‘An instant feeling of relief’: Why are women flocking to this French summer camp?

Walking through the grounds of her French château one evening last summer, Philippa Girling was relieved to hear the sound of laughter.

Specifically, women’s laughter. This was precisely the goal that the CEO of Camp Château had set herself when co-founding a women-only summer camp, and on that very first night, it tinkled across the lawn. 

Now in its second year, there’s no doubt that the camp in the southwest region of Quercy is a success. Come autumn, 500 happy campers will have passed through the doors of the old Château de Béduer. The waitlist for summer 2025 is 11,000 names long.

“I went from being excited about it to actually feeling bad for the people on the waitlist who will never be able to come because [it] would take 20 years to clear,” she tells Euronews Travel.

Only two years in, Girling and her co-founders are considering how to expand so more women can get the unique R&R they deserve at the camp. 

Camp Château’s raison d'être is refreshingly simple: to provide women with a joyful, all-inclusive summer camp experience. 

After 30 high-flying years in banking - “a very patriarchal industry” - Girling was tired of the way women and minorities are pressured to fit in. 

“We created Camp Château with the idea that you can arrive and not work on yourself,” she says. “You can just relax, curate your experience, do whatever brings you joy and tranquillity and some restorative time.”

Each session lasts six days, and campers have an abundance of instructed activities to choose from, such as foraging, candle making, cheese tasting, horseback rides, yoga and silent disco.

You can do as many or few of these small-group ‘electives’ as you like, with some women preferring to spend most of their time simply lying by the pool.

“Women