Your Journey With Fleur de Lys Retreats
Each of our retreats is a week of making, with one artist we love, at an exclusive private château in the Lot Valley of southwest France. Groups are small, never more than 14 guests, each with a private room, so everyone has real time with the artist, and the week feels more like staying with friends than joining a tour.
What Sets Us Apart?
Fleur de Lys is a small, US family-run company with a base in France, and we're with you every step of the way: before, during and after your retreat. We're there in person at every retreat, so the people who welcome you are the same people who answered your first questions and who'll still be in touch long after you're home.
We intentionally keep our retreats small, both in group size and in how many we host each year. That lets us be true partners with our artists. We work side by side with them as one seamless team, so they can focus completely on teaching while we take care of everything else.
Your week is also truly private. We enjoy exclusive use of the château estate: no other guests, no other groups, and it's never open to the public. For seven days, it's simply yours.
What's Included
Your artist and studio
- Daily art workshops, individual guidance and demonstrations with your artist
- A dedicated studio space for all workshops
- Small groups of no more than 14 guests
- A private WhatsApp group with your artist and fellow guests before the retreat
- Two group Zoom calls with your artist before the retreat, plus individual calls whenever you need them
Your château
- 7 days / 6 nights at an exclusive private château estate in the Lot Valley
- A private single room for every guest
- Exclusive use of the entire property: the restored château and four stone houses, including a troglodyte dwelling carved into the rock
- Swimming pool, spa, sauna, private gardens and terraces
Wellbeing
- Morning nature walks through the estate and countryside
- Optional yoga, with all equipment provided
Food and wine
- Breakfasts, dinners and most lunches, prepared fresh daily by our private chef
- Seasonal southwestern French cuisine, with dietary restrictions and intolerances catered for
- Coffee, tea, water and snacks throughout the day
- Local wines served with dinner
- A welcome reception on arrival
- Welcome dinner with apéritifs
- Art exhibit and farewell soirée
Outings
- Professionally guided excursions to medieval villages, markets and a wine tasting tour
- Official English-speaking guides for every excursion
- Private transportation throughout the retreat
Taken care of
- Round-trip private transfers from/to Toulouse-Blagnac airport at set group times
- Full-time concierge support from arrival to departure
- All local tourist taxes and fees
What's Not Included
- Airfare or travel to Toulouse-Blagnac airport
- Travel insurance (required within a week of the retreat being guaranteed)
- Art supplies (a supply list is sent 3 months before the retreat)
- Lunches on two excursion days
- Personal expenses
Reserving Your Place
Our retreats are all-inclusive, from $4,000 per person depending on the room you choose, with early bird rates for those who book first. Each retreat page shows its room options and prices. A $1,500 deposit holds your place. Until the retreat is guaranteed, your deposit is fully refundable, less the credit card processing fee. Once the retreat reaches its minimum number of guests, it is officially guaranteed, and we let you know right away so you can book your flights with confidence.
Our Current Retreats
Launching Soon
The Travel Stitch Journal: A Week in Thread
Elin Petronella, Swedish Embroidery Artist & Author of Mindful Embroidery
May 3-9, 2027 | Southern France
Join Swedish artist Elin Petronella at a private château in the Lot Valley to make your own fabric travel journal and fill it with the places and memories of the week. Learn stitched lettering, embroider a scene you love, and sketch in thread the market stalls of Cahors, the medieval lanes of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, or the château. Every stitch is taught from the very first step, so beginners are warmly welcome. You'll go home with a journal you made yourself, ready to keep filling.
Retreat Full
Creative Layering: Watercolor, Collage, Needle Weaving & Embroidery on Paper
Ana Falceta, Contemporary Artist Blending Watercolor, Stitch, and Texture
May 26 - June 1, 2027 | Southern France
Join artist Ana Falceta for an immersive, hands-on creative retreat in the picturesque Lot Valley in France. This workshop brings together watercolor, mark-making, collage, needle weaving, and embroidery on paper into a layered mixed media practice. This 7-day retreat welcomes all levels. If you have already explored watercolor or embroidery on paper, you will find it a welcome advantage, but by no means a requirement. Participants who have already attended one of Ana's other workshops will find this a rich and rewarding extension of the practice. It is an invitation to experiment freely, build in layers, and explore an approach to artmaking rooted in process and personal expression.
Launching Soon
From Earth to Form: A Week of Clay & Intention
Filomena Pucci, Ceramic Artist & Founder of Donner Forme®
June 13 - June 20, 2027 Southern France
Join ceramic artist Filomena Pucci at a private château in the Lot Valley for a week of slowing down and listening to your hands. Through her Donner Forme® approach, you’ll shape clay by pinching, coiling and building with slabs, letting feeling and intuition guide each form. One piece you love will be fired for you to take home. On the last day, we’ll gather in a quiet ceremony to return the rest of our clay to the earth, honoring the making as much as the made. Beginners and experienced makers are warmly welcome.
Stitching with Nature Retreat with Katerina Knight
With Textile Artist and Author Katerina Knight
September 2-8, 2027 | Southern France
Gather flowers, leaves and seed heads from the château gardens and the surrounding countryside, and learn to weave them into your embroidery with Katerina Knight, author of Stitching with Nature and a Royal College of Art graduate. Through traditional stitches, botanical embellishment and slow, mindful making, you’ll create your own one-of-a-kind piece. Beginners are warmly welcome. Between sessions, enjoy the Cahors market, a Malbec tasting, the cliff-top village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and long dinners under the open sky.
Photo: Katerina Knight
Retreat Full
Creative Awakening: Watercolor & Embroidery on Paper
Ana Falceta, Contemporary Artist Blending Watercolor, Stitch, and Texture
September 12-18, 2027 | Southern France
Join artist Ana Falceta for an immersive, hands-on creative retreat in the picturesque Lot Valley in France. This unique experience offers a deep dive into the expressive world of abstract watercolor, mixed media, and intricate embroidery on paper. This 7-day retreat welcomes all levels, from aspiring beginners eager to explore new mediums to seasoned creatives seeking to deepen their practice. It’s an invitation to reconnect with your creativity, embrace experimentation, and explore an approach to artmaking rooted in process and personal expression.
Coming in 2027
Bound in France: Bookbinding & Paper Arts Retreat
Artist announcement coming
September 2027 | Southern France
Join artist Ana Falceta for an immersive, hands-on creative retreat in the picturesque Lot Valley in France. This workshop brings together watercolor, mark-making, collage, needle weaving, and embroidery on paper into a layered mixed media practice. This 7-day retreat welcomes all levels. If you have already explored watercolor or embroidery on paper, you will find it a welcome advantage, but by no means a requirement. Participants who have already attended one of Ana's other workshops will find this a rich and rewarding extension of the practice. It is an invitation to experiment freely, build in layers, and explore an approach to artmaking rooted in process and personal expression.
Knitting in the Lot Valley: A Fiber Retreat
Artist announcement coming
October 2027 | Southern France
Our 2026 knitting retreats were such a joy that so many of you asked us to do it again, so we are! Join us at our private château in the Lot Valley for a cozy, fiber-filled week of knitting by the pool, on garden terraces and wherever the scenery moves us. We'll explore local markets, medieval villages, Cahors Malbec country, and a sheep or angora goat farm with long dinners to share stitches and stories. Join our waitlist to be first in line when registration opens.