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Under restoration since 2013
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Château de Gudanes
2 Route de Beille, Château-Verdun, Ariège 09310, France
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Six Chambres · Ariège
The walls as the centuries left them, the rooms furnished from the brocantes, old pieces beside new.
Six guest rooms, each brought back from ruin, in an eighteenth-century château in the Pyrénées. A stay is your room, breakfast and the lounge, with the pool, tennis and the grounds outside.
It is a restoration, not a renovation. The walls stay as they are, by law, while the beds and the bathrooms are new: the comforts on which nothing has been compromised. Every stay helps bring the château back to life.
Une nuit au château A night at the château
Your Stay
You come through the gates and up the drive, and the château rises at the end of it. Your room is up the original staircase, or on the ground floor (still reached by stairs): antiques from the brocantes beside new pieces, walls the centuries left as they are, and a bathroom of your own on the ground floor.
The morning begins with breakfast. The day is yours: the pool, the tennis court, the grounds, or the valley below, and the lounge to come back to. In the evening the château goes quiet.
Les chambres The rooms
The Rooms
Each room is different, because the château is: its own shape, its own light, its own view of the valley and the mountains. All six share what matters most: antiques from the brocantes beside new pieces, a bathroom of your own on the ground floor, and walls left as the centuries made them.
From€270 a night · room and breakfast
Two gilded beds beneath an old tapestry in the Chambre Jeanne d’Arc, looking out to the mountains. Once half of a much larger room, it was divided in 2021 and laid with old wooden floorboards. Your private bathroom is on the ground floor, there is a powder room on the bedroom landing, and breakfast is served downstairs each morning.
Book this room
From€270 a night · room and breakfast
A queen bed and a double bed in a quiet room on the ground floor, though still reached by stairs. It has its own private bathroom right next door, and the mountains outside the window.
Book this room
From€270 a night · room and breakfast
A king bed in the Chambre Olympe de Gouges, one of the few rooms whose floor and ceiling survived. Before the restoration its hallway had caved in and the room could not be reached. Its original slate floor was lifted and kept safe while the room was brought back to life. It has mountain views and a private bathroom on the ground floor.
Book this room
From€350 a night · room and breakfast
A king bed beneath a four-poster canopy, with a bath and a basin in the room itself and the mountains beyond the windows. Your private bathroom is on the ground floor.
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From€440 a night · room and breakfast
The château’s grandest bedroom: a gilded four-poster with an emperor bed, armchairs by the fireplace, and 70 m² to yourselves.
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From€580 a night · room and breakfast
Two bedrooms for a family, the Chambre Bleue and the Chambre des Fleurs, across 140 m². One of the two bedrooms has its original wallpaper, printed anew by the company that first made it, from its original templates. There are two double beds in one bedroom and three in the other, and children of eight and over are welcome.
Book this roomFinding Your Room
Two questions. The differences that matter are not in the names.
Most likely
Une nuit ici A night here
Six guest rooms, breakfast in the morning, and the lounge to come back to.
Le domaine The grounds
A night here comes with the château’s park to explore: the pool, the formal garden and the lawns, and the mountains all around.
Dîner à côté Dinner nearby
A night’s stay includes breakfast at the château. For dinner, Les Cabannes lies just down the hill, about 500 metres away, with a table for every kind of evening.
Les Cabannes · 73 rue Principale, beside the church
The finer table. Franck, who ran Beaucoup in Toulouse for eighteen years, and his partner Luc have turned a nineteenth-century presbytery into three intimate dining rooms, where the menu follows the seasons and changes every week.
Les Cabannes · 3 place des Platanes
Much loved, and known for its grills. A farming family cooks their own Gascon black beef and pork in their home on the square, with the produce of some forty Ariège farms. Recommended by the Routard, the Petit Futé and Gault & Millau.
Les Cabannes · 12 place des Platanes
A small, family-run pizzeria on the village square, for an easy evening.
Les Cabannes
A glass before dinner, among the people of the valley.
The village also has a small supermarket and a tabac, for anything forgotten.
Sorties Days out
The valley around the château is one of the quietest corners of France, with a great deal within half an hour.
Ax-les-Thermes · about twenty minutes · all year
Les Bains du Couloubret: Roman-style baths fed by the hottest springs in the Pyrénées, with pools inside and out, hammam, sauna and massages.
Sinsat · about ten minutes · May to October
Canoe, kayak or paddle-board down the Ariège with Waterploof, guided or on your own, with a minibus back.
Niaux and Tarascon · about twenty minutes
The prehistoric paintings of Niaux, among the few originals still open to visitors, and the Parc de la Préhistoire.
Mirepoix · just under an hour · Monday mornings
One of the finest markets in the region, under the timbered arcades of a medieval square, with brocantes all around.
Plateau de Beille and Ax 3 Domaines · December to March
Cross-country skiing, snowshoes and sled dogs on the Plateau de Beille, at the top of the château’s road, and downhill skiing at Ax 3 Domaines.
Les équipements The facilities
Your Stay
Le petit-déjeuner
Breakfast
Every morning, included
La chambre
Your room
A comfortable bed among brocante antiques, reading lamps and power points
La salle de bains
A private bathroom
Your own, on the ground floor
Le salon
The lounge
Books and board games for the evenings
La soirée cinéma
Film night
A projector, set up on request
Le Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi
In a common area of the château
La piscine
The pool
Yours to use while you stay
Le court de tennis
The tennis court
Racquets for tennis and pickleball
Le ping-pong
Table tennis
For a friendly match
Les jardins
The gardens
Ten acres of gardens and grounds
Les terrasses
The terraces and barbecue
A glass of local wine, and long summer evenings
La buanderie
Laundry and ironing
Facilities for guests
Not included in a stay: lunch, dinner and drinks.
Two ways to stay
Stay the Night
One night or more, from €270 a night
A Workshop
Three to seven nights, per person, all meals and drinks included
En plus To add
Extras
These can be added when you book.
A guided tour of the house and its restoration, on a day of your stay you choose. One price for the booking, however many of you there are.
€50
A bottle of local sparkling wine, crémant, with a board of charcuterie, ready on arrival or on a day of your stay you choose.
€80
€250
Walks, riding, skiing, kayaking and the brocantes, a short drive away.
Go exploringProchaines dates libres The next dates available
Without Guessing
The next dates with a room available, and how many nights in a row you could stay.
At the château 9°C overcast
Each morning I woke up worried that it was only a dream.
Spacious rooms with private, well-equipped bathrooms
After years of careful restoration, the owners brought it back from a ruin. The atmosphere is warm and not spooky at all.
Worth Knowing
A few things worth knowing before you come.
If that sounds right, you will love it here.
Before You Book
Breakfast is. Lunch, dinner and drinks are not part of a stay; Les Cabannes, just down the hill, has good places to eat.
When you book. Your room is confirmed as soon as the payment goes through.
No. Every bedroom is reached by stairs, so pack lightly.
Children of eight and over are welcome.
No. Bruce, a French bulldog, and four cats live here.
Yes, in a common area of the château.
A building protected by French law for its history or its art. Gudanes is classé, the higher of the two levels, so every intervention is approved by the state, and the walls stay as they are.
The pool, the tennis court, table tennis, the lounge and board games, the terraces, the barbecue area and the grounds, with breakfast every morning and Wi-Fi in a common area.
Every bedroom has an electric blanket and a space heater for the cooler months.
The taxe de séjour is added to the bill.
The Journal
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Practical
Address
2 Route de Beille
Château-Verdun, Ariège 09310
France
Getting here
Toulouse-Blagnac is an hour and three quarters away; the station at Les Cabannes, three minutes by car. Skiing at Ax 3 Domaines is about half an hour; Andorra, about an hour
The stairs
No lift: every bedroom is reached by stairs, the one on the ground floor included. Pack lightly
Children
Eight and over
Animals
No dogs. Bruce, a French bulldog, and four cats live here
Heating
An electric blanket and a space heater in every room
Tourist tax
The taxe de séjour is added to the bill
Also in residence
The château’s French bulldog, who goes wherever he likes and is usually first to say hello. Four cats live here too, mostly out of doors.
Before you book If anyone in your party has an animal allergy, tell us when you book.
Breakfast is included, and your dates are confirmed the moment you book.
Monument Historique · Classé A Class I Historic Monument, restored under French heritage law since 2013