Located just 5 km from Belleville-sur-Saône, the Château de Corcelles was built in the 15^th C. Constructed in Renaissance style on a lookout position dating from the Carolingian period, the château marked the boundary between the two dioceses of Autun and Lyon. A listed historic building, it has belonged since 1984 to Maison Richard, a firm in Gennevilliers that specialises in selling wine and coffee. Also established in the Rhône Valley and the Bordeaux area, the comapny has 100 hectares of vineyard in the Beaujolais, 90% of which are spread out between the six Beaujolais appellations areas of the Beaujolais Villages, Brouilly and white Burgundy.

In 2007, Maison Richard took the decision to turn Château de Corcelles into a venue for seminars, business meetings and gala dinners. The project has involved the conversion of a suite of three rooms plus the dining room in the Renaissance wing of the château, where board meetings for between 20 to 30 people can be hosted. The château wine store, which dates from the 17^th C, was also renovated to present a modern facility within a carefully conserved historic setting. The successful combination of polished concrete and iron girders on the ground and wood and old stone creates a fine setting for the organisation of seminars, receptions or gala dinners.

Offering ground space of 600 m², there are large linen curtains that enable the room to be divided into three 200 m²  sections, explains marketing manager, Hubert Vast. According to what our clients need, we can also offer one 200 m² section and a second 400 m². If the room is set up like that, we can host 300 people for a meeting followed by a sit-down meal whilst if the whole space is used we can take up to 600 people for a cocktail party or 450 for a sit-down meal .

All of which means that Corcelles is well placed to work on the business tourism market, having already started the year well with a gala evening for 200 participants at the end of March for one of Lyon’s Grandes Ecoles, and immediately afterwards a conference followed by a sit-down meal for 180 people. In order to get its message out into the market place, the Château de Corcelles took part for the first time at the Séminaires et Business Rhône-Alpes show last January, which enabled Hubert Vast to target all the company event organisers, especially those working for large national groups .

This beautiful venue, with its two hectares of grounds planted with hundred year old trees around a lawn where events can be held in the warmer months, costs 4000 € per day for the wine store (event organisers can bring in their own caterer who will have access to a cold room and cloak room). The cost of the rooms inside the château works out at 100 € (ex VAT) per person based on 20 participants. The rate includes the hire of the three rooms and the reception area but not the cost of catering, which can only be provided by one specific caterer due to the historic listing of the building: Mme Bertrand from Villefranche.