This Girls’s-only Summer season Camp within the French Countryside Had a ten,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 thus far, 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 fashion of actions, together with horseback driving, 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 stated within the reel. She referred to as it “probably the most stress-free, 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 pal, Zurn, who additionally booked on the identical day.

For Zurn, the camp felt refreshingly completely 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 dwelling 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 unimaginable 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 kids had fallen for a château on the market within the village of Béduer, north of Toulouse within the little-known however completely 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 season camp for girls the place they may come to this lovely a part of France and simply be,” she advised T+L.

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

“Our mission was to create this pretty, stress-free area the place girls may come and really feel like they may take off all of the masks they should 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 stress on the waitlist.

Made up of solo vacationers, teams of associates, and mother-daughter duos, round 80 % of the campers are from North America, and the demographic is broad. “We have now individuals coming of their 20s and their late 70s,” she stated. “We have now quite a lot of younger girls on the toes of older girls, listening to their knowledge, and older girls listening to youthful girls share their enthusiasm and vitality for all times.”

Girling stated one of the best 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 form to one another,” she stated.

Camp Château stands out as the unique, however others are actually popping up round France following the identical premise: for girls solely, with an emphasis on curating your personal 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 yr.

“We’re going to supply quite a lot of inventive actions: portray, cooking courses, French classes, and crafts the place you possibly can enhance your personal image frames, hair clips, hairbrushes—small objects you possibly can carry residence as reminiscences,” stated Andersen. What’s extra, the household has its personal winery, so loads of wine tastings and excursions will even be on the schedule.

Anderson, who’s presently juggling establishing 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 needs others to really feel its magic. “It’s a spot the place you are able to do quite a lot 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 will 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 yr 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 fort, and it actually modified my life,” she stated.

“Day by day, you had the chance to decide on your personal journey, whether or not you wished to join each exercise or sit again and loosen up by the pool all day,” she added. Horseback driving, 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 associates via this, and I am nonetheless in contact with these women to today. I am so grateful I received to expertise it,” she stated.

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.