Julia & Erik
Julia & Erik
Travel
Chateau de Jalesnes
We would love for everyone to stay at Chateau de Jalesnes and fully enjoy the entire three days with us! We have completely privatized the chateau, and one of the things that drew us to choosing it for our wedding was knowing all of our loved ones could stay with us, fully disconnect, and celebrate.
Chateau de Jalesnes has 26 bedrooms with ensuite private bathrooms. They are organized in studios to three bedroom suites that are all very large. The suites all have a fully equipped kitchen (glassware, dishes, flatware, fridge, dishwasher, Nespresso machine with pods, wine/beer opener, etc.) and living/dining area. Studios and one bedrooms have the kitchen/living/dining area to themselves, and the the two and three bedroom suites share the kitchen and living room. Most suites also have a washer/dryer and an iron and ironing board. For the few rooms that dont have this, well let you know and make sure you get what you need!
We will organize rooms, grouping friends and families together in the larger suites, to make sure everyone is as comfortable as possible. After all RSVPs are received, we will let you know which room youll be in. We are asking that everyone pay for their room (€300 per night per room). The chateau will send you an invoice with payment information (credit cards are accepted).
All of your food and beverages (including alcohol) will be provided by us as your hosts for the entire duration of your stay. You are able to check into the chateau on Monday, May 6, beginning at 4 pm and check out will be at 10 am on Thursday, May 9. You may linger at the chateau after 10 am but you will need to depart your room by then.
If you prefer not to stay at the chateau, we wont be offended! There are a few Airbnbs or gites (pronounced jeets), and one hotel in Vernantes nearby, but options in close proximity are limited. The chateau can provide shuttle service for a fee if you choose this option as taxis are difficult to come by.
Flights
Flights to Paris, France (Charles de Gaulle - CDG) from the DC and NYC areas run anywhere from $500-1,700 on average, although you can find some as cheap as $450 with layovers. Nonstop is 7-8 hours. For those of you coming from the West Coast, San Francisco to Paris can be as low as $1050 for a flight with a layover, and goes up from there. We did see some flights with layovers for as little as $750 and one direct flight from SFO to CDG for $1,255 on United around our dates. Nonstop is just under 11 hours.
If you are trying to save, we recommend not booking Friday or Saturday flights. We encourage you to book early and let us know if you're having trouble finding flights. We're happy to help!
The wedding festivities begin on Monday, May 6, with the Welcome Dinner at 7:30 pm, so we recommend arriving to Paris no later than Monday morning to leave yourself enough time to get to Chateau de Jalesnes. Guests should plan to depart on Thursday, May 9, after breakfast with checkout at 10 am.
If you need to make this a quick trip, you could fly from the US on Sunday night, arriving in Paris Monday morning and then drive or take the train to the chateau. From there, you could depart the chateau on Thursday morning and fly back on a later afternoon/evening flight, arriving back to the US by late evening on Thursday.
Getting there...
The chateau is located in Vernantes, France, due south of Le Mans, just north of the small city of Saumur, and almost perfectly halfway between Angers and Tours. One route down from Paris takes you past Orleans and Tours and the other past Le Mans and Angers. All worth a stop if you have time!
We have loved driving to this region from Paris and seeing the beautiful countryside during our visits, always stopping along the way for the best vending machine coffee you'll ever have :) You may also take the train from Paris to Saumur and we can arrange the chateau shuttle for you. If you're really ambitious, we've seen helicopters land on the grounds too!
By Car: The drive from Paris is usually 3.5 hours depending on traffic. If you leave from Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) during rush hour, plan for an additional hour. It's slow moving like a normal rush hour but nothing like the chaotic weaving and stop and go traffic we're used to in the US! Car rental at CDG is very easy and runs around $30-$100 per day. Gas is around $7 per gallon/$2.50 per litre, but cars in Europe are quite fuel efficient. [Note: For our 3 day trip to the chateau in October, the car rental was a small automatic SUV that cost $150 for the full rental, tolls were $55, and gas roundtrip was $87 for a grand total of $292.] The chateau has more than ample parking, but we also encourage you to carpool and help the environment and your wallets a bit :)
We would recommend coming by car only if you're coming directly from CDG since driving and parking in downtown Paris is a nightmare. What we have done in the past is arrive at CDG, taxi to the city (around $70 one way - flat fare) and spend a couple of nights before going back to the airport to pick up a car and head south. You could do the same on the back end of your trip, bringing the car back to the airport from the chateau and then heading into Paris for a night or two before flying home.
By Train: If you prefer not to drive, you can take a high-speed train from Paris Montparnasse Station to Saumur. This is a great option if you plan to enjoy Paris before coming to the chateau and don't want to have to go back to the airport to rent a car. You will need to switch trains in Angers or Tours (to the normal train from the high speed) and it takes about 2.5 hours. Tickets are anywhere from $100-$175 round trip with trains running through Tours being the cheaper option. Tours is also a fantastic city to explore! You could take the train from Paris, spend a night in Tours, and then head to Saumur from there. Once you arrive in Saumur, we can arrange transportation for you from the train station to the chateau - approximately 20 minutes. Book your train on Rail Europe.
We'll send out a google form a few months ahead of the wedding to get everyone's travel plans and will help sort logistics for anyone who wants to carpool or use the chateau shuttle service from the train.