The Domaine de Fontsauzine hosts weddings, birthdays, christenings, professional meetings and training sessions in a hall for about 30 seated or 50 at a buffet, with gardens and terraces that take more than 150 people outdoors. The whole estate can be hired with 40 beds in its gîtes and guest rooms. It covers 6 hectares, including a 2-hectare lake, in open countryside at Genouillé, in the Charente-Maritime, 10 minutes from the TGV station of Surgères.
Seminars and company events
The hall can be set up with extra tables and chairs for professional meetings, training sessions and buffets, and the layout is flexible. A 4G Wi-Fi box is included. For a team stay, the whole estate brings the gîtes, the guest rooms and the activities together on one private site: a pool that can be covered, a tennis court with equipment, a pétanque pitch, table tennis, table football, billiards, rowing boats on the lake and walking trails around the estate. The owners also plan workshops on permaculture.
Weddings and receptions
The estate has hosted weddings and birthdays indoors and outdoors. Couples can hire the main house with its reception hall, or the whole estate, which must be booked well in advance so that no gîte is let for the date. With full hire, guests have exclusive use of the pool during opening hours and can put up drapes and pergolas in the garden, to be removed before departure. Clients bring their own decorations and equipment.
Rooms and capacities
The main hall sits in a longhouse from the late 18th century. It combines three lounge areas with sofas, a dining area and a fireplace corner, framed by large bay windows that open fully onto the terraces and a stone barbecue. Seated at a long table, it takes about 30 people, and about 50 for a buffet; the full-hire offer lists the hall for up to 50, with more guests possible when the outdoor space is used. The home page gives a figure of more than 150 people outdoors. Toilets next to the hall are accessible to guests with reduced mobility.
Accommodation
Hiring the main house includes the guest rooms upstairs, with 11 beds. Full hire of the estate gives access to every gîte and guest room, for 40 beds in total, and extra bedding can be added within the space available. The gîtes range from 4 to 10 guests, with private terraces, and one bedroom with its bathroom is adapted for guests with reduced mobility.
Catering
The estate does not offer an in-house catering service. Hall hire includes a large kitchen and back kitchen with two sinks, a five-burner gas range, three ovens, a microwave, a large dishwasher, two large fridges and freezers, and coffee machines, so a caterer or the group can cook on site. Tableware can be lent.
History and setting
The hall occupies a longhouse built at the end of the 18th century, set in parkland with a lake. The estate is run by its owners, Ibrahim and Valérie. Rochefort and the beaches are about 30 minutes away, the Marais Poitevin regional park 40 minutes, and La Rochelle and the island of Oléron about 50 minutes.
Getting there
The address is RD 114, 17430 Genouillé. By road, leave the A10 at exit 34 toward Saint-Jean-d'Angély, take the D739 toward Rochefort, then the D114 toward Surgères at Tonnay-Boutonne; the estate is 2 km after Saint-Crépin. By train, Surgères has direct TGV services from Paris in about 2 hours 15 minutes, and the owners can collect guests from the station. La Rochelle airport is 50 minutes away by car. Parking is large enough for camper vans.
