General & History

This serene chateau with its imposing gates bearing a coat of arms, and its perfect architectural symmetry has views of the snow-capped Pyrenees, and stands in 50 acres of parkland, half of which is wooded. It is an elegant and peaceful reminder of the long past genius loci of this part of France, Occitania, once the homeland of the Cathars. They were a civilized, tolerant and rational religious sect, in which men and women had equal status, and in which poverty was a virtue and the hierarchy was based on piety rather than material power. Memory and mythology still treasure precious echoes of a golden age, when the astonishing flowering of music and poetry of the troubadours burgeoned in the region, and when Occitan, the local language and the first literary language since Greek and Roman times, was the expression of high culture, honour, courtesy, chivalry and uplifting ideals. All this was anathema to the Roman Catholic Church, which passed the 13th century battling for ascendancy, perfecting the methods and approach that culminated in the Spanish Inquisition, and slaughtering 500,000 men, women and children in the process.

Chateau Garonne itself has a turbulent history: built towards the end of the 18th century, it provoked revolutionary interest a couple of decades later, when the resident family was forced to flee, and the rebels took over the chapel. However the loyal - and courageous - estate workers reclaimed the place and reinstated the Countess and her children.

The chateau is the ideal location for a wide variety of functions, both business and pleasure, and also celebrations, retreats, workshops and educational courses.