The Château de Larunque suits a small seminar, a leadership retreat or a training course for up to 15 people who want the whole house to themselves. Participants sleep in eight bedrooms and work in about 200 square meters of meeting and living rooms. The house stands in a 3.5-hectare park at Saint-Laurent-de-Gosse, in the Landes, between Bayonne and Hossegor.
Seminars and company events
The owners host small seminars, courses and retreats on a regular basis. The large reception rooms take meetings and workshops, and the park, the indoor pool, the spa and the sauna give the group a break between sessions. On request they supply a video projector, flipcharts, a printer, stationery and a fiber connection, as well as coffee breaks and lunch trays.
Team building can be arranged in the château, with an escape game or paintball, or nearby, with rafting, canoeing, hiking, cycling or surfing. A partner company can take charge of the whole seminar, from accommodation to meals, activities and services. The cap of 15 people is firm; when a group wants more bedrooms without more participants, two small houses less than two minutes' walk away can be added, subject to availability.
Rooms and capacities
The main living spaces are a large lounge of 50 square meters, a dining room of 45 square meters, an entrance hall of 40 square meters and a kitchen of 35 square meters. In total the house offers about 200 square meters of meeting and relaxation rooms. Outdoors there is a tennis court, a pétanque court and the park, planted with palms and bamboo. Festive evenings are allowed within the 15-person limit, but music and loud conversation must stay indoors after 10 p.m., with doors and windows closed.
Accommodation
There are eight bedrooms on the first and second floors, with five bathrooms or shower rooms, three king-size beds and twelve single beds. Bed linen and towels are provided. The two annex houses add three bedrooms: La Bambouseraie, with two double rooms, and Le Petit-Larunque, with one double room and a single bed. The house is not accessible to wheelchair users, as the bedrooms are reached by stairs.
Catering
The house is self-catered, with a kitchen equipped for 15: induction range, two ovens, two refrigerators and a dishwasher. The owners can arrange a caterer's meal on arrival, catered meals during the stay, a private chef, bread and pastry delivery, groceries put away before arrival, a stocked wine cellar and a draft beer tap.
History and setting
The site began in the 17th century as a farm called Larenque. Around 1870, Xavier de La Croix de Ravignan built the château as a prestige residence. The house burned in 1977 and stood empty until 1993, when Alain Castant restored it as an arts center, with architecture inspired by the Italian Renaissance. The jockey Olivier Peslier owned it from 2013. Since 2021, Marion Lafouge and Martin Dubourg have run it with a low-carbon approach and host seminars and stays on that basis.
Getting there
Bayonne station is about 30 minutes away by car, around four hours from Paris by high-speed train, and Dax station about 35 minutes. Biarritz airport is about 40 minutes away. The owners can arrange a shuttle from the station or the airport. The Atlantic beaches of the Landes and the Basque Country are about 30 minutes away.
