go holiday france
go holiday france offers exciting creative holiday courses & activities,
many fascinating places to explore, discover & experience
with varied & challenging activities to pursue;
return home having learned a new skill
tuition by professionals in photography, painting & cooking,
fully interactive language courses with a native french speaker
or learn about wine appreciation & the vignerons of the languedoc
‘tailor-made’ combination courses include • sport • trips & tours
creative courses • gourmet food • luxury accommodation
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please scroll down to the end of the page for sample itineraries
landscape, portrait &
reportage photography
cordon bleu & regional
cooking courses
Courses are available for individuals or small groups on a week or a daily basis. Professional tuition on digital & film technique, guidance, discussion & active fieldwork will increase skills & improvement of your knowledge.
Courses consist of up to five days of tours, tutorials & ‘hands on’ practical skills. Learn about French regional cooking & create special dinner-party recipes with influences from Spain, Gascony & classic French cuisine.
develop
new skills,
follow
your ambitions
professional
tuition
helps you to
develop
your own
creative style
interactive french language courses
painting & drawing
water colours & oils
Tuition is by a native French teacher.
Trips & tours are taken in the local community to learn both the culture & how to interact at first hand by using conversational French & how to use local idioms, grammer & dialect.
Tuition is not a demonstration, but is one to one instruction alongside the student, guiding in perspective & composition. It introduces exciting techniques & skilled draftsmanship, using imagination & style in the work.
inspired
students
learn & grow
with confidence
& creativity
tailor-made
breaks
mix & match
courses & tours
bespoke combination
courses & itineraries
wine appreciation courses
& tours, meeting the vignerons
wine courses introduce you to the many grape varieties & the superb wines that are now being produced by vignerons in the minervois & corbiéres regions of the languedoc. Taste the wines & match with the food you eat.
Combination courses can be designed for individuals or groups to include a variety of activities mixing culture, sports & creative courses. Individual holiday itineraries are created around our client’s chosen interests.
active &
creative
courses that
stimulate the
imagination
& nurture
satisfaction
Sample itineraries for holiday courses : choose what you want to do,
or mix & match; your holiday is designed just for you, these are some ideas.
An example of a Gourmet Cooking & Wine Course
1st Day: A visit to the Roman town of Narbonne & the fabulous 100 year old food market, buy fresh local foods for cookery classes, shop & explore the bustling market & choose regional produce to include in our food class in the afternoon where we concentrate on patés e.g. terrines & mousses, fois gras, duck & chicken terrine, wild boar or duck paté, roquefort or sea food terrine, salmon & goats cheese mousse. In the evening we sample a selection of wines with the food that we have prepared.
2nd Day: We visit a free-range poultry farm where they produce charcuterie & breed guinie fowl, geese & ducks. We take a wine degustation at a wine cave overlooking the Canal du midi. In the afternoon we prepare meat dishes such as poitrine de veau, quail & wild
mushrooms in a banyuls jus, blanquette de lapin in dijon mustard & prunes. We also prepare confit dishes & stocks to be combined in recipes later on in the week.
3rd Day: We take a wine tour into the Corbiéres & visit two wine producers; we learn about food matching. Languedociennes love their sweet & savoury tarts; we make pastries with goat’s cheese, red onions & figs, sun-dried tomatoes & olives, sweet onions & wild mushrooms, chocolate & mascarpone & also strawberries with crème patisserie.
4th Day: Visit the town of Lezignan on food market day to buy local produce for a course of hands-on cooking lessons on savory cakes like brioche des olives et jambon, breads like pain aux figues & puddings such as compotes, timbales & fondants.
5th day: In the morning we take a tour to La Laviniere, a wine growing region of the Minervois. We visit two wine caves run by private families producing some of the best Syrah based wines of the region. We continue on a tour to the medieval Cité of Minerve sacked in 1210 in the Albigensian crusade. We prepare regional dishes such as Buillabaise & Duck confit. We prepare fish such as Dorade, Perch & crustations.
An example of a Photography Course
Courses for small groups or individuals are given by Tim Hazael BA. a Professional free-lance photographer with 30 years experience. Any level of experience is catered for & tuition includes still-life, reportage, portrait & landscapes. He works with each student, taking pictures for discussion alongside the images taken by each pupil.
1st Day: We begin with assesment of technical abilities & strengths of each pupil & then practice what is individually appropriate. Tim guides each student, advising on finding the best angles & teaching all the basic techniques of composition, exposure, lighting & some tricks of the trade. A trip is taken to limestone escarpements high in the mountains where Cathar medievil villages were built to defend against crusaders.
2nd Day: Digital photography is encouraged; each pupil can see the results of their work for discussion & guidance. Those who shoot on film, there are processing labs nearby for a next day service. Active fieldwork & essential aspects of taking a good photograph can be developed & realized. Trip to the sea lakes for landscape & movement photography. We visit fishing villages & harbours along the coast.
3rd Day: Tim simplifies the techniques of photography by demonstrating only what is essential for capturing good images & how to encourage the student to explore and develop their own unique talent, how to ‘see’ imaginatively & creatively. We visit the Roman site of Oppidum Enserine; there are magnificent panoramic vistas to capture.
4th Day: We visit beautiful locations in the rich & variable landscape that are not apparent to the passing tourist. The student learns the importance of ‘light’ in all its variety & subtlety; early starts maybe made to capture the best light. Mists may float over the canal with shafts of light piercing through the plane trees that line the winding waterway through the vineyards. Locations may vary from the cities, villages mountains & sea according to students individual preferences.
5th Day: We learn reportage techniques, photographing village people in picturesque market towns, with traditional rural atmosphere. A day or half day can be dedicated to working on computers, covering subjects such as processing files, editing, retouching, filing & working with Photoshop. You will return home with a great selection of images, a better understanding & far greater confidence in your photography.
An example of a Painting Course
Sasha Hetherington BA. works as an illustrator; she teaches by working with the pupil using her own painting for instruction, guiding through problems in parallel. We study traditional techniques & exciting new ones, getting rid of bad habits that slow progress. Landscape trips are taken to the beautiful countryside, Canal du Midi, Black Mountains & sea lakes; we sketch in busy street markets to capture movement & portraits.
Day 1: Courses start with assessment of abilities, those less experienced are taught basic drawing techniques & more experienced are shown how to extend themselves. We work with water-colours learning observation technique & later, a class where we paint large & find expression in the work & get away from small, tight & inhibitive drawing.
Day 2: Pupils discover & create images of real ‘breathing’ France, both on & off the beaten track. Drive into the mountains to a deserted spot where we can practice perspective, speed washes for backgrounds & tight detailed foregrounds. We practice water-colour sketching & take photographs ready for reference work & composition.
Day 3: We tour the Corbieres visiting wine producers, we sketch landscapes handling the ever changing light patterns & how to capture, mood & atmosphere. Later we have an imaginative painting class using sketches & photographs taken; we introduce design & computer techniques to produce more illustrative qualities to the work.
Day 4: A day for people & character drawing, in the autumn we experience the grape picking season with speed sketching to capture the busy scenes. In a medieval village we sketch beside a mountain river & paint a Cistercian Abbey. We travel to a beautiful vineyard trail where we paint the landscape, producing paintings by building in layer washes.
Day 5: Peaceful but productive days can be spent painting within our extensive gardens or studio, where there is no pressure to finish work. We help you grasp the techniques of the mediums chosen, hoping that by the conclusion of the course, pupils will feel free enough to express their own individual style & imagination with confidence.
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