How good does my French need to be?

Good enough to be curious, and that is all. Mixed levels are part of the design: some guests arrive with school French tucked away somewhere, some understand far more than they dare say, and some already speak well and want it to feel easier. Support is pitched to you personally through the week.

Can I come on my own?

Yes, and many people do. You take your own room and the group is curated by us: solo travellers, couples and pairs of friends, a small table of adults who chose the same week.

Who else will be there?

A small group of adults, usually professionals and people at a point where they have time for something like this. Everyone arrives for the same two reasons: the place, and the French.

What is broadly included?

The house, taken exclusively for the week, chef-cooked dinners and breakfast every morning, the experiences that make up the programme, and Learn&Co with you throughout. Each retreat page sets out exactly what is included, and what is not, for that week.

I don't know which retreat suits me. What now?

Tell us roughly what draws you — snow or Provence, a hard week on the mountain or long tables in the shade — and we will talk it through with you. There is no payment at that stage.

French Immersion Retreats in France — The Alps & Provence

The salon at Le 1550, opening onto the Vanoise

Winter 2026 / 27

CourchevelLe 1550

The mountain drives the week.

Les 3 Vallées on the doorstep, private instruction split by level, and a modernist house high above the resort in the hamlet of Les Brigues. This is the week for people who came to ski.

Les 3 Vallées — the largest linked ski domain in the world
Le 1550: pool beneath the mural, spa, fire pit, chef and long table
Boots warmed in-house, the ski room opening onto the slope

Dates · Courchevel

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The salon and library at Le Sarto, in the Art Deco lineage of Le Même

An interior corner at Le Sarto, warm wood and soft winter light

Winter 2026 / 27

MegèveLe Sarto

Skiing, and a village that never became only a resort.

Real mileage on Évasion Mont-Blanc in the morning, and a living Alpine village in the afternoon — market, makers, pâtisserie. The French carries on long after the skis are off.

Évasion Mont-Blanc, with two private groups split by level
A market, makers and a pâtisserie within walking distance
Le Sarto: an Art Deco chalet in the lineage of Le Même

Dates · Megève

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L'Étoile des Baux and its gardens beneath the cliffs of the Val d'Enfer

The long table under the trees at L'Étoile des Baux

Spring and summer 2027

Les Baux-de-ProvenceL'Étoile des Baux

Provence: culture, food, people and long tables.

Estates and cellars still worked by the families who own them, a cooking atelier, a citadel above the house — and deliberate room within the week to do very little at all.

A mas built into the rock, below the citadel of Les Baux
Olive mills, cellars and makers within half an hour
Long tables under the trees, and time deliberately left open

Dates · Les Baux-de-Provence

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More about the week.

What kind of week is this?

Not a language course transplanted somewhere beautiful, and not an organised tour with French added on afterwards.

Every week begins with a house taken exclusively, in a place worth travelling for. What happens from there is chosen with the same care: the people who make things and grow things where we are, the tables worth sitting at, the mountain or the light, whatever that particular week is really about.

The group is small, and the time together is real — long lunches, drives, kitchens, the hour before dinner. French flows naturally through what is happening: the conversations, the people you meet, the places you discover and the things you want to understand. It is intimately intertwined with the week, rather than set apart from it.

And there is room to breathe. Time in the week is deliberately left open, because part of the point is enjoying where you are.

The terrace at L'Étoile des Baux set for dinner

French, at the level you arrive with

You do not need to be fluent. You do not need to be fearless. You just need enough curiosity to let French into the week.

Mixed levels are part of the design. Some guests arrive with school French tucked away somewhere. Some understand more than they dare to say. Some already speak, but want French to feel easier, warmer and more their own.

A Learn&Co French language coach guides the week with just the right balance: enough structure to help you progress, enough humour to get you through the missteps, and enough space for French to start feeling like yours.

There is no traditional classroom, and no one is put on the spot for the sake of it. French comes into the week naturally, with support when you need it and ease when you do not.

You will understand more. You will speak more. And at some point, almost without noticing, French will stop feeling quite so far away.

Friends sharing food and conversation around a table

A relaxed conversation during a French retreat

Maria Toubbe during a Learn&Co immersion week, in conversation with guests — Maria Toubbe · CEO & Founder, Learn&Co

Maria Toubbe, who runs the week

“Languages have always been, for me, a quiet kind of superpower.”

I've spent most of my life moving between languages, cultures and places, and nearly fifteen years teaching other people to do the same. But what has kept me fascinated all this time isn't really the language itself. It's what happens because of it. The people you would never otherwise have spoken to. The joke you suddenly understand. The table you become part of.

I'm in the house all week, at the table and out with you. My job is to put the French where you are already standing, and to pitch it to you personally, whether you arrive with a handful of words or years of it behind you.

You stop reaching for the French. It starts coming to you.

After the week

“I did not expect French to get under my skin in the way it did.”

Maria has a gift for creating that kind of space. Nothing felt forced, but nothing felt accidental either. The whole week had taste, warmth and intelligence behind it.

“The more the week unfolded, the more natural it became. French was simply part of what was happening: a story being told, a question I wanted to answer, a conversation I did not want to miss.”

Somewhere between the long lunches, the walks, the wine, the laughter and conversations that kept going, something shifted. I stopped thinking quite so hard about the French and started using it because I actually wanted to say things.

I came home with something I hadn’t expected: French was starting to come naturally to me.

Rhodri Thomas · French Retreat

L'Étoile des Baux, set into the rock below the citadel of Les Baux

A few things you might be wondering

: Good enough to be curious, and that is all. Mixed levels are part of the design: some guests arrive with school French tucked away somewhere, some understand far more than they dare say, and some already speak well and want it to feel easier. Support is pitched to you personally through the week.
: Yes, and many people do. You take your own room and the group is curated by us: solo travellers, couples and pairs of friends, a small table of adults who chose the same week.
: A small group of adults, usually professionals and people at a point where they have time for something like this. Everyone arrives for the same two reasons: the place, and the French.
: The house, taken exclusively for the week, chef-cooked dinners and breakfast every morning, the experiences that make up the programme, and Learn&Co with you throughout. Each retreat page sets out exactly what is included, and what is not, for that week.
: Tell us roughly what draws you — snow or Provence, a hard week on the mountain or long tables in the shade — and we will talk it through with you. There is no payment at that stage.

Still deciding between the three? Tell us what draws you and we will help you choose the right week.

Start the conversation →

Which French week is calling you?

Courchevel, Megève or Les Baux — tell us what draws you, and we will talk it through with you. No payment, no commitment.

Le 1550. Le Sarto.L'Étoile des Baux.

Two winters in the Alps, and a house in the Alpilles.