Day seminars, half-day meetings, training sessions, project launches, afterworks, end-of-year dinners and weddings can be organized here for 5 to 90 people seated and up to 200 standing on the terrace. La Closerie des Hortensias is a restaurant and event house in a former farmhouse on the Haute-Forêt estate in Bréal-sous-Montfort, about 15 minutes west of Rennes and the Rennes Parc Expo.
Seminars and company events
The house sells full day and half day packages for study days, leadership meetings, training and project launches. Four rooms take groups from 5 to 90 people, and each has a screen, a video projector and Wi-Fi. Welcome coffee is served on the terrace in the morning, lunch is cooked on site, and breaks can be taken outdoors, where breakout groups can also settle.
For company celebrations, the restaurant can be privatized for up to 90 people seated, and the 300 m² terrace takes up to 200 guests for a cocktail. On weekday evenings the whole house can be privatized, including the restaurant room, the meeting rooms and the terrace, for an afterwork or a team cocktail. A free car park with more than 80 spaces sits in front of the building, and the site is accessible to guests with reduced mobility.
Weddings and receptions
The wedding offer uses the terrace for the cocktail hour, which gets sun until the evening, and the indoor rooms for the dinner. Cooks work at counters on the terrace during receptions. The wedding page lists four rooms of 100 m² for 80 seated guests, 80 m² for 50, 50 m² for 30 and 40 m² for 10. Menus are built with the team, and the house can connect couples with partners for entertainment. Ceremony arrangements and accommodation are not described.
Rooms and capacities
The Salle Épicure is the main meeting room: 90 m², up to 80 people theatre style or 36 in a U-shape. The Salle du bar measures 45 m² and the Petit salon 40 m²; each takes 25 people theatre style or 16 in a U-shape. The restaurant room covers 120 m² and seats 90 at tables. The terrace covers 300 m² and takes 200 guests standing.
Catering
The kitchen team cooks everything on site, from seminar lunches to wedding dinners and cocktails. Produce comes from suppliers within 200 km, fish from boats fishing off the Breton coast and vegetables from partner market gardeners; most suppliers are organic or farm sustainably. Herbs are picked on site, and berries sometimes come from the house orchard. Wines come from small independent winegrowers. The restaurant is open every lunchtime and on Friday and Saturday evenings. The house also runs a catering service and prepares lunch boxes for offices.
History and setting
The building is a farmhouse more than 150 years old, with half-timbered walls and flower beds, on the grounds of the Château de la Haute Forêt. In the early 20th century it was the home of the Breton chef Édouard Nignon. Patrice Dumont, formerly of L'Atelier des Gourmets, took over the kitchen in 2017 and modernized the house, with a focus on local sourcing and reducing its environmental footprint.
Getting there
Bréal-sous-Montfort lies about 15 minutes by car west of Rennes. Rennes station, with high-speed trains from Paris, and Rennes airport are the closest transport hubs; a car or a coach transfer is needed for the last stretch. The free car park in front of the house holds more than 80 cars.
