Lulu Bea Perigord Retreat
9 – 18 September 2027
Join this France art retreat for ten days of artistic immersion and cultural discovery in the French countryside. Hosted at Perigord Retreats, this intimate gathering combines embodied movement-based painting with mixed media portraiture set amongst the medieval villages, cliffside towns and prehistoric caves of the Dordogne and Lot valleys.
Wander the cobblestone streets of Sarlat, learn to make cheese in the pilgrimage village of Rocamadour, kayak the Dordogne River, and stand before 20,000-year-old cave paintings at Pech Merle. This is a retreat built around your art, with the region itself as your subject and your studio.
Daily Painting Sessions
Delicious Gourmet Dinners
Daily Excursions
To Beautiful Locations
Intuitive Painting & Portrait Art
Begin each piece with embodied movement, letting the body and intuition build an abstract background before you refine it into a finished image, whether that’s a portrait, florals, or whatever wants to emerge. You’ll learn to see lights and darks and use a grid for proportion as you bring the piece into focus. Daily studio time with individual guidance means you leave with real skill, not just a finished piece.
Creative Community
Share your journey with fellow artists in an intimate, small group setting, culminating in a celebration of your week’s creative output.
It’s More Than An Art Retreat
This is not simply ten days of painting. It’s a chance to slow down inside a landscape that has been shaping artists, pilgrims and cheesemakers for a thousand years.
You’ll wake to breakfast among new friends, spend mornings wandering medieval streets, and afternoons back in the studio, pushing your portrait work further. Evenings mean a home-cooked, locally sourced meal with wine, followed by nights under the stars or solo work in the art studio.
Each studio session starts in the body before it moves to the page. You’ll use movement to quiet the planning mind and build an intuitive background, then bring in the more technical skills to refine what emerges into a finished piece.
Through the excursions, you’ll fill your sketchbook and your memory with a region that has inspired artists for centuries, from cave painters to surrealists. You’ll come home not just with a finished piece, but with a stronger hand, a fuller eye, and a process you can return to again and again.
Example Itinerary:
Flights – You can fly into Paris or Toulouse and get the train to our local station from there.
Day 1: Transfers from the local train station in the early afternoon. Welcome snacks & evening meal at the property.
Day 2: Visit to Chateau des Milandes, picnic lunch with an amazing view and some sketching. Dinner at home.
Day 3: Visit to Saint Cirq Lapopie, picnic lunch. Dinner at home.
Day 4: Visit to Sarlat market. Afternoon in the studio, Restaurant in the evening.
Day 5: Visit to Rocamadour, sketching outdoors or in the studio in the afternoon. Dinner at home.
Day 6: Guided tour of a fortified watermill, picnic lunch, sketching outdoors or in the studio in the afternoon. Dinner at home.
Day 7: Cheese making in Rocamadour, painting in the studio. Restaurant dinner.
Day 8: Painting/exploring the panoramic landscape at Domme. Afternoon in the studio.
Day 9: Visit to a local site/packing/farewell evening.
Day 10: Transfers to the local train station in the morning.
There are equally lots of other activities we can organise depending on your group. More studio time, more guided excursions.
What’s included
Excursions
Daily trips to tailored locations chosen by the artist and their group. Opportunities to explore, shop, or gather inspiration for studio work.
Tuition
Every day you will receive group and one-to-one tuition outside or in the studio in the form of demonstrations and individual feedback.
Food
Fresh baked goods, fresh fruit salads & continental style breakfasts every day. Locally produced, freshly cooked lunches and evening meals. We will visit a couple of restaurants at your own expense.
Accommodation
9 Nights lodging on the grounds.
Bedroom with shared bathroom
€3500
This private bedroom shares a bathroom with 1 other woman. It is perfect for two friends or someone travelling on their own.
Private Suite
€4000
This is a private bedroom with its own ensuite bathroom
Couple’s Suite
€6550
This room is a for a couple (a painter and non painting partner) with their own ensuite bathroom.