Join the team stewarding a house
devoted to beauty, creativity,
and meaningful hospitality.
The House
Château de Puy Vidal is both a family home and the headquarters for the Lady of the Chateau retreats.
Throughout the year we welcome artists and guests from around the world for immersive retreats devoted to connection, development, and self-expression. These weeks invite people to step outside the pace of ordinary life and enter an environment devoted to beauty, care, and shared attention.
Many of our guests arrive at meaningful moments in their lives — periods of creative renewal, transition, or personal reflection. The retreats offer space for their work, their questions, and their unfolding journeys.
Each retreat is the result of careful preparation by a small and dedicated team. Together we steward the spaces of the house, host our guests, and create the conditions for meaningful experiences to unfold.
Working Here
Working at Château de Puy Vidal is not simply a job in hospitality. It is participation in a creative project where beauty, pacing, and emotional resonance matter.
Our work blends attentive, high-end hospitality with the deeper purpose of the retreats themselves: creating a setting where creativity, reflection, and transformation can take place.
Each retreat week functions much like a production. There is preparation before guests arrive, a rhythm and arc to the week itself, and careful resetting afterward.
Some work happens behind the scenes — preparing spaces, organizing materials, coordinating logistics. Other moments take place on stage — welcoming guests, hosting dinners, guiding the flow of the day.
Together we help maintain the atmosphere of the house and support the journey our guests have come here to experience.
What We Value
Service as an Art
Hospitality here is practiced with care, taste, and attention. The way a table is set, a room prepared, or a guest welcomed contributes to the overall experience of the house.
Excellence and Continual Improvement
The atmosphere we create is built through hundreds of small decisions each day. We care deeply about doing things well — refining systems, improving the experience, and paying close attention to detail.
Stewardship of the House
The château is both a historic property and a living home. Members of the team help care for its spaces, objects, and environment with attention and respect.
Energy and Atmosphere
The mood of the team shapes the atmosphere experienced by our guests. We value calm professionalism, emotional maturity, warmth and generosity, and a collaborative spirit.
Curiosity About People and Culture
Guests travel here from many different countries and backgrounds. A spirit of openness, cultural sensitivity, and curiosity about people enriches the experience for everyone.
Sensitivity to Beauty and the Arts
The retreats hosted here center around painting, photography, writing, and creative exploration. An appreciation for art, culture, and aesthetics helps team members understand and support the environment we are creating.
Who Thrives Here
People who flourish at Château de Puy Vidal tend to share certain qualities.
They take pride in doing things well and notice details others might overlook. They enjoy working thoughtfully and carefully, understanding that small gestures shape the atmosphere of a place.
They are curious about people, art, and culture, and feel comfortable welcoming guests from many different backgrounds. They are adaptable and generous with their energy, able to contribute both to practical work behind the scenes and to the visible hospitality of retreat weeks.
They are steady, collaborative, and respectful of the environment they are helping to steward.
Most importantly, they understand that the work here is about creating a world for others to step into — and they take satisfaction in helping that world come to life.
Practical Realities
of the Work
Working at Château de Puy Vidal can be deeply rewarding, but it is important to understand the nature of the work.
Retreat weeks are dynamic and physically active periods that require focus, flexibility, and teamwork. The historic property is large and the work may involve walking and standing for long days, moving furniture or equipment, adapting to weather, and helping prepare or reset spaces.
Those who thrive here are adaptable, practical, and generous in their approach to work. They take pride in doing things well, lend a hand when needed, and remain steady and professional across long days.
Above all, members of our team share a genuine curiosity about people and respect for the many journeys that bring guests to the château.
Working here, you will collaborate with thoughtful people who share a love of beauty, creativity, and meaningful hospitality — helping create a world apart for the many guests who cross our threshold each year.
Retreat Operations
& Staging Lead
At Château de Puy Vidal, retreats are immersive, week-long artistic experiences. Each stay unfolds like a carefully composed production — shaped through atmosphere, rhythm, and hundreds of practical details behind the scenes.
This role is primarily hands-on and operational.
It centers on preparing spaces, staging environments, and ensuring the smooth logistical flow of retreat weeks and transition periods between stays.
The person in this position helps transform the château day by day — moving furniture, setting up studios and salons, preparing evening events, coordinating practical readiness of guest areas, and supporting the material life of the house.
It is a physical, practical, and highly varied role suited to someone who enjoys working concretely, taking initiative, and contributing to a shared creative environment.
Core Responsibilities
Event and space preparation (main focus of the role)
Setting up and dismantling activity spaces (art studio, aperitif locations, salons, outdoor areas)
Moving interior and exterior furniture
Installing simple decorative elements, ambient lighting, and event staging materials
Preparing evening activities such as cinema nights, bonfires, projections, and themed gatherings
Resetting and restoring spaces after each event
Property readiness between retreats
Assisting with the reorganisation and preparation of the château between guest stays
Coordinating practical preparation with the housekeeping team
Supporting outdoor upkeep tasks (terraces, pool area, garden furniture)
Helping prepare materials and layout for upcoming artistic workshops
Logistics and inventory
Monitoring and restocking operational supplies (candles, linens, guest amenities, beverages, snacks)
Carrying out local purchasing runs for logistical needs
Managing the full preparation, packing, and shipment of participants’ artworks once dry
Presence during retreat weeks
Active participation in daily logistical setup
Evening presence for installations and site closure
Contributing to the overall flow and practical harmony of the retreat experience
Working rhythm
This is a seasonal operational role running approximately from April to November.
Retreat weeks are intensive periods requiring evening and occasional weekend presence.
Between retreats, working hours are more regular and typically scheduled during weekdays.
Across the season, the role combines:
physically active staging work
autonomous practical organisation
collaboration with a small, international team
For the right person, this position may evolve into a broader retreat operations role in future seasons.
Compensation & Working Rhythm
This is a seasonal fixed-term contract (CDD) running approximately from April through late November.
Working hours vary across the season depending on retreat activity.
On average, the role represents roughly 30–40 hours per week over the duration of the contract, with:
more intensive weeks during retreats, including evening and weekend work
more regular weekday schedules between retreats, focused on preparation and logistical resets
The indicative hourly wage is €16–18 gross per hour, depending on experience and profile.
Across the full season, the total workload typically represents approximately 1,200–1,400 hours.
Please note that housing is not provided for this position, and candidates should be able to live locally or arrange accommodation in the surrounding area.
Location & Lifestyle
Candidates considering relocation should be aware that the château is located in a very rural part of southwestern France, surrounded primarily by farmland and small villages.
The nearest village, La Rochefoucauld, offers a large supermarket complex, essential services, a handful of shops and restaurants and a historic Chateau that is open as a museum. The nearest city, Angoulême, is approximately 18 minutes away. It offers more essential services, a covered food market, shops, cafés, a good variety of restaurants and several arts festivals across the year, however it remains a small and largely French-speaking city with a limited international community.
High-speed train connections make it easy to reach Bordeaux (about 30 minutes) and Paris (around 2 hours). However, daily life in the area is quiet and nature-oriented.
This role is best suited to someone who enjoys tranquility, open landscapes, and a slower rural rhythm, and who feels comfortable living in an environment that is peaceful rather than highly urban or international outside of the retreat context.
Who thrives in this role
This position suits someone who:
enjoys practical, physical, and varied work
is comfortable working both independently and within a team
appreciates artistic environments and cultural hospitality
brings reliability, initiative, and attention to detail
can communicate in working English within an international household environment
holds a valid driver’s licence and is comfortable driving locally
Above all, it is ideal for someone who takes satisfaction in helping create environments where others can focus, create, and experience meaningful moments.
Why this role is special
Working at the château means helping bring to life the environments in which our guests create, reflect, and transform.
Each retreat week begins with quiet rooms, open gardens, and simple materials- and through thoughtful preparation, lighting, décor, and spatial rhythm, these spaces are gradually shaped into warm, atmospheric settings for artistic work and shared experiences.
Behind the scenes, the work is grounded, physical, and detail-oriented. Yet it offers the rare satisfaction of seeing a place change day by day through your hands- from a sunlit studio prepared for painting, to a candle-lit salon ready for evening gatherings.
There is also a particular joy in being part of a small, committed team working together to make meaningful moments happen. During retreat weeks, the pace can be intense, but many people find themselves quietly swept up in the shared momentum- the sense of collaborating to create something beautiful, ephemeral, and deeply human.
For those who thrive in practical, creative environments, this role offers the chance to help shape a temporary world of care, atmosphere, and inspiration that guests will carry with them long after they leave.
How to Apply
If this opportunity feels aligned, we’d love to hear from you.
Please email admin@ladyofthechateau.com with:
• Your CV
• Confirmation of: fluency in both French and English, Valid driver's license, Availability from April- November, ability to commute daily to Chateau de Puy Vidal, Comfort with physical work
• A Cover Letter explaining your interest in the role and the experience you feel has prepared you for it- in both english and french.
