This Women’s-only Summer Camp in the French Countryside Had a 10,000-person Waitlist

Inside 24 hours of content material creator Allison Wolf posting a reel of her time at Camp Château, each Kimberly Inexperienced and Lindsey Zurn had booked a keep on the girls’s-only camp in southern France this summer season.

The submit, which has extra 24 million views to this point, is a temper board of the French nation idyll: days spent swishing round a fairy-tale medieval château in floaty clothes with a endless glass of rosé. Wolf spoke of waking as much as deer grazing within the fields every morning and collaborating in a pick-and-mix type of actions, together with horseback using, kayaking, yoga, and making jam.

“I stayed at a girls’s-only summer season camp at a château within the French countryside, and sure, it was as dreamy and magical because it sounds,” Wolf mentioned within the reel. She referred to as it “probably the most enjoyable, healthful journey expertise.”

“As soon as I noticed Allison’s Instagram reel, I knew the camp was going to go viral, so I booked instantly—inside half-hour,” Inexperienced, a 31-year-old artwork director from New York, advised Journey + Leisure. She forwarded it to her buddy, Zurn, who additionally booked on the identical day.

For Zurn, the camp felt refreshingly totally different from a typical trip. With their departure shortly approaching, she’s “excited to disconnect from on a regular basis stresses, join with new individuals, and immerse [herself] in all the pieces from French classes to cooking and artwork—all whereas residing within the French countryside.”

5 days after Wolf’s submit, Camp Château was formally offered out for 2025. Final summer season, it had greater than 10,000 girls on its waitlist. When 2026 dates had been launched on the finish of summer season 2024, the season offered out in seven minutes (900 locations over 9 weeks).

Camp Château’s founder, Philippa Girling, admits the unbelievable recognition of the camp has taken her abruptly. Born in the UK and having lived in Los Angeles for 3 many years, she and her youngsters had fallen for a château on the market within the village of Béduer, north of Toulouse within the little-known however totally enchanting Lot Valley, a spot the place she vacationed as a baby. “We didn’t want a château, however we felt like girls did, so we shortly went from falling in love with the constructing to a dialog a couple of summer camp for ladies the place they might come to this lovely a part of France and simply be,” she advised T+L.

Girling has hit on a profitable formulation: a magical setting, utterly faraway from the on a regular basis; actions girls can dip out and in of as they need; and the possibility to bond with different girls—all in a secure, judgement-free setting.

“Our mission was to create this pretty, enjoyable house the place girls might come and really feel like they might take off all of the masks they need to put on and never work on themselves as a result of they had been already superior,” Girling defined.

Attendees both sleep in bunks within the château or glamping tents on the grounds. It is capped at 50 individuals per session, however a second property opening in a equally fairy-tale French setting, within the Ariège area of southwest France, in 2026 will hopefully ease a number of the strain on the waitlist.

Made up of solo vacationers, teams of mates, and mother-daughter duos, round 80 p.c of the campers are from North America, and the demographic is broad. “We now have individuals coming of their 20s and their late 70s,” she mentioned. “We now have a number of younger girls on the ft of older girls, listening to their knowledge, and older girls listening to youthful girls share their enthusiasm and power for all times.”

Girling mentioned the most effective aspect of individuals comes out over the course of the camp. “If you take 50 girls, put them collectively, and inform them they’re sufficient and that they deserve a break, they’re extremely type to one another,” she mentioned.

Camp Château often is the authentic, however others are actually popping up round France following the identical premise: for ladies solely, with an emphasis on curating your individual expertise in a fascinating French setting. Lower than three hours from Paris, Château du Tremblay has been in Louis d’Armaillé’s household because it was constructed within the mid-14th century. With accomplice Lua Andersen, the pair has their first girls’s-only summer season camps deliberate for later this 12 months.

“We’re going to supply a number of artistic actions: portray, cooking lessons, French classes, and crafts the place you may enhance your individual image frames, hair clips, hairbrushes—small objects you may carry house as reminiscences,” mentioned Andersen. What’s extra, the household has its personal winery, so loads of wine tastings and excursions can even be on the schedule.

Anderson, who’s at present juggling organising the camps with a company job in Paris, says the château is the place she reconnects with nature and recharges her batteries on weekends—and desires others to really feel its magic. “It’s a spot the place you are able to do a number of stuff you would by no means do in your on a regular basis life,” she added. Like Camp Château, Château du Tremblay’s summer season camps will final 5 days. Visitors will sleep in one of many property’s 17 bedrooms in teams of two or three, although single rooms can even be doable.

If there was one nook of France primed for such an expertise, it is the lavender-scented landscapes of Provence. In an aristocratic residence close to Cassis on the Mediterranean coast, Camp Joli is prepping itself for its second season.

Among the many inaugural attendees final 12 months was Meagan Rose, who visited with a bunch of content material creators in September 2024. “I had no thought what to anticipate. I simply knew I used to be going to remain on this lovely citadel, and it actually modified my life,” she mentioned.

“Day-after-day, you had the chance to decide on your individual journey, whether or not you needed to enroll in each exercise or sit again and chill out by the pool all day,” she added. Horseback using, baking bread, excursions to native villages, and a watercolor portray class had been a number of the electives Rose participated in.

Her finest reminiscences, nonetheless, are the friendships she created. “I genuinely imagine I’ve discovered lifelong mates by this, and I am nonetheless in contact with these ladies to this present day. I am so grateful I bought to expertise it,” she mentioned.

Arguably what’s additionally driving the recognition of those camps is worth for cash. Six days, 5 nights at Camp Château in 2026 prices €2,400 ($2,800), a value that features lodging, meals, snacks, drinks, three-plus electives per day, and two-plus excursions. In the meantime, Camp Joli begins from €1,999 (about $2,350) for lodging, meals (ready by a personal chef), and electives. 5 nights at Château du Tremblay will set you again €1,950 ($2,200), additionally together with lodging, meals, and actions.