Why Avignon Is the Women's Retreat in France You Didn't See Coming

stephanie557
2 days ago
4 min read

And why it might be exactly the women's retreat in France you're looking for.

Let's talk about Provence for a second.

When most women start researching a retreat in the south of France, they picture lavender fields. Rosé at noon. A farmhouse with shutters the color of a faded sky. Maybe a market or something where someone is selling you soap that smells like the entire region smashed into a single bar.

That Provence exists. It's lovely. It's also exactly what everyone else is doing.

Avignon is something different.

Avignon doesn't perform for you.

Some parts of Provence know exactly how charming they are. They'll make sure you know it too. From the high prices to the hey you're a tourist energy, you can easily spend a week feeling like a prop in someone else's Instagram feed.

Avignon is not that.

It's a walled medieval city in the heart of the Rhône Valley that has been welcoming people for centuries, and it doesn't really need to try that hard. The vendors inside the rampart walls have been there for years. The restaurant owners (and chefs in our case) remember your name. The city has an incredible warmth that doesn't feel performed, all because it isn't.

I've been coming back here for years. Not because of the Palais des Papes (and I mean it's pretty spectacular, don't get me wrong), but because of the people.

What a women's retreat in Avignon actually looks like.

A lot of retreats do Provence the traditional way. Rent a house in the countryside. Stay outside the city. Drive in for market days and drive back out before dinner gets too late.

I've done that version. It's lovely. It's also not this.

The problem with staying outside the city is that you miss the part that makes Avignon worth coming to. You rush back to the house before the city has even started its evening. You never find out what happens when the tour groups leave and the streets get quiet and the locals come out and the whole place comes alive in a completely different way.

There is something genuinely magical about wandering a medieval walled city after sunset with nowhere to be and no car to get back to. The light changes. The noise changes. The city stops performing and let's you see the real Avignon.

That's what you get when you stay inside the walls. That's why this September, I've decided it's about damn time we stay inside the walls.

Why Avignon over every other city in Provence.

I've taken groups to a lot of places in the south of France. Avignon keeps earning its spot on the roster for one reason: it's welcoming without being pretentious.

The city doesn't need you to be impressed. Which somehow makes it more impressive.

It's also genuinely accessible. The TGV from Paris takes about two and a half hours. The food is extraordinary (this is the Rhône Valley after all, one of France's most celebrated wine regions) and the produce at the market reflects it. And the scale of the city is human. You can cover it on foot. You can easily feel at home in it by day two.

Avignon is where we're going in September. But it's not the only place in this region worth your time.

In April 2027 we're taking a group to Les Baux-de-Provence, a village built on top of a limestone cliff that has been there since the 10th century, at an exclusive-use property with a pool built against the rock face. Same obsessive curation. Completely different expression of Provence.

Because that's the thing about this region. It has more than one story to tell. And it's always been important to me to share them all with you.

Who this retreat is for:

A Maison d'Amies Retreat is not for everyone. I say that without apology.

It's for women who want to eat well and wander slowly. Women who want someone to have done the research so they don't have to. Who want to travel with a small group of strangers who will, without fail, become something more than that by the end of the week.

It's not a tour. It's not a wellness or yoga retreat. It's not a luxury escape in the resort sense of the word luxury. It's a week in a real city with a host who knows it well enough to show you the parts that matter.

If that sounds like you, keep reading.

The September 2026 Avignon retreat.

Savor Provence runs September 4-11, 2026. Seven days inside the walls. Chef Jon. Markets, so many good restaurants, excursions, and a city I've been coming back to for years.

There is one room left. A king suite, solo occupancy: $5,800.

The woman who belongs in this room is curious, kind, open to whatever the day brings, and takes her meals seriously.

Book the Last Room