Hôtel Sainte Valière
Arts residency in the south of France
A grand old house, in a small village in the Minervois region, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Mountains. Beautiful countryside, ancient stone villages set amongst vines and olive groves, markets, fresh local produce, rivers to swim in. Hôtel Sainte Valière is an arts residency, a place of creative production and cultural exchange, and proposes concerts and events. We are now accepting applications for our 2024 and 2025 residency programs.
Upcoming availability at the Hôtel Sainte Valière:
Spring residencies: 12 May – 10 July 2024
Summer residencies: 18 July – 22 August 2024
Autumn residencies: 01 September – 15 October 2024
To apply, send a brief description of your project and the dates you would like to attend to Eloise at eloise@hotelsaintevaliere.com.
Upcoming eventsat the Hôtel Sainte Valière:
Thursday 13 June
7pm
Thursday 20 June
7pm
Elodie Silberstein – artist and writer. Elodie is currently writing a novel for which she is researching certain elements in our village, Sainte Valière. For Thursday, she asks that we think about something that touches us in this village, a story, a memory, a recipe even, that we would like to share.
Elodie is an artist and writer living in Melbourne. Her creative and academic research focuses on the representations of femininity as a prism through which to map issues of social, racial, and environmental inequalities. She creates dreamlike installations in which she favours understated and delicate creations: ceramic objects, ephemeral wax sculptures, botanical installations, and poetry. Her artworks reinforce the need for the marvellous in our daily lives – not to satisfy a desire to escape – but on the contrary to act collectively to critically and poetically invent alternatives. Elodie is currently investigating the image of French rural femininity, and the ways provincial women – like racialised women – have historically been excluded from the collective imaginary by La Parisienne: a national icon of seduction, modernity, and metropolitan femininity.
https://elodiesilberstein.wordpress.com/
https://www.instagram.com/elodiesilberstein/
Thursday 27 June
7pm
Marcin Bałczewski is a writer and screenwriter from Poland, specializing in theater and graphic novels. He is also a cultural presenter, journalist, photojournalist, comic book critic, and author of postmodern and surrealist literature. His work has been compared to that of, among others, Calvino, Borges, Cortázar and Barth.
While our website is being updated, you can find most recent news here:
https://www.instagram.com/hotelsaintevaliere/
Chef in Residence Exchange program
Applications now open for our 2025 Chef in Residence program. Cook up a storm in exchange for a half-price room, access to a car, and plenty of free time.
Find out more about chefs in residence
Reviews by artists in residence…
Ruby Marchese – creator of objects – Australia – September 2022
Life at Hôtel Sainte Valière is without exaggeration, the stuff of dreams…
Making art and new friends, stories, music,
Mornings exploring markets, afternoons in rivers,
Days out in the old, rickety, wonderful Peugeot,
Nights dancing in long dresses,
Oysters with crunchy bread (until now, I wouldn’t touch an oyster)
Sweet tomatoes from Michel,
Wine that doesn’t make me sniffly,
Grapes and conversations that never run out…
It really is that good.
Eloise is an exquisite host; excellent communication, organisation, hospitality and conversation.
Sainte Valière is a quiet and small village, with a friendly community – Eloise organised a wonderful exhibition for the artists at the end of the stay and we were greeted by many locals interested in our work. It’s also a short drive from many beautiful surrounding villages.
I hope to return soon, I cannot recommend it enough.
https://scrufflebox.com.au/
Jennifer Tremblay – author, poet, dramaturge – Quebec – September 2019
The big house on rue Cayla is sometimes so quiet.
You can hear a fly buzz.
Figs, peaches and tomatoes lie in a tangle on the table, fixed in the serene air.
Then someone starts to play the piano.
Or the guitar.
Someone has a good idea.
Writes a verse, a phrase, a paragraph.
Someone grabs a paintbrush, changes the world in one perfect stroke.
The air vibrates with joy.
We are here for this.
To exist as an artist before being anything else.
To forget, even, that we sometimes have to think of other things, to be other things.
The dinner bells ring.
We run to the kitchen.
We laugh too loudly.
It is the possibility of exchange that makes us wild.
We are mad with love for everything.
We gorge on fruit, art and friendship.
We do not want to be elsewhere.
We do not want it to end.
I say to our dear Eloise: “You will have to push me out with my suitcase. If not, I will not be able to leave.”
It’s not a joke.
When night has fallen, I go up to my room with a view on to rue du Docteur Cayla.
And I write this slightly awkward poem.
http://www.leseditionsdelabagnole.com/ficheAuteur.aspx?codeaut=TREM1078
Domnica Radulescu – author, poet, dramaturge – US – September 2019
The Hotel Sainte Valiere Residency is a magical place that inspires and transports. Beyond the breathtaking beauty of the house itself, of the mythical expanses of vineyards, olive and fig trees surrounding it, what really gives this residency its soul, passion and spiritual beauty is the hostess Eloise Caleo who knows how to combine just the right amount of warmth, inventiveness, peacefulness, delicious meals and scintillating discussions. In the three weeks of my stay I have accomplished more towards my creative projects than I had in the entire previous year and I even created new writing projects I wasn’t even thinking of before I arrived, as they were inspired precisely by this magical place and its delightful hostess. I couldn’t be more enthusiastic and grateful.
http://www.domnicaradulescu.com/
Betra Fraval – painter – Australia – May 2019
“Saying farewell to this evocative creative place, Hotel Sainte Valiere in the South of France.
I will miss the sunlight catching on blades of long grass, and listening to them rustle in the wind.
Surrounded by engaging people who write novels, make beautiful books about colour, plant gardens, cook with heart, and have conversations about difficult and entertaining subjects.
An elegant world where music fills the grand Maison, and we dress for convivial gatherings.
I have been in a state of slowed time, where beautiful things have filled my experience.
It has softened the world.
I couldn’t recommend this place more highly.”
https://jamesmakingallery.com/artists/betra-fraval/
