Château de l'Audardière

The Château de l’Audardière is a historic château located in the commune of Apremont, in the Vendée department of the Pays de la Loire region in western France.

Originally a medieval feudal castle, the present building dates mainly from the 16th and 17th centuries and was extensively remodelled during the 18th century. It illustrates the typical evolution of seigneurial residences in the Vendée, from a defensive stronghold to a more comfortable residence adapted to the lifestyle of the local elite.

The Mauclerc family owned the estate from the 13th to the 16th century. It later passed by inheritance to the La Touche family and then to the Puy du Fou. In 1717 it was sold for 94,000 livres to André Serventeau, a squire and shipowner from Les Sables-d’Olonne. The property remained in the Serventeau family for several generations before changing hands among various private owners in the 19th century (including the families Sebois, Bosset, Rangaine, Hilleriteau and de Bonneval).

The château was listed as a Monument historique on 2 March 1981. The protected elements include the façades and roofs (with the tower and the return wing of the outbuildings), the well, the straight staircase of the main house with its cage, the kitchen, the old ground-floor salon, and the ground-floor room of the tower with their interior decoration.

Today the Château de l’Audardière is a private property and is not open to the public. It served as a filming location for the 1960 film Les Vieux de la vieille directed by Gilles Grangier.