Watercolour painting holiday in France

Planet

Living in a beautiful area of rural France, surrounded by rolling countryside, ancient villages with long histories and traditions, we are very aware of our need to preserve this for future generations. We do this in many ways from restoring and maintaining our property using traditional materials and methods such as lime render to the choice of Woad paint (plant-based) used on the shutters.

Thé garden is very important being a subject and source of inspiration as well as relaxation for us and our artist guests. We continue to plant trees and flowers in the garden and grow some of our own fruit and vegetables which are included in the freshly prepared homemade meals. Water is a valuable resource and we use gardening methods to both reduce water consumption and collect it and we have our own well.

We compost our vegetable waste and limit plastic use and recycle plastic, paper, glass and other items where possible.

The accommodation reflects our love of the French country style and vintage items of furniture, chandeliers, mirrors and fabrics have all been carefully sourced from charitable organisations and ´vide grenier’ (flea markets) and repurposed and upcycled to create an authentic, interesting and comfortable home with a touch of ´Chateau chic’

Included in the itinerary are picnic lunches eaten in beautiful and special places of interest. We acknowledge the importance of leaving the place as we find it and are careful to remove all litter.

We provide group transport from and to Toulouse Blagnac Airport at a prearranged time on arrival and departure.

People

Here at Palettes de Gascogne Painting Holidays, we employ local people including gardeners, domestic help with housekeeping and taxi services when needed. We also hire tour guides who are able to translate if required.

Community is very important in rural France and there are events and fêtes organised most weekends in even the smallest of villages throughout the warmer months. Many of these are included in our excursions, especially garden and plant festivals as these prove very popular.

Our events itinerary is varied and we do our best to support many local businesses, restaurants, galleries, exhibitions, daily markets, shops and events organised in the community, village fetes, celebrations for special days in the calendar such as a carnival or Bastille day.

We encourage guests to interact, try out their language skills, even if a little rusty, a simple ´bonjour’ goes a long way and local people will be happy to converse with smiles and gestures.