Cooking, Painting &

Digital Photography Courses

Enhance your cooking, painting or photography skills in a relaxed friendly hands-on environment...

Set in the beautiful Dordogne region of south west France come and soak up the French life while learning to cook, paint, draw or photograph the way you've always dreamed!

Our flexible range of cooking, painting and photography courses allow you to choose how much you want to learn and how long you wish to take part.

A course to suit your time and your budget...

Our courses are great value and vary from week-long residential holidays to variable length courses of between one and four days, either residential or not, all at a price to suit your budget.

COOKING courses...

Join us on our premier Five Day/Six Night all-inclusive residential cooking holidays or our One, Two, Three or Four-day variable multi-day courses.

Learn new kitchen skills and some great recipe ideas with former BBC Masterchef contestant and chef, Jim Fisher:

• Patisserie - make sweet and savoury pastry for tarts and flans

• Desserts - classic and modern, healthy or wicked!

• Bread - work with yeast to make Mediterranean flat-breads like Focaccia and Fougasse

• Soup - make some classic local soups

• Fish - choosing, buying, filleting, stock making, grilling, frying...

• Shellfish - how to tell if it's fresh, cooking times, sauces

• Meat - butchery, what are the best cuts and cooking methods

• Sauces - classic and modern French and Italian sauces, gravies and jus

• Dressings and vinaigrettes - contemporary light and healthy alternatives

• Cook ahead techniques - take the stress out of cooking for friends and family by using restaurant-honed cook-ahead methods adapted to the way you cook at home

• Food presentation - how the chefs make their food look so good!

PAINTING and DRAWING holidays...

Learn to paint from scratch or brush-up on your existing skills with our artists Gill Mitchell or Lynn Ralph. Choose from a variety of media on our week-long residential and variable multi-day courses:

• Watercolour - learn about colour mixing, controlling washes, wet in wet and many other techniques

• Pastel - choose the right ground, use blends, fix your finished masterpiece

• Acrylic - create impasto effects and loose washes, use vigorous brush strokes

• Oil - learn a myriad of skills, from under-painting to bold impasto

• Pencil - use graphite or colour pencils to help improve your sketching and drawing

• Charcoal - using charcoal and graphite pencils, improve your drawing skills and learn about the role of the right side of the brain

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY courses...

Discover the intricacies of digital photography with pro-photographer, David Quinn. He'll show you how to get some great photos while taking advantage of your camera's best features:

• Landscapes - how to frame a scene and which camera settings to use

• Portraiture - how to light and position your subject

• Still life - how to set up a convincing arrangement and how to light it

• Food photography - how the pros get those mouthwatering shots

• Action shots - using shutter speed, aperture priority and ISO settings to capture that fleeting moment

• Nature - zoom in on an abundance of French flora and fauna

Residential or non-residential...

Depending on your accommodation requirements i.e. if you wish to stay with us or if you have your own holiday accommodation nearby, our courses can be residential or non-residential (see 'Prices' page).

After a few days with us you'll be cooking, painting or snapping away like a pro...

If you'd love to cook and present dishes like the professionals, learn to paint and draw with expression, enhance your photography skills and have a great time, come and join us on our cooking and painting courses in the wonderful Dordogne, France.

We cater for all skill levels...

Our great value cooking, painting and photography courses (see prices) are designed to cater for all skill levels, from keen amateur to budding professional, so you'll never feel out of place. 

A course to suit everyone's taste...

When you email us, or phone (0033 [0]553 302405), we can have a chat about what you want to achieve.  We'll then tailor the itinerary to suit you and the other guests by gathering together like-minded participants on the same course - simple!

Hands-on tried and tested techniques...

If you're looking for a cooking, painting or photography course in France you've come to the right place: you'll learn by using tried and tested hands-on techniques honed over the years by your experienced tutors. 

And you won't be punished for every mistake either - just patient guidance and jovial encouragement from friendly experienced experts.

So, if you enjoy cooking, painting or snapping among friendly like-minded people in a warm relaxed atmosphere, come and learn with us because you'll quickly feel very much at home.

English-speaking and easy to get to...

We are English-speaking and our prices include everything you'll need - all you have to do is get here.

And because of the proliferation of cheap flights and tumbling ferry prices your various courses in France represent great value for money.

We'll even pick you up and drop you off at our nearest airport (Limoges), or the train stations at Brive and Souillac all of which also have Hertz and Avis car rental outlets on their doorstep.

Don't worry, it's not all cooking, painting and shutter speeds...

You'll have a great time here at DordogneBreaks. When not 'slaving' away in the kitchen, concentrating on perspective or worrying about the ambient light, you'll be visiting some of our beautiful tourist sites, doing some shopping, going out for great value meals or just lounging around by the pool soaking up the sun.

There'll also be organised visits to bustling open-air markets, a walnut oil mill and, of course, the ancient honey-coloured towns and villages of this perfect region.

Accommodation

And while you learn with us, stay in our superb centrally-heated en-suite accommodation. 

Or, if you are staying in a holiday cottage or live nearby, just come and learn to cook, paint or snap for a day - or three - and come and go as you please.

Hey, stay for a week if you want to!

Want to bring a friend or partner?

Do you have a non-cooking/painting/photographing friend or partner who would like to come along? No problem - non-participating guests are very welcome and, what's more, the price is about half that of the participant's rate and they'll get to taste all the lovely food!

Booking...

Booking is easy, and only an email or phone call away, so why wait?  Strike while the iron's hot - book a cooking or painting course in France now and share an experience you'll never forget!