Château de Thorens

Seminars, conferences, team building days, weddings and gala dinners for up to 800 guests can be organised at the Château de Thorens, in Thorens-Glières, now part of the commune of Fillière in Haute-Savoie. The house stands in a 30-hectare estate in the Alps between Annecy and Geneva, and the de Sales family has lived in it for more than 500 years.

Seminars and company events

The château sells company events as a package. Hire comes with catering, drinks, tables and chairs, and bedrooms if needed, and the team coordinates the day, receives suppliers and can book shuttles and outside accommodation. Formats include seminars, conferences, team building and company dinners. Team building ideas range from quizzes and outdoor challenges modelled on television adventure games to murder parties, a giant werewolf game, escape games and a gentle survival course in the woods. The Salon Louis de Sales can be joined to the Salon Cavour to give a working room and a separate break area.

Weddings and receptions

For a wedding the whole estate is reserved from Saturday at 8:00 to Sunday at 17:00, and a Friday to Sunday hire is possible. The package includes the reception rooms, the 220 m² pavilion, all the bedrooms with 30 sleeping places, setup and cleaning, furniture, a drinks package, overnight security and parking management. A wedding planner can help before and during the day, and a Sunday brunch is served at the château. Ceremonies take place in the Italian gardens, facing the Dent Blanche and the Parmelan, in the courtyard or, in bad weather, indoors.

Rooms and capacities

The Salon Louis de Sales takes 90 theatre-style, 70 for dinner and 110 for a cocktail. The Salon Cavour, by the entrance hall, takes 45 theatre-style and 55 for dinner. The Salle Médiévale, under stone vaults with a steady temperature all year, takes 90 theatre-style. The Salle des Gardes, the oldest part of the house, takes 45 theatre-style. In the courtyard, Le Pavillon seats 215 for dinner and 220 theatre-style in every season. Le Manège, the former stables, holds 650 theatre-style, 700 for dinner and 800 for a cocktail.

Accommodation

The château has run as a small hotel since 2022. Its eight units are five bedrooms, two suites and the Appartement de la Tour, each named after a figure from the house's history.

Catering

Catering is part of the package. The château works with caterers it selected after tastings and sets up the rooms itself. Breakfast and evening meals are also served to hotel guests.

History and setting

The first towers were built around 1060 for Count Gérold of Geneva to guard the old road to Rome. François de Sales, father of the saint, bought the château in 1559, and Saint François de Sales, born nearby in 1567, completed the purchase in 1602. Camillo Cavour, a cousin of the family and later the first Prime Minister of Italy, stayed here often, and the château keeps his furniture and the desk linked to the Treaty of Turin of 1860. Count Eugène de Roussy de Sales rebuilt the house from 1869 with the architect Camille Ruphy. The estate has a 7-hectare meadow, woods on both sides and a river, and the road up to the Glières plateau starts at the château.

Getting there

The château is a few minutes by road from Annecy, at 326 chemin du château in Fillière, with parking beside the house.