The gardens of the Château de Longpré – Ariège

Client brief  :

The client brief for this 4* hotel was to create a classic “Parc à la française” taking into account the historical features of the Château and the grounds.  

Garden design concept :

Our clients gave us a wide scope to surprise them with bold changes to the grounds in order to completely restructure the gardens and create new reception spaces for a multitude of outdoor events from vintage cars to weddings or business promotions. 

The existing driveway was moved to give a grand entrance by pivoting around a huge cedar tree acting as a signal in the landscape. An entirely reconfigured entrance gate was designed to add grandeur and create the anticipation of revealing the façade of the château. 

Classical water features in the garden create the focal points and visual axis for the structure of the French formal garden with existing features such as the coach driving semicircular ramp being incorporated in the new composition. 

As many as possible of the existing trees were preserved so that the parking spaces could be dissimulated in wooded areas 

To create a diversity of spaces a Mediterranean terrasse and a rose garden have been added as well as a viewing terrasse for the spectacular views of the Pyrenees. 

Site work :

Work on this 7ha site took 2 winters. The landscape structure planting alone included 900 hornbeam trees to create the hedges. The stonework for the water features and entrance way were supplied by specialist stonemasons and the reconstruction of the “murs de galets” were done by skilled local craftsmen.

A huge challenge rewarded by this message from our clients on google. 

«The entire team from the château would like to thank you for your patience and competence during the renovation of the domaine. We look froward to working with you in the next phase of the project. It was a pleasure to work with Greenfrog and Terrehistoire on the park. Now that the french garden is built and planted, we look forward to continuing the adventure with the next phase “the English garden” »

So we’re looking forward to creating an english garden with historic references to “Harriet” one of the previous owners of the château who created a garden which was the talk of the town in her day.