Arboretum de Calmels

Lacaune, France, France

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Arboretum de Calmels is a 4-hectare private botanical garden and arboretum located in the park surrounding the 19th-century Château de Calmels on the heights of Lacaune, in the Tarn department within the Haut-Languedoc Regional Nature Park, France.

The arboretum features regional trees including Aesculus hippocastanum (horse chestnut), Juglans regia (walnut), and Pinus strobus (eastern white pine), alongside trees from around the world. The castle itself was rebuilt in the 19th century in Neo-Gothic style by Paulin Naurois Jacobe County on the ruins of a medieval 16th-century hunting lodge, and the adjacent tower-silo (formerly a training facility for horses) was originally crenellated and now has a conical slate roof.

Today the château functions as a group gîte (dormitory accommodation) with 16 rooms accommodating 2 to 5 people, equipped kitchen, dining hall, lounges, activity room, and TV room, welcoming family gatherings, friends, sports groups, and colleagues. The park offers free access to a 1.8 km interpretation trail through the forest where visitors can discover the local fauna, plus a 2.5 km permanent orientation course with 15 markers of varying difficulty levels, and serves as the starting point for hiking trails into the surrounding mountains and forests.