Chateau de Baronville

In late September Don had a wedding for a young French lady and her fiancé, a man from North America. The wedding was held at the American Church in Paris on an early Saturday afternoon. After that all the guests (including us), except those who had cars, were bussed out about 30 miles southwest of Paris for the reception and dinner. The “party” part of the wedding was held at the Chateau de Baronville. We had all brought along an overnight bag as we were spending the night at the castle!!!

This was a grand experience for us!!! We have attended some elegant dinners in hotels, etc in Paris, but this was very special. While the bride and groom and their young adult friends all stayed in the actual castle, the rest of us stayed in a complete refurbished carriage house that overlooked the grounds and the castle.


After a champagne reception with lots of goodies on the lawn/patio, we were served a 6 course French type dinner in an elegantly decorated reception/dining room area.(There were 110 guests in total although some didn’t spend the night.) The dinner lasted over five hours and at 2am we finally tucked ourselves into bed. The music/dancing lasted until 5am I’m told, and the next morning some of young adults looked as if they hadn’t made it to bed at all.

Wedding cakes in France are a different sort. They are made usually out of macaroon cookies or cream puffs attached to a large cone with sparklers on top. On this occasion the cake arrived after 15 minutes of real fireworks that were set off over the lake near the chateau. What drama!!! and then eagerness for a bit of the cake and servings from the buffet dessert table.

Chateau de Baronville has quite a history with occupation of the land from Roman times. In the middle ages it was a fortified (with moat, etc.) manor house and passed down among seven families to the present day. After a very large house burned in 1867, the present chateau was built. The chateau was built in “Second Empire” style and adjectives to describe that would be symmetrical, rectangular and steep roof.



During WWI the chateau was used as a hospital and the Germans used it as headquarters during the early part of WWII. Later in the war it was used as a French orphanage. By 1975 it was being redecorated and was open for the publics use in 1980.

Needless to say this was a thrilling weekend for us and it seemed as if the beautiful fall weather had been planned just for the occasion.