Château de Bournel

The Bournel estate entered the Moustier family in 1496, through the marriage of Jean de Moustier and Marguerite de Granvillars — the same family has held it for over five centuries. Around 1860, Léonel de Moustier, fifth marquis and a senior diplomat (ambassador to Berlin, Vienna and Constantinople, and foreign minister under Napoleon III), decided to build a new neo-Gothic château, designed by architect Clément Parent, a disciple of Viollet-le-Duc. His son, Pierre-René, completed the interior decoration, built a chapel inspired by the Château d'Amboise, designed French gardens, and planted an English-style park. The 80-hectare estate also includes an 18-hole golf course.

Today the property offers 26 rooms in total, split between two genuinely distinct historic buildings: 16 rooms in the 18th-century "old château," plus 4 more in its private tower, and 6 luxury suites in the mid-19th-century neo-Gothic "new château," a separate building.

The estate's continuous ownership by the Moustier family since 1496 gives Bournel one of the longer single-family tenures documented in the France collection, spanning over five centuries.

The presence of two architecturally distinct but equally genuine historic châteaux on one estate — classic 18th-century versus Viollet-le-Duc-influenced neo-Gothic — distinguishes Bournel from properties where a single château is paired with a modern or converted annex.

Léonel de Moustier's career as ambassador to three major European capitals and foreign minister under Napoleon III ties Bournel directly to the diplomatic history of the Second French Empire.

The estate's position in Cubry, Doubs, between Burgundy and Alsace, an hour from Switzerland, gives guests staying at Bournel a central base for exploring the wider Franche-Comté region.