Le Relais de Camont
x F A I R E
Creative Fellowship 11.11.22 - 2.12.22
“Write, photograph, film, draw, cook, create or just breathe in the lush Southwest French countryside.” Kate Hill
This is an opportunity to win a two-week creative residency at the beloved Relais de Camont, a quiet rural creative retreat in the heart of Gascony in southwest France.
Many artists and writers, photographers, and dreamers have found their inspiration at Camont over the last 30 years. Published author and professional cook Kate Hill has opened the pigeonnier, a private part of her 18th-century farmhouse, as a contemporary retreat and residency for those seeking a less structured yet productive environment.
Applications closed on 2 December 2022
-
One place for a 2-week residency at the Relais de Camont Artist Residency Program in 2023.
Feature story on FAIRE online journal
Gift bundle of issues 2-7 of FAIRE
-
Old stone walls and a red tile roof of the 18th-century pigeonnier cradle comfortable guest chambers and private baths; burnished terracotta kitchen floors, cozy spaces and quiet nooks invite you to unleash your private spirit in this safe Gascon haven.
Created as her own working home over 30 years ago, Kate now opens the doors of Camont’s Relais and its gardens to fellow creatives looking for a place to hang a hat for a couple of weeks and work. Let your energy flow to the slow tempo of the sunrise, bird song, and the ever-flowing canal. Imagine a quiet rural creative retreat within 3.5 hours from Paris.
As part of this creative fellowship, the winner of the residency position would have their own room in Le Pigeonnier of Relais de Camont for a period of 2 weeks.
Dates are TBC.
Amenities: The charming 18th-century kitchen at Camont is available for all residents and guests to use to cook their own meals. There are communal working spaces for reading and conversation, as well as communal Sunday lunches organised as one feels like it.
This 2-week residency is unguided and allows you the freedom to develop and create at your own pace.
-
Applications open 11 November.
Please complete the application form in full on this page and submit before 12noon CET on 2 December.
-
Open to international creatives and artists.
Deadline for entries: Friday, December 2, 2022
A carefully chosen panel of creative industry professionals will work with the team at Faire & Kate Hill to choose a shortlist of five entries. The winning entry will be chosen and the winner informed on December 14 2022.
N.B.
Applicants must have travel insurance.
Applicants must be fit to travel.
-
The prize is for one adult.
Any costs incurred in addition to the prize package elements listed above (e.g. grocery shopping, taxi’s etc) are the guests own expense.
Project materials, extra workshops, and food not included. FAIRE recommends that travellers take an additional EU 1000 for spending **comfortable budget
Travel insurance, flights and local transfers are not included.
All travellers must have travel insurance.
Winners are responsible for their own passport, visa and vaccine requirements.
The prizewinner must be over 18.
There is no cash or prize alternative.
The prizes are as stated and non-transferable.
Applicants must be signed up to both the FAIRE Inner Circle membership and the ‘Relais de Camont’ mailing list
The organisers take no responsibility for any incidents that may occur while travelling to and from the prize destination(s) or for any incident that occurs during such visits.
The organisers do not accept any liability whatsoever and howsoever arising directly or indirectly from an entrant's participation in this competition or for the cancellation or postponement of the competition. The winner is responsible for ensuring that they meet the requirements to travel. The organisers will not be liable for any failure by the winner to meet such requirements.
Le Relais de Camont
“This is your time. You can come to write, research, cook, photograph, video, share, and create. You only need an idea. Or maybe you’ll find one here.”
-
What is a Creative Residency at the Relais de Camont
Le Relais pigeonnier is dedicated especially, but not exclusively, to the French food arts. All writers, photographers, cooks, and other creatives who want to take the time to steep themselves in the rural traditions of France are welcome.
-
In the heart of Gascony, Southwest France
The neighourhood, nestled alongside the Canal de Garonne, is surrounded by small villages and rural farming but is just 20 minutes from Agen (pop. 45K) and its TGV train station from Paris (3.5 hr), Bordeaux and Toulouse (1.5 hr).
‘Camont’ itself sits on a little used country lane with a quiet towpath at the garden gate for strolling along and the voie verte or paved bicycling lane on the other side of the canal.
Shopping trips are organised weekly to local markets (Wednesdays or Saturdays) and bicycles are available to residents. There is local transportation to nearby Agen and a taxi service to and from the train station.
-
La Maison
The Pigeonnier is the common space where all residents share a cosy sitting and reading room, next to a completely equipped kitchen, and have free access to Kate’s French vintage props and brocante shop. Camont sits in an acre of potager gardens and shady Oak park, with many outside seating and table areas, pétanque court, and a canal-side bike and walking path (bikes are available); there is free high-speed WiFi via fiber optic cable throughout the Pigeonnier.
Old wooden gate tied with a rope in front of a garden with blooming white and pink flowers.
Meet our Panel
-
Kate Hill
Kate Hill, is a published author and professional cook and teacher, mentor, coach, and Gascon fairy godmother. Thirty years ago she found an old farm called Camont laying in ruin alongside the Canal de Garonne. She had sailed into this fruitful spot in France on her Dutch canal barge, the Julia Hoyt, beginning the first gastronomic charters in Gascony. Camont soon became a lively homeport and its 300-year-old kitchen became the focus for hundreds of hungry friends and guests over the years. Home, gite, and gardens—it wasn't long before Kate started teaching cooking classes in that French Kitchen at Camont.
In 2022, Kate Hill launched the Relais de Camont Creative Residency program and is welcoming guests throughout the year.
-
Rebekah Peppler
Rebekah Peppler is a Paris-based food, travel, and lifestyle writer and food stylist. Her latest cookbook, À Table, was published with Chronicle in April 2021. Her book APÉRITIF: Cocktail Hour the French Way was published by Clarkson Potter in October 2018 and is a 2019 James Beard Foundation nominee. She is currently working on her next, le SUD, to be published with Chronicle in 2024.
Her clients include The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Saveur, and more. She is also the author of Honey, a Short Stack Edition.
When she's not working, you can find Rebekah cooking, eating, and drinking with friends in the 18th arrondissement. Her French is mostly not good, but she'll try.
-
Trish Deseine
Trish Deseine is an Irish cookbook author and food writer, born in Belfast and raised in the Co. Antrim countryside.
She has published over thirty, often award-winning, widely translated books in English and French, presented five cookery TV series for the BBC and RTÉ , and in 2009 she was listed as one of French Vogue and GQ’s 40 Women of the decade.
Trish is The Gloss Magazine's food columnist and has written and continues to write about food, travel and restaurants for ELLE and ELLE à Table, Régal, France Magazine, Wallpaper Guides, The Guardian, The Observer Food Monthly, Libération, The Sunday Times and The Irish Times.
-
Emiko Davies
Emiko Davies is an award-winning Australian-Japanese food writer, photographer and cookbook author based in Italy. Growing up in a diplomatic family, she spent most of her life living in countries other than her own, from China to the USA. After graduating from art school, she ended up in Florence, Italy, in 2005 to study art restoration and fell in love with a Tuscan sommelier. They have recently renovated a new home in a charming hilltop village between Florence and Pisa and plan to open their own space for sharing food and natural wine experiences in San Miniato in 2023.
Emiko has written five cookbooks, Florentine: The True Cuisine of Florence (March 2016 and a new edition in November 2020), Acquacotta (March 2017), Tortellini at Midnight (March 2019) and Torta della Nonna (March 2021), and her latest book on recipes and the history of Venetian cuisine, Cinnamon & Salt, April 2022. Published by Hardie Grant
-
Olivia Thordén Rubie
Olivia Thordén Rubie recently left a successful career as a photographer in Sydney, Australia, in order to return to her native Swedish west coast. Back home, she rediscovered a strong connection to nature, wild edible plants, creative dining experiences and workshops, and began to combine her photographic skills with exploring these passions.
Olivia now lives outside Göteborg in the woods with her young family. She spends her free time renovating an old wooden house and re-wilding her connected forest, while lovingly nurturing a section to grow a lot of her own food and recreating a medieval herb garden.
Her recent collaboration with oyster diver Lotta Klemming has been made into a book, titled “Vilplockade ostron.” It has received a number of awards, including the Måltidsakademin prizes for Best Specialty Cookbook and Best Photography in All Genres, and the Gourmand Cookbook award for this year’s best Best Fish and Seafood book.
-
Kristin Jensen
Kristin Jensen is the publisher and editor at Nine Bean Rows Books and Blasta Books and the publisher of Scoop magazine. Frustrated that many voices and many parts of Ireland’s food culture were not being represented, she founded this boutique publishing house for tastemakers and storytellers in 2021 to update the story of the modern, diverse and vibrant food scene in Ireland. Before that, Kristin was a freelance editor and writer for over 20 years, specialising in editing cookbooks and recipes. Kristin is also the co-author of Making Artisan Pizza at Home (Ryland Peters & Small, 2022), Sláinte: The Complete Guide to Irish Craft Beer and Cider (New Island, 2014) and a forthcoming cookbook to be published in June 2023. She has served as the secretary and the chair of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild. When she’s not pottering in the kitchen or got her nose stuck in a book, you’ll find her walking for miles in the countryside with her dogs, probably listening to a podcast about food.
@edibleireland | Blasta books | Nine Bean Rows Books | Scoop Food magazine
-
Ruth Ribeaucourt
Creative director, editor in chief, FAIRE magazine
Storyteller, photographer, creative director, editor in chief, FAIRE magazine.
-
Gwen Strauss
Since 2005, Gwen Strauss has lived in Southern France with her three children and dog Zola, where she is the Director of an international artist residency program and cultural center at The Dora Maar House. She is also an author. Her books include: The Hiding Game, a Middle Grade Reader about artists hiding in Marseille with the help of Varian Fry in 1940; Trail of Stones, a book of poetry; The Night Shimmy, a children's book; and Ruth and the Green Book, which received wide recognition including the ALA 2011 Most Notable Middle Grade Reader and Honor book for the Jane Adam's Peace Prize. Her most recent work of adult non-fiction, The Nine, follows the true story of Strauss’ great aunt, who led a band of nine female resistance fighters as they escaped a German forced labor camp and made a ten-day journey across the front lines of WWII from Germany back to Paris. The book has been translated into 15 languages and is in development for a TV series
-
Aimee Twigger
Aimee Twigger lives in the seaside town of Devon and her passion for food and photography came about very much by accident about 8 years ago, when she started a blog to share her recipes.
In a short space of time, Aimee has become an incredibly talented food photographer, recipe developer and beloved creative mentor.
-
Niram Watthanasit
Niram Watthanasit is a Bangkok-based baker and the owner of Eden’s, a food-serving cafe located in the east side of the city’s old town. He is also the publisher of My Kitchen Out Of Eden’s, a bi-annual magazine on food and quality living.
With background in media and journalism, Niram describes what he does as sharing beauty and real-life fantasy with those who long for similar things in life.
-
Betty Binon
At the helm of the popular blog Stems & Forks, Betty Binon takes a refined approach to share her three passions in life: flowers, cooking, and photography. Based in Toronto, Canada, she has built a successful multi-faceted brand after nearly twenty years in the floral design business. She sold the thriving business in 2013 to embrace a balanced lifestyle with more family time and immersion in all things creative. Since the shift in career, Binon’s photography is highly sought-after by brands for her distinct style and authenticity, and her workshops sell out to prominent artists and content creators around the world. Just a few brands Binon freelances for include CBC, Kate Hudson’s King Street Vodka, Peroni Beer, and Paderno. Betty has also been featured in numerous International publications, King Arthur Sift, Where Women Cook, Vogue Greece, Thrive Magazine, and Kids.
Who should apply to the Relais de Camont x FAIRE Creative Fellowship?
“This is your time. You can come to write, research, cook, photograph, video, share, and create. You only need an idea. Or maybe you’ll find one here.”
This creative residency is open to creatives at all levels. Mid-career or recent graduate - or maybe you are looking to change career paths and want to have the space to create and flourish?
Perhaps you are a photographer seeking to travel and access lush countryside locations, or a creative brand looking for inspiration? or maybe you are a writer who needs to finish the last few chapters on your book? or a passionate cook looking to source the most phenomenal local products of terroir and work on recipe development?
What kind of candidate are we looking for?
Our panel are looking for a candidate who has a distinct idea in mind for how they would like to spend their residency time. We will be looking for a thoughtful, mindful applicant, someone who demonstrates clearly how and why they will greatly benefit from this opportunity. It would be helpful to send us any relevant creative materials (e.g. photography/writing samples) to illustrate your application so that we can get a better sense of your residency project.
Notes:
This 2-week residency is unguided and allows you the freedom to develop and create at your own pace.
The charming 18th-century kitchen at Camont is available for all residents and guests to use to cook their own meals. There are communal working spaces for reading and conversation, as well as communal Sunday lunches organised as one feels like it. Quiet and privacy are respected.
About Kate Hill
Kate Hill at the Relais de Camont invites you to explore a timeless way of creating, one in which the rural French days and seasons influence your own rhythm of chosen work. Old stone walls and a red tile roof of the 18th-century pigeonnier cradle comfortable guest chambers and private baths; burnished terracotta kitchen floors, cozy spaces and quiet nooks invite you to unleash your private spirit in this safe Gascon haven. Created as her own working home over 30 years ago, Kate now opens the doors of Camont’s Relais and its gardens to fellow creatives looking for a place to hang a hat for a couple of weeks and work. Let your energy flow to the slow tempo of the sunrise, bird song, and the ever-flowing canal. Imagine a quiet rural creative retreat within 3.5 hours from Paris.
Built in 1724 as part of a working Gascon farm, the Relais de Camont and its barn first served as worker’s accommodation then as a relay station for passing barges, their captains, and tow horses. Camont towering three stories seems to have grown from the very fertile soil that still enriches the potager and herb gardens. The surrounding farms and orchards are a constant reminder and inspiration of the fertile, working relationship with nature and her seasons.
