Marry in a small château above a wooded valley in Brittany

Two houses stand back to back. The older one faces south over the lawn: a plain 18th-century block of granite and sandstone, seven windows wide. Its dining room keeps a 15th-century fireplace from the manor that stood here first. The 19th-century front is the one in the photographs. Pale render and rust-colored granite quoins, two steep slate pavilions, a carved dormer and a wrought-iron balcony. A pepperpot turret rounds off the corner. Inside it's lived-in rather than grand. Oak panelling, a curved staircase under a crystal chandelier, roe-deer trophies on the walls. A moose looks down from above the great fireplace. The Breton ermine is set into the hall floor in black-and-white mosaic by Isidore Odorico.

The first owner on record is G. du Val, in 1429, and the estate kept his name through a dozen hands. Antoine Morin, sieur du Planty, endowed the chapel in 1714 and dedicated it to Saint Anthony. From 1760 the estate passed by marriage to the Pinot du Petit-Bois family, who held it into the 20th century. Charles Agathon Pinot du Petit-Bois and Sophie Patard de la Vieuville added the pavilion front after their marriage in 1855. Their arms are carved above the fireplace. Paintings by a Pinot du Petit-Bois, found rolled up in the attics, hang restored in the salons and bedrooms. Roland and Marie Nilsson, from Sweden, bought the château in the early 1990s and have hosted guests here ever since.

The house sits on a rise a few minutes north of Combourg, looking south down a wooded valley. Below it are 27 hectares of chestnut forest and meadow, with ponds, a small waterfall and four kilometers of paths. Combourg itself is a lakeside market town with a Monday market and a few restaurants. Its 12th-century château is where Chateaubriand grew up. This is inland Brittany, granite-and-slate country. The coast at Saint-Malo and Dinard is about 45 minutes away, Mont-Saint-Michel a little more.

Most of what guests want to see is within about 45 minutes. Saint-Malo's walled old town and the long Plage du Sillon. Dinard, the belle-époque resort across the estuary, with its own town beach. Cancale, where the oysters are eaten on the harbor wall. Dinan's 14th-century ramparts, and boats to hire on the Rance below them. Mont-Saint-Michel, across the bay in Normandy. Rennes, with France's largest Saturday food market, is 40 km south. Golfers have Golf des Ormes and the Saint-Malo course at Le Tronchet, both 18 km away.

Fly to Rennes, 47 km south, with connections through Paris and Amsterdam. Or take the TGV from Paris to Rennes in about an hour and a half. The nearest station is Combourg, 7 km away, with trains to Rennes or Saint-Malo in about 25 minutes. Paris Charles de Gaulle is a four-hour drive. The Saint-Malo ferry terminal is 45 km for guests coming from the UK or the Channel Islands by sea. Parking on site is free. Transfers from Rennes, and a bus between the château and the hotels in Combourg, are things our wedding planner for France sets up.

Fifteen bedrooms and 35 beds, all on the estate. The château has seven double bedrooms, two lounges, a library and a dining room, and sleeps 15. By the pool, the Large Parkhouse and the Gatehouse each sleep eight in three bedrooms. Both have their own kitchens and open fireplaces. The Little Parkhouse sleeps four. Weddings take the whole estate for two nights or more. You arrive at five in the afternoon and leave at ten in the morning. Anyone beyond 35 stays at one of the two hotels in Combourg, a few minutes down the hill. A bus between them can be arranged.

A legal wedding in France happens at the town hall, and the Mairie de Combourg is five kilometers away. Most couples we bring to France do the paperwork at home and marry symbolically at the venue. Grand Val gives you two spots. The chapel of Saint-Antoine stands alone in a meadow below the house. It's a granite box with a bell-cote and two arched windows, seating about 50. An English vicar living locally has blessed several couples in it. Outdoors, the chairs go under the big ivy-clad tree on the gravel terrace. A flower arch stands in front, the whole valley behind you. If it rains, the ceremony moves into the château or the Rose House.

Dinner is in the Rose House, the 18th-century gardener's cottage and cider barn below the château. Oak beams, granite walls, a big fireplace, floor-to-ceiling windows, crystal chandeliers and an antique terracotta floor. It seats 75 at long tables. A second, smaller room with the fireplace works as the bar while the main room dances. The beams take drapes and garlands well: Nathalie & Mahesh hung theirs with white voile and eucalyptus. For more than 75, pagoda tents go up on the lawn beside it. There's no curfew, so the party ends when you do.

You choose. The owners work with local chefs and a Swedish one. Their menus run from a rehearsal buffet to a four-course wedding dinner, with a crêpe and galette truck for the day after. Or bring your own caterer: the Rose House has a kitchen built for one. Your own wine and champagne come in without a corkage fee, and so does a cake from outside. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free menus are on offer. Nathalie & Mahesh, a pair of foodies, skipped the seated dinner for a garden party of crêpes and currywurst. The evening brought a seafood bar and a cheese station in the barn. What a wedding here includes is set out in our fixed-price packages for a wedding in France.

The heated pool, 50 square meters, opens from 1 May to 30 September, 25 meters from the two park houses. There are two rowing boats and fishing on the first pond, and four kilometers of paths through the chestnut woods. The park has room for archery and boules, and pony rides for the children. Tastings of cider, pommeau and calvados, or cheese and wine, happen in the château. A chef can come in for a cooking evening. In July the blackberries are ripe for dessert. In autumn you roast chestnuts at the open fires.

Grand Val is built for a long weekend rather than an afternoon. Two nights is the minimum, and most couples take three or four. A welcome dinner by the fire, the wedding, a brunch or a barbecue by the pool the day after, and a day on the coast. Nathalie & Mahesh's guests came from Australia for a four-day celebration. The friends who couldn't make the trip sent a video instead. The guest book, kept since 1991, is mostly birthdays and weddings that ran to a week.

Brittany is mild and wet, and a September day here can be overcast and warm at once. The Rose House is the backup for everything outdoors. The château has radiators in every room and open fires in the main ones, and the pool is heated for the summer months. Plan the ceremony outside and decide on the morning. Nathalie & Mahesh's rain arrived half an hour before their ceremony. We'd agreed the indoor plan the day before, and the switch took five minutes.