RELAIS de CAMONT ...at Home in Southwest France

New Years NEWS!

2008-01-03T10:40:00.000+01:00

What a wonderful beginning to the New Year- Camont and my floating home, the Julia Hoyt, being featured in a 12-page photographic spread in Maisons Sud Ouest- jan/feb/mar issue. The French text makes the point that Camont is the place to call dreams to reality, and the peaceful setting of casual garden and park (filmed in October of 2007) is unique along the Canal de Garonne. For those who have stayed at Camont and would like a copy of the article to read, I'd be happy to email the scanned article to you.

New cooking classes programs--Weekend Retreats: Taste Gascony! and Camp Cassoulet- join the usual 6-day intensive French kitchen Arts programs and are also available for guests staying at Camont for a long weekend as B&B or a full week's holiday. Special prices are available for one-day cooking classes as well.

Potager Carre- Camont's Organic Kitchen Garden, offers our guests a pick and cook possibility; enjoy fresh picked haricots verts, leeks just pulled from the ground, ripe tomatoes plucked from the fertile vine. Not sure how to cook a leek? Just ask Kate! And the Orchard has a dozen new heirloom trees bought from our neighbors at the Conservatoire des Fruits at Montesquieu; there are now about 36 fruit trees to tempt you on a stroll past the hammock and the boules court bar.

Bacon de Barici- our resident 'Chapolard de Gascogne' hound is learning the ropes as guide dog for a walk along the canal or over to the frog pond. At 100 pounds, he has exceeded our expectations but remains sweet natured if still a bit boisterous at just 14 months. He does indeed send his 'best whishkes' for the new year!

The Relais de Camont welcomes special requests for long stays, weddings and other celebrations. We work with a number of local caterers and entertainers to create special events for a memorable stay in Southwest France and of course, Kate and her team of expert French cooks will be happy to create an authentic Southwest fête for your 2008 holidays!

Welcome to Camont

2007-03-05T14:51:00.000+01:00

Camont is a magical sort of place. People use the words- retreat, haven and utopia when refering to this bow-tie shaped piece of land along the Canal de Garonne. I call it home. But home in all the deepest sense of the word. A place to find inspiration, restore peace with quiet nights and and a place to watch things grow. A home is not old stone walls and a roof; it is a place were we gather to be together in friendship.

When I first spotted the pigeonnier's pointed roof with an upturned confit pot for a epi de faitage or finial, I had to fight my way through waist-high nettles and 'Sleeping Beauty' brambles. Now a year-round garden surrounds the 18th century stone and brick tower and the sleeping beauty turned out to be Camont itself. There is always a new project at hand; a row of strawberries to plant for summer tea, a rose bush to train against a sunny wall, re-inforcing the walls of the frog pond by the cold spring woods.

I invite you to discover you're 'inner French self' at Camont, for a week, a month or just a few nights. In the words of recent guests:

C’est Magnifique! Our family's time at Camont was magical -- and everyone's favorite part of a two week trip to France. We had fallen in love with web pictures of the house and grounds, but it was more even more idyllic than we had envisioned. Our daughters (ages 8 and 11) loved their room, the great kitchen, biking along the canal, catching frogs in the pond and visiting with co-owner Kate Hill, who invited them to pick lavender and veggies in her organic garden and then taught them how to make fantastic zucchini pancakes. My husband and I loved the antique tub in the master bedroom, the morning songs of the birds, etc..We had a warm, fun-loving hostess with great stories and plenty of privacy with the house all to ourselves. We're not typically gushy, but Camont was extraordinary.

Come soon. There is your time to discover France.

Warm Regards from Gascony,

Kate Hill &

Bacon