Château de Puymartin

Weddings, company evenings, team building days, cocktail parties and seated dinners for 20 to 800 guests can be organised at the Château de Puymartin, in Marquay, about 10 minutes from Sarlat-la-Canéda in the Périgord Noir. The castle is a classified historic monument and has belonged to the same family for around 600 years.

Seminars and company events

The château hosts company evenings, cocktail parties and seated dinners, some with magic or pyrotechnic shows. Team building options include a Cluedo, challenges in the style of Fort Boyard, sports activities, a cooking contest and an escape game built around the castle's legend, Le mystère de la Dame Blanche. Two formulas are offered: bare hire of the château, or hire with the in-house event service. The service can design the concept, run the entertainment, select caterers, artists and DJs, handle bars, food and furniture, and recruit staff for the day.

Weddings and receptions

Ceremonies are held in the gardens, among flowering beds, shrubs and oaks. The reception then moves to the Cour Saint-Louis and the Cour basse, enclosed by the walls, towers and keep, which seat 120 and take 200 standing. The evening can carry on with a dance floor, a DJ, a bar and shows. A partner agency supplies lighting, sound and fireworks, and concerts, dance or magic acts can be arranged.

Rooms and capacities

The upper terrace seats about 100 and the lower terrace about 50. The outdoor areas as a whole take about 800. A vaulted cellar completes the spaces. Rooms next to the Cour Saint-Louis store tables, chairs, buffets, sound and lighting, and serve as the caterer's base, bars or dressing rooms for performers.

Catering

The château does not run its own kitchen for events. Organisers bring a caterer, either their own or one chosen through the event service. Caterers have an oven, a fridge and worktops on site.

Accommodation

The estate lets self-catering houses, the Logis de Puymartin, described as new, through a separate site. Bedroom numbers are not published on the château's pages.

History and setting

The first castle dates from the 13th century and suffered repeated attacks during the Hundred Years' War. It was rebuilt and enlarged over the following centuries, then heavily restored in the 19th century. Inside are period furniture, tapestries from Aubusson and the Gobelins, and a 17th-century mythological cabinet painted in grisaille on its walls and ceiling, protected in its own right. The legend of the White Lady, tied to a dark episode in the family's past, gives the castle its best-known story. Film crews have used it too: Ridley Scott shot The Duellists here in 1977, and a Netflix production followed in 2019. The castle is a member of the Grands Sites du Périgord.

Getting there

Puymartin is 6 km from Sarlat, which has a railway station, and 14 km from Les Eyzies, between the Dordogne and Vézère valleys. By road it is about 45 minutes from Brive, 1 hour from Périgueux, 1 h 30 from Agen and 2 hours from Bordeaux.