Gluten Free Baking in St Bresson, France! June 30-July 5, 2025

Register on our Menu App! We have a very exciting week planned for participants. Class participants will arrive on Sunday, June 29 (presumably  mid-day.) Sunday night we will have a Get to Know Each Other dinner made by the local chefs who will be preparing all the week’s meals.

This class is intended for home bakers only. The class is limited to 20 people.

Meals

Meals will accommodate vegan, diary free and those who are dairy/meat eaters. Every meal will be 100% gluten free. And will be served under light strung plane trees, across from  the bocce court, and next to the town hall. We think it will be fun to teach people bocce and have bocce tournaments at night after dinner.

Every night you will have a meal to remember. On Friday night will be making GF pizza to be cooked in a newly built pizza oven.  We will be making the dough and rolling and assembling our personal pizzas from ingredients provided by the chef. There will be vegan cheese as well as a dairy cheese selection for the pizzas.

Classes

Classes will be held once a day from 1:30-6:30, except for Thurs, when it will be held  from 9-1 so we can go wine tasting in the afternoon.  Last year we had classes twice a day, and everyone ended up exhausted. So this time we will have the longer afternoon class, and a daily open session for questions and practice 11-12:30.

Our class schedule is not  set in stone, but this is what we are planning:

Day 1 Making of  sourdough for its 24 hours rise. We will make both boule dough and pullman dough. Then we will make French Macarons, both cookie size and larger. And Pumpkin Bundts, which is very similar to the French Pain d’Epices, but more moist and flavorful.

Day 2. Forming and Baking  sourdough and challah bread. And 3 kinds of eclairs (think unusual flavors like lavender, rose, salted caramel, etc –we will give the class a choice of which 3 we will make.)

Day 3 We will divide the class in half. People will have signed up to either do cake decorating or convert a favorite recipe.

Day 4 We will make Pizza dough, French Apple Cake, and a Cookie Cake.

Day 5 We will learn to make several types of Cheese cake from one cheesecake form. And Also Flourless or Orange Almond Cake. We will then make individual pizzas for our dinner.

Day 6 The class will be a little shorter because we will go to Uzes in the morning for the open air market and lunch. That afternoon we will make 3 different kinds of Tarts.

Trips/Events

On Thursday afternoon we will go wine tasting in the Pic St Loup area. There are a few charming towns near these wineries that you can explore if you don’t want to wine taste. We will return in time for dinner. On Saturday morning, we will leave at 9 am sharp to drive an hour to Uzes, where there is a charming open air market. People will be able to eat lunch at any one of the numerous cafe’s in the Uze market area. You’ll also be able to do shopping here, as there are many vendors selling all kinds of things in addition to food, and many stores. We will head back to St Bresson at 1:00 for our afternoon class.

Since people will have mornings free, i will try to find a yoga teacher to come to the village a few times a week. There is also fabulous hiking and we will get John Paul, our resident expert on hikes, to map out several hikes people can take. This is a famous hiking area.

Please note, good walking shoes are imperative for this trip. High heels  and dinner attire are likely not needed.

Housing

All the housing in the Village center are homes belonging to villagers. In some cases, we have rented the whole house, and in others 1-2 rooms in a house that could be occupied by its owner. All of these rooms are  1-5 minute walk to the town hall where the class is being held. These accommodations are for singles, or couples. No families. Although each house has a kitchen, there are no cooking privileges in the village center accommodations.

There is also a gite plus two rooms, at the lower end of the village about a 1.5-2 km walk to the class. These are appropriate for people with Plus + partners who will not be taking the class. There is a pool and other amenities. If you are coming with your family, please contact me about booking details for the local chalet which is a 10+ minute drive away.

The Package:

The class is priced as a package. Each package includes housing, food (3 meals a day, except for the one lunch  we’ve excluded while in Uzes), and the class.

You will be able to sign up your Plus 1/family for the meal plan as well if you choose. There will be a deduction of $300, for housing, should you choose to stay in the Chalet or elsewhere, with your family.  The chalet’s sleep 4+. We highly recommend that your entire party sign up for the food plan. There is no source of food in the village. Only down at the bottom of the 7 km hill. We will be busy all day, everyday, so if you want to see your partner/family, meal time is the time to do so.

You can also purchase meals by giving 2 days notice (so the chef can buy enough ingredients) for your Plus travel partners. The cost, however, will be much higher as a one of meal ticket because it will have to factor in the cost of going and getting additional items, whereas, the chef plans to purchase in bulk ahead of time, to keep food more cost effective for the class.

Registration:

Register on our order app.  At registration you will need to pay one third  of the package cost. One third will then be due January 15, 2025. The remaining third will be due May 15, 2025. These payments are non-refundable, unless someone from the wait list takes your place. If there is a major event that prevents travel, the trip will be postponed. We have costed this trip  based on prepaying for many things, including bringing in what we need to St Bresson for the class from the USA and elsewhere.

Choices for you:

After people have registered, we will send a survey to registrants requesting information about 1) dietary restrictions like DF, vegan and other allergies. 2) 3 preferences for Eclairs. 3) Whether you’d rather participate in converting your favorite recipe or cake decorating. 4) choice of 2-3 tarts you’d like to learn.

Activities for your Plus One/Family:

Plus 1s are able to attend the Wine Tasting for the set fee we are charged per person. They are welcome to join us to go to Uzes, but there probably will not be room in the van, and they will need a rental car. If you don’t want a car for the week, inexpensive rentals can be booked locally. fAs we mentioned, there will be hiking opportunities and we hope a few yoga classes as well. If you are staying in the Gite, there is also swimming, plus beautiful scenery if art is their thing. And then of course, there are many day trips they can take.

Waiver Requirements:

By signing up for the class, participants are certifying that they are not professionals in the food industry, and aren’t planning to become a professional. All recipes are the proprietary property of Violette Bakers (Violette LLC) and are part of the value of our business. This class is for home bakers only. Participants must sign a waiver that they will not use, give or sell our recipes, or any similar recipe (if tweeked) for commercial purposes or to a commercial enterprise. We reserve the right to cancel the reservation of anyone who we discover has commercial intent.