Château des Comtes de Challes hosts study days, residential and day seminars, conventions and weddings, with eight rooms of 30 to 140 m² seating up to 200 in theater layout and four dining rooms serving up to 350. Groups sleep on site in 58 rooms and suites. The château stands on a hill above the spa town of Challes-les-Eaux, near Chambéry in Savoie, in a 2-hectare park with a 180-degree view from Mont Granier to the Croix du Nivolet.
Seminars and company events
The hotel sells study days, residential and semi-residential seminars and overnight stops for traveling teams. Every package includes meals at the château restaurant. The largest room, Nivolet, holds 200 in theater layout and 250 at a cocktail; Granier and the Tonnelle each take 120 in theater. Wi-Fi and technical equipment are provided. For larger meetings, the château can also arrange the Espace Bellevarde in Challes-les-Eaux, an amphitheater for up to 300.
Team-building activities run with partners on request: games, sports, sensory and intellectual challenges. The house specialty is a tasting of three wines in the 15th-century cellar, led by the sommeliers.
Weddings and receptions
The château welcomes 30 to 40 weddings and private receptions a year. Cocktails take place outdoors facing the mountains and the Combe de Savoie, and dinners are held under the Tonnelle or in one of the four dining rooms. Guests and families get a discount on rooms and suites, a 150-space parking lot is offered free of charge, and couples receive half off the menu tasting. The heated outdoor pool and a massage room are available to guests.
Rooms and capacities
Nivolet: 140 m², classroom 90, U-shape 50, theater 200, cocktail 250, boardroom 45. Granier: 110 m², classroom 60, U-shape 40, theater 120, cocktail 150, boardroom 50. Tonnelle: 105 m², classroom 60, U-shape 40, theater 120, cocktail 150, boardroom 50. Jardins d'Hiver: 50 m², classroom 35, U-shape 25, theater 50, cocktail 80, boardroom 40. Saint Michel: 50 m², classroom 40, U-shape 30, theater 70, cocktail 80, boardroom 20. Revard (40 m²) and Belledonne (30 m²) take up to 50, and Domenget is the smallest room.
Accommodation
The hotel, rated three stars, has 58 rooms and suites, split into rooms, junior suites and a VIP suite. Breakfast is a buffet served in the Revard salon from 7 to 10 a.m., with local products. The private parking has electric-vehicle charging points.
Catering
The restaurant is run by chef Pascal Colliat, a finalist of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France competition. His cooking follows the seasons and uses produce from the region: vegetables from a cooperative in La Motte-Servolex, Bresse poultry, local cheeses and milk from a nearby farm. The cellar, in the 15th-century wine store, holds about 400 wines and 20,000 bottles, with Savoie producers alongside other French regions.
History and setting
The site began as an 11th-century wine farm. The Counts of Challes built a fortified castle above the cellar in 1450, and the family kept it until 1594. Jean-Jacques Rousseau gave music lessons here. After the Revolution, Dr. Louis Domenget, physician to the Savoy royal family, discovered a sulfur spring on April 11, 1841, which led to the founding of the spa and the town's new name in 1872. The château became a hotel and restaurant in 1860, and the young Louis Aragon wrote his first texts during a stay. The Trèves family, hoteliers from Courchevel, has run it since 2002.
Getting there
Chambéry-Challes-les-Eaux TGV station is 20 minutes away and Chambéry-Savoie airport 15 minutes. Lyon Saint-Exupéry and Geneva airports are each about 1 hour away. By road, the château is 20 minutes from Chambéry, 1 hour from Annecy and 1 hour 30 minutes from Lyon via the A43, from exit 20 of the Chambéry expressway.
