Choisel (Yvelines). A year after taking over the reins of the family estate in the Chevreuse valley, the son and daughter-in-law of Henri-François de Breteuil are beginning a strategic shift for the centuries-old château. If the 10th Marquis of Breteuil “saved” the castle by opening it to the public and relying on the imagination of Perrault’s tales to attract families, the new generation now wishes to give it a more museum and prestigious positioning.
This move upmarket has already materialized through notable transformations. François and Pauline de Breteuil opened a “tisanerie” a few weeks ago, a restaurant where dishes are cooked elsewhere and reheated on site. Although located about ten minutes by car from the Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse RER station, the castle is isolated in the countryside – this is one of its charms – offering few restaurant services nearby. The opening of the Achille’s Cafe allows visitors to stay on site, increase the average visit basket and attract a new audience wanting a total experience. This “herbal tea” also makes it easier to organize professional seminars.
The couple also entrusted decorator Jacques Garcia with the redevelopment of four rooms in the castle. The Quatre-Saisons salon becomes a period room dedicated to the 18th century, with period furnishings and decoration. A “Marie-Antoinette boudoir” is created to highlight a key object that belonged to the queen: a bronze spinning wheel in the form of a living room toy. The reconstruction of Louis XVI’s study at Versailles in which the affair of the Queen’s necklace is discussed testifies to the Breteuils’ links with the royal couple. Finally, the redecoration of the Empire salon offers the opportunity to appreciate the eclecticism of the Napoleon III style, not always highly regarded.
Interior of Breteuil Castle.
© Château de Breteuil
An authentic atmosphere
This arrangement is not artificial and truly corresponds to the history of the castle and its occupants. Built at the beginning of the 17th century, on medieval ruins, the Château de Bévilliers came into the Breteuil family in 1712 and still belongs to them today. The Breteuils are great servants of the monarchy and over time expanded and modernized the estate and furnished and decorated it. So today, there is a scent of authenticity through the numerous portraits, furniture and decorative objects which have mostly remained in the castle and in the family for centuries.
It is precisely this historical and family legitimacy that François and Pauline de Breteuil want to highlight, insisting several times on the “correctness” of the places. This is undoubtedly one of the assets of the Château de Breteuil in an era of more or less artificial physical reconstruction and the invasion of the virtual or the immersive. Visitors in 2026 are looking for a heartfelt museum experience that combines historical truth and family embodiment.
While showing himself “admiring” of the work of his son, Henri-François de Breteuil who lives in a pavilion of the castle suggests a certain perplexity in the face of this change of positioning. The 10th Marquis of Breteuil is not only the one who saved the castle but also a figure among the private castellans. In 1967, the castle had hardly been inhabited since the 1930s and his father put it up for sale. He convinced him to cede the estate to him, helped by the classification of the castle by André Malraux, which thus kept away real estate developers.
The bet won by the family audience
He and his wife are banking on family audiences and children by decorating the rooms with life-size historical characters but above all by creating devices featuring the tales of Perrault, close to one of their ancestors. The formula is successful: the castle today attracts 140,000 people (125,000 paying) including 70,000 schoolchildren. The Breteuils also privatize the castle for weddings, seminars and filming. The revenue makes it possible to cover operating costs but also to free up resources to finance, year after year, the essential work on a 17th century castle.
This pragmatism can be seen in the figures. While Franky Mulliez (Kiloutou) has already spent 50 million euros in six years to begin the restoration of the Dampierre castle (nearby) acquired in 2018 from the Luynes family who had owned the castle for 350 years, Henri-François de Breteuil spent 5 million euros in thirty-five years to do the major work, including 2.5 million via own financing.
Long time director of the magazine Historic residenceHenri-François is at the origin of the 1988 law which allows a registered castle to be transferred without inheritance tax on the condition of opening it to the public. He used this device to pass the castle on to his son in 2025 “the most invested in the castle” but had to sell, at the Louvre in 2018, the famous Teschen Table, encrusted with precious stones (€12.5 million) to compensate François’ two sisters.
Despite the relative good condition of the estate, the new lords were faced with expenses that would become essential. “The Ogre”as Pauline de Breteuil calls it, requires restoring the pond, the basin and the adjacent flowerbeds, the surrounding walls, the roof of the orangery… The master plan for the work amounts to several million euros. The couple, who already have to work outside the castle (in finance), because the castle’s income does not generate sufficient margins to ensure their remuneration, sees only one growth lever to meet expenses: welcoming more visitors, in particular the educated public attracted by a museum offering. Since box office revenue is 2 million euros, a gain of 60,000 visitors would bring in between 600,000 and 1 million euros, or much more than the forty weddings per year which only bring in 200,000 euros and require emptying part of the rooms. 200,000 visitors seem an achievable goal, compared to the 300,000 visitors to Vaux-le-Vicomte, if Breteuil communicates more, sets up a transport shuttle with its neighbors (Dampierre and Port-Royal) and continues to enrich the visitor experience.
