Château de Bonneville, Château in Chamblac, France

Château de Bonneville is a red-brick house in Chamblac, 300 m east of the Notre-Dame church. Its symmetrical facade has a central block with projecting end pavilions, dormer windows with triangular pediments, and two brick chimney stacks. The building stands on an old limestone base and is covered with blue slate roofs. Inside are some 200 ship models made by writer Jean de La Varende.

The original estate belonged to the Bonneville family, with Jean de Bonneville serving as the king's chamberlain and documented as lord of Chamblac in 1400. A fire in the mid-1700s damaged the structure, prompting Count Nicolas de Bonneville to undertake reconstruction and later involve himself in the political affairs of the Estates General.

The castle has stayed in the same family since 1805, when Léon Mallard de La Varende moved in after his marriage; it was never sold, a point Jean de La Varende liked to make about his home. His grandson, Prince Charles-Édouard de Broglie, mayor of Chamblac, and his wife Laure now own it. Since August 2000 the house has also been the seat of the association working to create a Musée Jean de La Varende.

Access to the château is by a tree-lined avenue starting near the small cemetery and the Notre-Dame church, about 300 m west of the building. The park and gardens laid out from 1919 are a classified natural site; the farm buildings and the remains of an unplanted 200 m avenue lie to the east.

La Varende was the grandson of an admiral and son of a naval officer but could not follow a naval career himself; he built the roughly 200 ship models kept at Bonneville. The castle also houses the association founded in August 2000 to create a Musée Jean de La Varende.