In the same family for seven generations, transformed into a four-star hotel 50 years ago, Le Château des Briottières has seduced some of the most brilliant minds.
Madame de Stael liked it. George Sand and Chopin stayed there. Several decades later, the mythical couple was also played in the cinema by Hugh Grant and Judy David in the movie “L'Impromptu”, shot in Les Briottières.
Even today, artists, travelers and beauty lovers find inspiration and serenity here.
It all started for Les Briottières at the dawn of the 15th century when this fief belonged to the Mergot family. Before 1485, he passed to Jean de La Saussaie through his marriage to Jeanne de Mergot. It was acquired in 1519 by René de Baïf, husband of Catherine de Champchevrier, who had the chapel of Saint-Bonaventure built there in 1528.
This chapel is dedicated to Saint Louis. The land then included five farms and two closeries and grew in importance, especially the fief of La Chapelle. The lords succeeded one another: René de Baïf until 1546, Maurice Chevallerie in 1560 and finally, in 1574, Guillaume Lesrat, Lieutenant-General of the Sénéchal d'Anjou, whose family kept the whole until the revolution. René de Lesrat died there on February 6, 1701, at the age of eighty, then, later, his son, Clément —François de Lesrat, on November 21, 1740. On December 29, 1722, his daughter married Alexis de Rougé, Lord of the Streets. On November 29, 1786, the priest blessed the rebuilt chapel.
The castle had then just been rebuilt into three pavilions with a central platform, which have since been remodelled. In 1855, it still belonged to the Armaillé Family, which kept a superb gallery of paintings, including a portrait of King René d'Anjou, dated 1460. Life was peaceful and a whole small world reigned there.
The castle was to be acquired in the middle of the 19th century by Alfred de Mieulle born in 1804, who married Marie-Louise Hochet and died in 1900. He was the great-grandfather of Madame Jacques de Valbray, born Monique de Mieulle, mother of François de Valbray father of Arnaud de Valbray, current owner. Numerous outbuildings surround the castle nestled in the middle of beautiful shades pierced by narrow clearings. This 50-hectare English-style park was designed by the landscape designer Châtelain and taken over by the Bulher Brothers.
It was Jean de Mieulle, François de Valbray's grandfather, who took over Les Briottières in 1921: There were then three gardeners, a gamekeeper, a coachman, cooks, three maids and a lamp keeper, to which were added farm workers and lumberjacks.
In 1967 Jean de Mieulle bequeathed the property to his wife Geneviève de MIEULLE born Paulze d'Ivoy de La Poype who, herself, bequeathed Les Briottières in May 1969 to her daughter Monique de VALBRAY born MIEULLE. Les Briottières have been in the same family for 7 generations.
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