May 1- May 7, 2027
A French language immersion retreat
Loire Valley, France
Joined by two professors from Coucou as your French language guides, this immersive French week is for you if you’re looking for a break from city life and you want to hone your conversation skills in a safe and peaceful setting.
Throughout your week at Château Coucou, your professors will guide you in practical games and activities to give you real-life practice in your French speaking and comprehension skills. You’ll learn how to have real conversations about what you’re eating, what you’re drinking, and how to solve a murder mystery in a château. Ok, that last one isn’t terribly practical, but it IS wickedly fun!
With the Michelin-trained Rêverie chefs in the kitchen, you will eat like royalty with fresh local produce as the star, accompanied by housemade breads, cheeses, and innumerable culinary delights!
From start to finish, the team at Reverie will make sure your language immersion experience is everything you could dream of, and one that you’re sure to never forget.
Brought to you by Rêverie and coucou, château coucou is a provincial retreat set within stunning surroundings.
Live the language, savor local flavors, and get some much needed rest in one unforgettable stay.
May 1-7, 2027
7 Days, 6 nights
From $6,200 USD
Join us in the loire valley, France and speak french with coucou!
Your week begins in Paris — one of the great cities in the world, and a perfectly disorienting place to start thinking in French again. One night at the Hôtel Grand Amour in the 10th arrondissement, breakfast included, the evening yours to wander. (Don't miss the Bookbar.) Then it's out to the Loire Valley, where Château de Thauvenay has been waiting for you — vineyards right outside the front gate, Sancerre on the horizon. For the next five nights, it's your home. And from the moment you arrive: French only.
Learning with Coucou
Coucou has spent years figuring out how to make language learning feel less like school and more like a dinner party. Their approach: give people real things to talk about, in real situations, with real stakes — and then surround them with good food and wine so everyone relaxes enough to actually try. The workshops this week aren't grammar reviews. They're conversation practice disguised as a trivia night, a wine tasting, a murder mystery, a cooking class. You will use your French. You will get better. You will laugh at yourself, and that's the whole point.
THE WEEK INCLUDES
Workshop #1 — Coucou's opening session: conversation, vocabulary, and getting your ear tuned back in.
Workshop #2: Wine in Sancerre — French wine vocabulary in the most appropriate classroom imaginable, followed by an afternoon tour and tasting at Alexandre Bain's vineyard.
Apéro Trivia with Coucou — French trivia, good wine, competitive energy. A Rêverie favorite.
Final Workshop with Coucou — The week's closing session: a proper send-off for your French.
Murder Mystery in the Château — Not practical. Wickedly fun.
Throughout the week, Coucou's activities, games, and group sessions keep the French flowing from morning coffee to the last glass of wine at night.
On ne parle que français. From arrival to departure, French is the only language at the château. It sounds intense. It is, a little. But it's also why it works.
Let’s eat!
Chef Paul Albert is your personal chef for the week. Paul trained in fine dining — he knows how to plate a dish so it looks like art — but that's not what drives him here. What drives him is feeding you exceptionally well. Fresh bread every morning (sourdough, brioche, focaccia, whatever calls to him that day). Homemade cheese. Cultured butter. Yogurt made from scratch. Three chef-prepared meals a day, all of it built around what's most beautiful at the market that week, served family-style down the center of a long table.
Every meal is paired with natural wines selected by Esmé, Rêverie's sommelier — chosen to complement the food and the region. In Sancerre, that means some of the finest Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir in France. Explained, as always, without a drop of pretension.
Paul also leads a traditional French cooking workshop midweek — a hands-on session in the château kitchen that pairs beautifully with everything Coucou is teaching at the table.
* To preserve the shared culinary experience we strive to create, we’re happy to accommodate vegetarians, pescatarians, and allergies. However, we are unable to tailor meals for additional dietary preferences or restrictions. If you have specific questions about your needs, feel free to reach out — we’re happy to chat!
Château de Thauvenay
Château de Thauvenay sits literally in the middle of the Sancerre vineyards -- which, yes, means you can walk out the front gate and straight into the vines. The château was originally built in 1800 (for Napoleon's interior minister's daughter, if you want a fun fact for your dinner conversation), and after two years of meticulous renovation completed in 2023, it's been brought back to life with a style that feels both timeless and fresh -- mid-century modern details inside, centuries-old bones underneath.
Three hectares of grounds include a 25-meter heated saltwater pool ringed in natural stone, a wood-fired sauna, and a Nordic bath tucked into a little grove nearby. Inside: 24 rooms, four salons, a grand dining hall, a kitchen, and a cave dansante. (Yes, a dancing cellar. We're not going to oversell it -- you'll just have to see it.)
Saturday // may 1, 2027
2:00 pm - Check in begins at the Hôtel Grand Amour in Paris
**The rest of the day in Paris is yours for exploring! Dinner is not included on your first night, but we’ll provide you with a list of some of our favorites near the hôtel.
Make sure to check out the incredible Bookbar at your hôtel behind the restaurant!!
Sunday // MAY 2, 2027
8-11:30 am - Breakfast at Hotel Grand Amour
12:00 pm - Lunch at Hôtel Amour Nice (included) or on your own in Paris!
1:30 pm - Depart for the Château de Thauvenay
4:30 pm - Arrival at Château de Thauvenay, settle into guest rooms
6:00 pm - Apéritif! The French cocktail hour
7:00 pm - Welcome dinner in the grand dining hall
MONDAY // May 3, 2027
8:00 am - Breakfast available at the Château
9:30 am - Workshop #1 with Coucou
12:30 pm - Lunch in the courtyard
2:30 pm - Workshop with Chef Paul Albert - Fermentation 101
3:30 pm - Free time
5:30 pm - Guided natural wine tasting with Esmé Curran
7:00 pm - Dinner in the dining hall
**please note that this itinerary is subject to change to based on our partner availability
TUESDAY // MAY 4, 2027
8:00 am - Breakfast available
10:00 am - Workshop # 2 with Coucou - Wine in Sancerre
12:30 pm - Lunch at the Château
2:30 pm - Tour of the vineyard and wine tasting with natural winemaker, Alexandre Bain
6:00 pm - Reverie Grill Party!!
WEDNESDAY // MAY 5, 2027
8:00 am - Breakfast served
10:00 am - Free time at the Château
12:30 pm - Lunch in the Château gardens
3:30 pm - French cooking workshop with Paul Albert
6:00 pm - Apéro Trivia with Coucou
7:00 pm - Dinner in the dining hall
thursday // may 6, 2027
8:00 am - Breakfast is served!
10:30 am - Morning stroll in Sancerre
12:30 pm - Lunch at Le Clos du Maréchal in Sancerre
3:00 pm - Final workshop with Coucou
6:00 pm - Apéro
7:00 pm - Final dinner in the courtyard
FRIDAY // may 7, 2027
8:00 am - Breakfast is served!
9:00 am - Depart for Paris airport or Paris city center
Au revoir!
Coucou is the “it” school for French learners and francophiles. They are a woman-founded, bicoastal business with over 10 years of experience in French education. They have created a modern, approachable curriculum that sets them apart from other language schools. Their team of passionate teachers and French-speaking professionals fosters a diverse community by welcoming students from all backgrounds. After a decade of building their community of learners, they’re delighted to partner with Rêverie! During a Reverie x Coucou retreat, the professors are on a mission to make every bit of your French learning experience fun - not just so you’ll have a good time, but to seal the knowledge in your brain. La science, quoi!
1 night stay at the Hôtel Grand Amour , breakfast included
Please note that dinner in Paris on your first night is not included. We will provide you with plenty of delicious options!
Private transfer from the Hôtel Grand Amour to the Château Thauvenay
All Coucou French Classes workshops, activities and all materials associated
All breakfasts at the château
All meals throughout your château stay, including INCREDIBLE Chef-prepared meals at the château for lunch and dinner
All wine, cocktails and other beverages throughout the château stay, unless you wanna have your own after hours party ;)
Private coach transportation for all scheduled outings
Costs associated with all scheduled outings and events during our week
Chateau lodging, naturally
* To preserve the shared culinary experience we strive to create, we’re happy to accommodate vegetarians, pescatarians, and allergies. However, we are unable to tailor meals for additional dietary preferences or restrictions. If you have specific questions about your needs, feel free to reach out — we’re happy to chat!
You’re in need of a city break in exchange for a breath of fresh air
You want to see what the slow life in France looks like
You want every meal and every outing planned for you
You like sitting by the pool in a quiet place, taking in the sun
You like to be in charge of the music (records galore!)
You like an open bar ;)
Vacation for you means a long morning of sitting with your coffee
You’d like the play pretend that you live in a château for a week
Visiting wineries and really getting into the food of the region is your jam
Prefer a livelier pace where you can spend a week exploring a city? Check out Hotel Coucou // October 22- 27, 2026 in Nice, France!
Airplane
Depending on where you are coming from, we recommend flying into the Charles de Gaulle or Orly airport.
From there, you can either take the Métro or an Uber/taxi from the airport to the Hôtel Grand Amour.
**DO NOT accept a ride from anyone outside of the official taxi line or your booked Uber. Scamming in the Paris airports is common - let us know if you have any questions about this!
Check-in at Hotel Grand Amour begins at 2:00 PM on May 1, 2027. You may drop off your bags before this time if you’d like to explore the city unencumbered.
*Cost of airfare to the Paris airport and cost of transport from the Paris airport to the Hotel Grand Amour is not included in the cost of your reservation. If you need help with booking your trip, please contact kathleen@reverieforever.com
Car
If you’re the seasoned-traveler type and you’d enjoy having your own transportation throughout the retreat, then please - rent a car in Paris and drive down to meet us in Sancerre! We recommend avoiding driving in Paris unless you are accustomed to driving in very busy cities.
Train
If arriving from elsewhere in France or Europe, you can get to Paris by train from nearly anywhere! Get in touch if you’d like help booking your ticket.
If you’d like a stopover in London prior to your trip, you can always book a train with the Eurostar, which rolls directly from London city center (St. Pancras) into the Gare du Nord in Paris!
Travel Reservation
If you would like guidance with booking your travel to Nice, our in-house travel guru, Kathleen, is here to help. You can reach her directly at kathleen@reverieforever.com
We are here to help make this part easy and smooth.
If you would like to extend your stay in France, we are delighted to partner with The French Travel, a locally owned and operated trip designer based in Paris. They are true experts who will help you perfectly plan your before and/or after Rêverie experience. Check them out for more info!
