.
Getting there
The estate is at 8 route du Château in Sainte-Opportune-du-Bosc, 5 minutes from Le Neubourg, 30 minutes from Évreux and about 1 hour 30 from Paris. The nearest train stations are Évreux, Brionne and Serquigny. By road, leave the A13 at exit 18 from Paris or exit 25 from Deauville, or the A28 at exit 13. A visitor car park takes coaches.
