The Chateau

Château Beaumont is a family company. For us, small is beautiful. For us, you are a name, not a number.

Our ethos is that learning should be fun, and we have delivered successful educational visits to the Château for over 25 years, exploring the culture, history, cuisine and language of France.

Our experienced, well-trained staff enable personal development and achievement, building confidence and teamwork skills through adventurous on-site activities.

If you wish, your assigned Group Leader will encourage students to practise French both on-site and during visits, where they will give a tour around some of France’s most iconic sites, at the right level for your age group.

DOWNLOAD OUR BROCHURE

History of the Château

Château Beaumont is set in 10 acres of private grounds, nestling in tranquil French countryside near the market town of Laval, and a short walk from Chailland, petite cité de caractère.

Things were not always so peaceful in the history of the Château. Built in the mid-nineteenth century by the Comte de Vaujas, it saw the fall of Louis Philippe, the installation of the Second Republic and the coup d’état of Napoleon III before its construction was even completed.

Then, during the Second World War it was requisitioned in turn by the retreating French, occupying Gestapo and then General Patton’s American 3rd Army troops, before being returned to the De Branche family in 1947, whose descendants still live in the Orangerie next door.

Ravaged during the Liberation (our Nightline course stands on what used to be an Aviary destroyed in a gun battle between the Americans and the German army), the château was bought by the village of Chailland and resurrected as a finishing school for young ladies in 1962.

Since then it has reinvented itself as an agricultural school and language school before we acquired the Château in 1998. We have been welcoming British and French school groups for educational, residential trips ever since.

In 2015 the windows of the château’s chapel were identified as being original works by the local ecclesiastical artist, Bernard Chardon, and they now form part of the itinerant museum dedicated to him in the département of the Mayenne.

Where We Are

Close to the pretty market town of Laval, on the Normandy / Loire Valley border, in the department of Mayenne. We are within striking distance of the iconic Mont St Michel and the amazing Saint Malo, whilst many other historic and cultural attractions are on our doorstep.