Chateau de la Ruche

Chateau de la Ruche A laidback but luxurious chambre d’hôte in a petit chateau in the Pays de la Loire, France.

Set in 15 acres of private park and woodland near Le Mans come and enjoy a peaceful and relaxing break, or plan an intimate wedding or celebration with us.

We got a taste of summer this week, a few extra warm days to hint at what’s to come. And there’s a sneak peek at our lat...
12/04/2026

We got a taste of summer this week, a few extra warm days to hint at what’s to come. And there’s a sneak peek at our latest renovation project. See this week’s journal for all the details.

**Special Offer**Save 25% on a 7-night stay in Maurice’s House, our self-catering holiday cottage. The offer is availabl...
05/04/2026

**Special Offer**
Save 25% on a 7-night stay in Maurice’s House, our self-catering holiday cottage. The offer is available for week beginning Friday 24th April 2026.

Maurice’s House sleeps 2-4 across two beautiful bedrooms, there’s a large farmhouse kitchen, airy sitting room with a log burner, private garden, off street parking and if you don’t want to cook every night during your stay you can join our B&B guests for dinner at the château.

Find out more and book here https://www.chateaudelaruche.com/stay-with-us/maurices-house/

A dusty, paint splotched week here at the château. Read all about it in this week’s journal. Find out how to read it in ...
05/04/2026

A dusty, paint splotched week here at the château. Read all about it in this week’s journal. Find out how to read it in the comments.

The flowers are really back now, there’s enough of them to fill a bucket and make a bouquet. Our renovation work is movi...
29/03/2026

The flowers are really back now, there’s enough of them to fill a bucket and make a bouquet. Our renovation work is moving on a pace, but we’re not sure if it’s pacy enough to get our sitting room truly finished before our guest season starts at the end of April. Read all about how we’re getting on in this week’s journal…

A busy week of filming, DIY, half-finished projects and time in the garden as the seasons shift. Read the stories behind...
22/03/2026

A busy week of filming, DIY, half-finished projects and time in the garden as the seasons shift. Read the stories behind the pictures in this week’s journal.

We made good progress this week in the garden and with our sitting room renovation. Spring is edging its way in now and ...
15/03/2026

We made good progress this week in the garden and with our sitting room renovation. Spring is edging its way in now and it feels glorious. Read all about what went on behind the scenes in this week’s journal. (Link in comments)

14/03/2026

Every time we go away I find myself longing to be back. I miss the quiet, the peace of being surrounded by our own meadows and pocket of woodland. I miss being woken up by the birds, their morning chorus slipping through the old mottled glass of the windows as the daylight starts to grow. I miss the light too, the way it seeps into each room and moves and shifts around us as the day works through its hours.

After a long day of travelling coming home is like a deep breath, let out slowly. My shoulders sink, my jaw unclenches and I feel myself relax. Our guests feel it too, that calmness that hits you when you walk through the front door. That feeling of being home somehow, home to the peace, to the quiet and to this little château in a pretty corner of the French countryside.

I do love coming home after a break away, especially when the seasons shift while we’re gone and spring has eased its wa...
08/03/2026

I do love coming home after a break away, especially when the seasons shift while we’re gone and spring has eased its way in. We jumped straight back to work as soon as we got home - you can read all about it in this week’s journal.

The air is soft again, all daffodils and violets with a base note of wild cherry blossom catching on the breeze. A shift...
02/03/2026

The air is soft again, all daffodils and violets with a base note of wild cherry blossom catching on the breeze. A shift in seasons that happened between one day and the next, the woodsmoke and mineral metal scent of winter chased away by a sweet south easterly.

The clouds are gone too and the bright light of the earliest of spring days is reaching into every corner, twisting through the bare branches of the trees, coaxing life out of every dip and hollow. Celandines sparkle everywhere, strewn through the grass in the orchard and between the ground ivy in the woods. Flowers are all over, even in the shadiest corners where the summer sun doesn’t reach.

We turn our faces to the sun, breathe in the sweetness of the breeze, smell the shuffling of the seasons, throwing open the windows to let springtime turn out winter. Mindful all the time though that it’s still early, that winter might be waiting in the wings with a little bitterness yet to come.

What a boost, even if it’s momentary, this break from the cold and the wet, to feel the warmth of the sun on our skin and the promise of the longer brighter days to come.

01/03/2026

Our new sitting room is slowly coming together - I’ve shared a little renovation progress report today. See the full video over on my Substack - link in comments. (My journal will be back next week when we’re back at the château after a little break away).

A short but sweet week at the château. Read all about it in this week’s journal.
22/02/2026

A short but sweet week at the château. Read all about it in this week’s journal.

I watch for their pale jade shoots in December, look for them pushing their way through the velvety brown leaf litter of...
16/02/2026

I watch for their pale jade shoots in December, look for them pushing their way through the velvety brown leaf litter of the woodland floor. Each week they grow a little taller, leaping up a little faster with the tug of the full moon, until in early January the first white bud appears.

They stand tall at first, the snowdrops, starched and serious, a little uptight. But as the winter sunshine reaches through the trees, coaxing them outwards, they unfurl, dipping their heads shyly, their petals splaying to reveal their tiny bell shaped hearts, tipped with green.

I can see them from the house, a white gleam in the woods, shining out in the gloom of the dull February days, shivering and shimmering as a the prevailing westerly sweeps through the trees.

The snowdrops are always the first flowers in the garden, each one a promise that spring is on the way. The generous swathes of them planted by a long ago gardener, a message sent from one time to another, that even in the darkest days of winter there’s something beautiful to look for.

They’re getting tatty now, the fragile petals wearing thin in the wind, seed pods forming, their time coming to an end. In a few more weeks they’ll be gone for another year and spring will truly be on its way, the brighter colours of celandines and daffodils rushing in to take their place.

I make sure I walk through their path every day. Making the most of them lining my route while they’re here, thanking them for brightening up the winter in their own quiet way.

Adresse

La Ruche
Teillé
72290

Téléphone

+33635551050

Site Web

Notifications

Soyez le premier à savoir et laissez-nous vous envoyer un courriel lorsque Chateau de la Ruche publie des nouvelles et des promotions. Votre adresse e-mail ne sera pas utilisée à d'autres fins, et vous pouvez vous désabonner à tout moment.

Raccourcis

Partager

Type

Live the dream with us

We fell in love with our petit château in April 2017 and by September 2017 we had left our old home in Stamford, Lincolnshire to start our new life in France.

The last year has been quite an adventure for us all. We swapped our desk jobs for full-time renovation and the children were thrown head first into the local French school.

We have been busy, renovating and rescuing our petit château to preserve it for our children and for the future. We have re-wired and re-plumbed the whole house, opened up rooms, restored windows, fixed crumbling walls and cleared acres of gardens.

It is a real privilege to live here and be part of this château’s history even for a brief moment in time. We hope because of our efforts that this house will stand here for another three hundred years and more and more people will come to love and cherish it as we do.