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Welcome to Château de Puy Vidal, a place where fairytale, fantasy and magic are alive and well.
Our Lady of the Château Creative Retreats are dreamed up to offer all who enter our gates the wisdoms of French living, the richness of the past, and the vibrancy of creative collaboration.
Join our family, our team and our creative instructors as we discover new ways to forge friendships, reach creative depths, and re-enchant our world.
Step into your own cinematic universe.
Welcome to Château de Puy Vidal, a place where fairytale, fantasy and magic are alive and well.
Our Lady of the Château Creative Retreats are dreamed up to offer all who enter our gates the wisdoms of French living, the richness of the past, and the vibrancy of creative collaboration.
Join our family, our team and our creative instructors as we discover new ways to forge friendships, reach creative depths, and re-enchant our world.
Step into your own cinematic universe.
Retreats for Romantics & Dreamers
The Lady of the Château is a creative sanctuary offering intimate, immersive experiences set within the walls of a 13th-century château in Southwest France.
Our Creative Retreats transcend the ordinary, blurring the lines between reality and dreams. Amidst the gently rolling hills of this richly historic region we invite you to step into a world where creativity flourishes, self-discovery is celebrated, and deep connections are forged.
Each retreat is an intimate affair, co-created with our guest instructors and hosted by our family, ensuring you receive the full measure of our passion and care. Crafted with time and dedication, no two experiences are alike.
Through our Creative Studio, our mission continues, with film, photography, and meaningful narratives celebrating freedom, beauty, and connection. Together, the retreats and studio encapsulate our mission to help individuals connect with their inner beauty and share it with the world.
Step into our world and experience the magic of connecting to kindred spirits in a place that lives and breathes enchantment.
Chateau de Puy Vidal
RECENTLY LAUNCHED 2025 WORKSHOPS
June 26 - July 2, 2025 | Fantasy Photoshoot Retreat with Autumn Luciano
LAUNCHING SOON
Creative Retreats
With only a few retreats offered each year, we emphasize intimacy, authenticity, and profound personal engagement.
We partner with like-minded guest instructors to create completely unique experiences. Each season is carefully developed to have a range of atmospheres and themes.
Retreats range across the creative disciplines.
Oil Painting
Photography
Creative Writing
Filmmaking
Personal Branding
Fantasy Photoshoots
Storytelling for Entrepreneurs
June 4 - 11, 2025 | Plein Air Oil Painting Workshop
ATTENDING ONE OF OUR RETREATS
Whether you’re yearning to reconnect to your inner creative, shake up your routine, or connect with like-minded people, our workshops and retreats offer the opportunity to shift yourself into a new future. You will be surprised how much the removal of the normal responsibilities and burdens of the everyday, together with the right group of committed, inspired people, all in a beautiful protected space, combined just right creates a formidable alchemy. It takes a full week to let go of the anxieties and anticipations of the next step and fully surrender yourself to what we call the "Puy Vidal Flow."
We invite you to consider joining us for a week for intensive creative nourishment, inspiringly beautiful atmospheres, and the transformative power of living in communtiny.
"A part of me wants the Lady of the Château to remain a hidden gem that, selfishly, I can have access to long term, and another part of me believes that the Leach-Ibarra family should be rewarded resoundingly and perennially for their efforts and passions, and that as many artists as possible should experience something like this."
Angela Facundo
Painting Workshop Guest 2024
"I have attended several painting workshops in Europe and this one was by far the best. "
Rebecca Molayem
Painting Workshop Guest 2024
"There are only three words to describe how beautiful your Chateau is… and those are 'Heaven on Earth' "
Joanne Collins
From our Youtube Community
"This place is pure love."
Rebecca Hogan
Retreat Guest 2023
"I speak from personal experience- this is a magical place you will never forget!
The hosts are fabulous, the atmosphere of the Chateau not only invites but insists that your creativity will be at its best, and living in a literal castle for even a few days… Come on now- this is the stuff Bucket Lists are made of!"
Terry Stanley
Painting Retreat Guest 2023
"A paradise for anyone who loves beauty. I could paint 1,000 paintings in this place."
Carlos San Millán
Guest Painting Instructor 2024
"The love the the lady of the chateau team puts into every single detail makes every moment of this retreat so magical. I have never stayed anywhere so breathtaking."
Angelique Adams
Transformation Retreat 2024
"The Lady of the Chateau hosts take hospitality to the highest standard, treating you like you are their very best friend or family member."
Irina Gorokhov
Painting Retreat 2022
"A sensational week- delicious on many levels, gastronomic, artistic, spiritual, and communal. An adventure of extraordinary growth and comfort. "
Dermot Stoker
Painting Retreat Guest 2023
RE-ENCHANT YOUR WORLD
Storytelling. Imagery. Cinema. Heart and Soul.
This is the lifeblood of our The Lady of the Chateau- and it is our passion to be the architects of this vision.
The Lady of the Château Creative Studio, helmed by Julia and Caroline, allows us to develop all the elements of this lifestyle brand- from filmmaking, photography, to thought-leadership articles. Our mission is to share with the world the values we cherish- freedom, beauty in living, connection, and community.
Lady of the Château Productions
At The Lady of the Château Productions, we value meaningful, authentic lived experiences and storytelling. We spend our days observing and carefully recording our lives and experiences here in France.
We draw on our 10 years of filmmaking careers in the camera department of NYC film and television sets to helm the Creative Studio of Puy Vidal. Our first project has been to tell our story- documentary style, to capture and share the daunting journey of moving from California to France as a five person family and starting our Retreats business.
Critical to our process is a period of reflection and absorption, where we let our lived experiences settle in. This helps invite objectivity and a sense of perspective. Like many crafts and arts, this process requires time and multiple stages. We call it our "distillation" process.
The result is videos that we feel proud of- bits of imagery, sound, and message that convey a sense of truth. By so doing, we hope to contribute to a better, more meaningful YouTube, internet, and world.
Caroline & Julia
We are passionate about seeking beauty
We love observing the infinitely changing atmospheres, light, color, and emotion of each retreat and each guest who radiates beauty during these weeks. It is our passion and privilege to have so much inspiration all around us—the incredible setting, the changing seasons, and the energy and dynamism of each retreat group. It is a filmmaker's/photographer's dream come true.
Experience a taste of the magic through our photography gallery below.
All photography is taken by Julia Leach and Caroline Ibarra and is copyrighted by Lady of the Château.
