go holiday france offers creative holiday courses in the Languedoc-Roussillon South of France
intensive cooking courses • painting & drawing • photography & digital processing
‘Go Holiday France’ offer exciting creative holiday courses & activities with many fascinating places to explore, discover & experience with varied &
challenging activities to pursue;
return home having learned a new skill.
We can offer you a choice of accommodation & courses,
a residential course at the chateau du Puits es Pratx,
a non-residential course; you choose the length of tuition;
you may wish to rent a self-catering cottage or stay in a B&B.
We try to match your expectations with your budget.
While you are enjoying your course your partner can indulge in some relaxation sports activities on offer! For a stunning wedding weekend with lots of creative courses & trps & tours please view www.gomarryinfrance.com or contact us on info@goholidayfrance we are happy to create an itinerary for you.
Our creative courses help you to develop new skills & follow your ambitions.
Professional tuition helps you to develop your own creative style which will help to inspire students & encourage them to learn & grow with confidence & creativity, taking home all of the new skills that they have learnt.
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Tailor-made courses, trips & tours are mixed & matched with the clients requirements & interests. Fitness, music, Yoga & dance are available to compliment the painting,
photography & cooking courses, helping you unwind after a long day of tuition.
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We hope that our active & creative courses stimulate the imagination & nurture satisfaction. We help you with your confidence so that you can continue your chosen creative subject after you have returned home.
Tuition is made fun & imaginative by professionals in photography, painting, cooking, piano, dance & wine appreciation. Our interactive language courses, are with a native French speaker & a qualified language expert.
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If you wish to learn more about wine tasting & the history of wine growing in this the largest region in France we have both lectures & tours aimed at the enthusiast. Wine appreciation & the vignerons of Languedoc is a fascinating subject & we organise extensive wine & gourmet tours.
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Gourmet tours are designed for people less interested with being in the kitchen all day & want a uniquely 'French' experience. We visit a traditional butcher for a talk about his trade, a boulangerie for 'hands-on' experience making croissants, a producer of goats cheese to see the whole process from milking to making the cheese & an Oyster farm to see the production process & you get to taste of the best Mediterranean Oysters ever.
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We visit local food markets to experience the range of fresh local delicacies available & a combination of wine tasting & vineyard tours can be enjoyed which helps pupils appreciate the perfect Gourmet Dining Experience.
Many guests return home with an ability to entertain their friends with confidence using delicious & innovative recipes that we show are far simpler to create than one would imagine. We specialise in the art of presentation & principles of cordon-bleu cuisine but taking the mystique away, & making it possible for anybody to succeed with the help of right ingredients, ‘know-how’ & passion.
Please scroll down to the end of the page for sample itineraries
The Languedoc-Roussillon is a varied & inspiring country, the people have great charm & character. Come & learn about the food & wine at the same time as enjoying the
wonderful scenery which is stimulating for the artist & photographer.
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The long Mediterranean coastline offers both miles of sandy beaches as well as hidden coves & sea lagoons, ideal for creative courses & sketching.
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On some days you can just walk in the mountains that stretch down to the sea offering both peace & tranquillity for some & challenging sports for others who want to match their creative courses with some physical activity.
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Creative courses can be mixed with some new challenges, like yoga, learning jazz piano & combining outdoor sports like golf & tennis for you & the whole family.
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We create bespoke breaks including superb gourmet food courses, wine tours introducing you to some of the best wine in the world.
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We offer a wide range of sports for all abilities which compliment the creative courses as well as relaxation, all of which will add up to make your ideal creative activity holiday.
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Please scroll down the page to see some more ideas of what you can do on a typical course & view sample itineraries & places to visit.
Landscape, portrait & reportage
photography
Digital computer processing
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.
Cordon bleu & regional cooking courses.
Professional food presentation
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.
Intensive courses are also available.
Interactive french language courses
Tuition is by a native French teacher & a fully qualified French language tutor.
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.
Painting & drawing, water colours & oils
Tuition is not a demonstration, but is one to one instruction alongside the student, guiding in real perspective & composition. It introduces new exciting techniques & skilled draftsmanship, using imagination & style in the work. Tuition is with a fully qualified & working artist & illustrator.
Bespoke combination courses
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. Children’s & adult courses are available for each member of the family to enjoy.
Wine appreciation courses & tours
We introduce you to the vignerons whose families have been in the region for centuries. You will taste 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.
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 savoury 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 assessment 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 escarpments high in the mountains where Cathar medieval 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.
For more information on holiday courses & life in the Languedoc visit www.cremedelanguedoc.com