Château du Bois-Guy

The Château du Bois-Guy in Parigné, France is a seigneurial estate whose present main house dates from the 17th century and was erected in the early modern period by local French landowning families. Built on the footprint of an earlier medieval manor and set within a formal garden tradition, the site became notable through its long association with regional noble households and later for its role during political violence around the French Revolution.

Occupations of the site reach back to the mid-14th century, when the Pichot family held the manor. By marriage the property passed into the de Gaullaye family and remained with them into the 18th century, a tenure that placed the estate among the county’s landed households. Around 1703 Jean Picquet, who served as chief clerk at the Parliament of Brittany and held other local lordships, purchased the château and his descendants took the family name Picquet du Bois-Guy.

Under the Picquet du Bois-Guy family the house acquired direct links to the upheavals of the late 18th century. Aimé Picquet du Bois-Guy acted as a royalist and operated in concert with the Chouans, the royalist insurgents active in western France, using the château as a base for armed raids across the surrounding countryside during the Revolutionary period.

Ownership changed hands several times in the early 19th century. The property was sold in 1802 by Madame du Bois-Lebon and in 1804 passed to a Mr. Dubuat, who bequeathed it to his daughter, the wife of Henri-Charles d’Estanger. Later the estate was acquired by a notary from Fougères. During the 19th and early 20th centuries the buildings and land were managed as a large agricultural enterprise, a role that continued until just before the Second World War.

The estate suffered severe decline in the later 20th century. The small attached Saint Martin chapel was abandoned at the end of the 19th century and used as a storage shed. In 1984 a plaque recalling the military actions of the Picquet du Bois-Guy siblings was placed near the chapel by Breton Remembrance. In 1994 an industrialist from Fougères bought the ruined property and over more than six years carried out a programme of repair and rebuilding aimed at turning the house into a hotel and restaurant. In 2009 two young restaurateurs acquired the château, refitted it as a high-end establishment, adapted former outbuildings for meeting rooms and added a golf practice area, and the grounds have hosted temporary exhibitions. A football centre now occupies part of the site and a pitch dedicated to the Rennes international Eduardo Camavinga was inaugurated on 23 September 2020.