Rent a château in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, between volcanoes and rivers

This is the region people come to for nature and for space. Château de Montfleury, in the Puy-de-Dôme, hosts up to 170 guests facing the Chaîne des Puys; Château des Louteaux, near Moulins, opens 25 hectares of Bourbonnais parkland to 28 people; Château de l’Allier, a 15th-century fortress in the Allier gorges, sleeps 13 with a heated pool and enclosed grounds. Further south, Château des Artistes, fifteen minutes from Privas, is a 12th-century house at the gateway to the Ardèche. Towards Lyon, Château de Montplaisant, near Bourg-en-Bresse, sleeps 43 and hosts weddings of 150; Château de Pralong and Château des Gaudras go up to 220 and 250 guests.

All are rented for your exclusive use: the whole château, with its drawing rooms, kitchen and grounds. The owners welcome you, then leave you the place, and remain on hand to point you to the market, the farm that delivers cheese, the path up the volcano. That is what sets these estates and manor houses apart from a hotel or a holiday centre, and why people return.

All around, what families ask for: the Puy de Dôme and Vulcania, Vichy and its spa, Clermont-Ferrand, Le Puy-en-Velay at the start of the Compostela route, the Ardèche gorges and the Pont d’Arc, the Dombes and its lakes, Beaujolais, Lyon an hour and a half away. And for weddings: the light of an Auvergne park in June, with not a neighbour in sight. From 13 to 43 beds, up to 250 guests for a reception.