Studio Escalier - Lodging and Life

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Festival of St Jean
22 June, 2007

Fireworks.mov
Annual Artisanal Produce Festival
Summer 2007

Thursday Market Montage
Summer 2007

2007 Life in Argenton-Chateau

4th Annual
Women's Choir Festival
Summer 2007

For more 2007 photos, see

A Traveller's Joy
Student Blog

Photos of
Student Housing

Photos of
Argenton-Chateau
May Day, 2004

Lodging and Life - Meals, Getting Around, the Town, Festivities and the Weather

Lodging for 3-Month Intensive Students

Program housing is assigned to accepted Intensive students in the order that their course applications are received.

Argenton-Chateau features many large manor houses and villas, as well as townhouses and small apartment buildings of every kind and description, dating from the last 500 years.

In an effort to keep costs low and predictable, a variety of shared furnished housing for Intensive Course is now owned and operated by Studio Escalier, within walking distance of the course studio, at an average rental cost of 600 euros per month/ per person (price includes all utilities, including wireless internet access at Les Sylvains).

Every effort has been made to provide the highest quality, fully furnished housing in town, at the best price.

The majority of apartments currently offered by Studio Escalier are large, loft-like 2BR apartments, shared with another student. A few private single apartments and small townhouses in the center are available, for somewhat higher cost. Contact us for details.

Beginning on March 15 (summer intensive) or July 1 (autumn intensive),i.e. after the final registration dates are passed, specific housing options will be assigned to accepted students.

If you have special housing needs or concerns (no smoking? allergies? friends? etc.) please let us know when you make your application.

Please Note: Those students wishing to bring along non-students or family members are notified that

1) Most program housing is unsuited to family occupancy.
2) Individual Intensive students receive priority in housing assignments.
3) Where available, "families" may be assessed a higher monthly rent, or live at a farther distance, and will
have to assume responsibility for their own transport to and from the studio.
4) Our one-week, mid-session break is the ideal time for family visits, getaways and vacations.
5) Sorry, no pets are allowed in shared housing.

Please notify us of any family housing needs at the time of your application.

Lodging for Monthly Residency Programs

2007 Monthly Residents should DOWNLOAD the appropriate application for their housing prices and policies.

Contract, Security Deposits and Cleaning

All housing contracts cover the full length of the course, including a few days on either end for entry and exit.
Contact us for the precise entry/exit dates for your course.

A one-month's security deposit is often required as a guarantee against breakage.

All students are responsible for cleaning their own house, and returning it in the condition it was received.

Meals

There is no meal plan, self-sufficiency is expected of every student. We will take a two-hour lunch break as part of our everyday schedule.

All lodging comes with its own kitchen or kitchen privileges.

The town offers a good variety of food services: supermarket, weekly farmer's market (including fresh and/or organic produce, cheeses, seafood, etc), butcher, bakery/patisserie, café/bar, and lake-side restaurant.

Getting Around

Located as it is -- in a very tranquil, small, completely self-sufficient town -- the program is designed for minimal commuting expense and maximum concentration. It is a great place to walk, jog, hike or bike.

Please see our TRAVEL and FAQS pages for details on the best transport stations (trains and buses), as well as links to public bus schedules, information on entry/final exit shuttlebuses, local taxis and rental cars.

There is no public transport in or out of Argenton-Chateau on Saturday or Sunday

In light of this situation, Studio Escalier has designed its weekly studio schedule to run Sunday through Thursday.
The 3-month program takes its weekends on Friday and Saturday.

Full details on the easiest day-trips and "studio weekend" getaway options are on the TRAVEL page.

The Town

Argenton-Chateau is the largest of four contiguous medieval towns that now comprise the municipality of Argenton-les-Vallees (population ~4000). It is a pleasant and tranquil market town in the bocage area of Poitou-Charentes.

Poitou-Charentes is a sunny region in southwestern France best known for its medieval art and architecture, and as the birthplace of cognac. It is the region directly north of Bordeaux, and directly south of the Loire Valley.

Argenton-Chateau and its surrounding villages have been continuously inhabited since at least the 8th century AD. The town sits atop a natural granite fortification, with rivers on three sides. The private chapel of the chateau is home to the largest and oldest medieval fresco in our area, a mid-10th century Christ in Majesty. Owing to our location on a contemporaneous pilgrim trail to Santiago de Compostela, the work shows the strong influence of Spanish Byzantine art.

Archaeological evidence indicates the town was inhabited as part of Roman Gaul (100 AD), and suggests it has been a human settlement since Upper Paleolithic times (30,000 BC), the so-called Magdalenian period that painted the caves of Lascaux, Roc aux Sorciers, Les Eyzies and Chauvet-Pont D'Arc.

Today, Argenton-Chateau is the educational center of a 500 km2, wildlife-protected and historically registered "Vallee de Caractere", a verdant spot in the heart of France's "Grande Ouest" economic corridor (Tours, Angers, Poitiers, Nantes).

Argenton-Chateau's schools enroll around 800 students, from pre-school to age 15. The town features an 11th c. Romanesque church (still in service), the eponymous medieval chateau, a small music school, two primary and two middle schools, a public swimming pool with tennis courts, miles of scenic hiking and biking trails, and a small lake (lake-side restaurant, fishing and canoeing/kayaking).

All the services and businesses of small town life are within walking distance: supermarket, weekly farmer's market (meats, fish, produce, cheese, flowers), butcher, bakery/patisserie, flower shop, local and international banks (Caisse d'Epargne, Credit Agricole), insurance and government offices, post office, cabinetmakers, carpenters, masons and other contractors, newsstand/bookstore, photo shop, coiffeurs, clothing store, café-bar, tabac, lake-side restaurant, bike and motorcycle shop, cinema, garage, taxi, gas station, pharmacies, physicians and dentist (English spoken).

The nearest big hardware store and organic food co-op are in Bressuire (20 minutes by car, 40 minutes by Ligne 43 bus).

The local salle communale offers a varied schedule of after-school activities for children, including weekly judo and yoga classes.

Activities and Festivities

Argenton-Chateau is a very humble, quiet town, and is deeply conducive to our daily studio work. Surrounded by wetlands, orchards and farms, it is not locally considered an important tourist destination in itself.

Our celebrations of the summer solstice (June 21) have included Baroque chamber ensembles, Renaissance singing through the streets, bonfires, live Cuban dance music, and/or fireworks on the main square. Every year is different.

Other musical events on the cultural calendar include an annual Women's Choir Congress, attracting groups from all over France, and regular meetings of Cerflodanse, our departmental traditional dance association.

Annually, there are two town fairs in Argenton-Chateau itself, one in early August and another in late September. They mainly center on a convivial day-long celebration of local wines, cheese and other produce taken as a meal -- enjoyed by up to 1000 people -- under the pavilion on the main square. Studio Escalier students are warmly welcomed at these events.

Other very local attractions include mussel and escargots festivals, in July and August.

The Office de Tourisme in town is open five days a week, and offers information on current events in the entire department (Deux-Sevres, 79).

Many other small cities and chateaux nearby invite daytrips of all descriptions, and for all tastes. For example, the city of Saumur, one of the most visited sites of the Loire Valley, and well-known for its excellent wines, is found 45 minutes northeast.

The towns of Bressuire, Mauleon, Maulevrier, Cholet, Les Epesses, Thouars, Parthenay, Montreuil-Bellay, and Doue-la-Fontaine are all a similar or shorter distance away, and merit a visit, each for their own reason. (Annual outdoor sculpture competition, Puy du Fou summer spectacles, nationally ranked contemporary art museum, traditional markets, castles and caves, jazz fests, largest Oriental garden in Europe, marvelous zoos and animal parks, fine Michelin-ranked restaurants, etc)

For those who rent cars for the weekend, we are also close to the heart of French chateau country (Angers, Oiron, Chinon, Villandry, Tours, Chenonceau, Amboise, etc) and the wines of Anjou and the Touraine.

The Weather

Poitou-Charentes, our region in France, is second only to the Cote d'Azur in average annual number of sunny days.

Argenton-Chateau enjoys a pleasant micro-climate similar to that of the Saumur-Champigny and Chinon wine regions (situated less than one hour directly east-northeast - ENE.) Summers and winters in Argenton-Chateau are historically very mild. Snow is extremely rare.

That being said, recent summers in Argenton-Chateau have been everything from brisk to hot in temperature (55 - 90 F), with fairly variable conditions. (sunny, rare thunderstorms, cool and breezy)

Peak summer daylight sees sunrise at 5:30 AM, and sundown at 10:45 PM.

SUMMER 2007 was generally rainy, windy and wet in the morning, changing to mild and sunny in the afternoon. Average high temperatures were unusually cool, in the low 70s, and nightly lows were in the low 50s

Summer 2006 was generally cool and spring-like, with one very hot spell for two weeks in July.
Summer 2005 saw the worst drought in 40 years, with no rain at all, and daily high temperatures in the low 80s.
Summer 2004 was among the coolest and wettest in many years.
Summer 2003 was the hottest summer ever recorded. (10 continuous days of weather over 100 F)

Autumn in Argenton-Chateau is anything from chilly to warm in temperature (45 - 80 F), with highly variable conditions. (sunny, rainy, stormy, strong winds, misty)

Autumn 2007 was -- like the summer -- unusually cold. Chilly misty mornings, with brisk but sunny afternoons

Autumn 2006 featured cool, misty mornings, and warm, sunny afternoons. Autumn 2005, 2004, and 2003 can all be fairly described as "Indian summers", featuring predominantly lovely, mild weather through the beginning of November.

The month of November trends increasingly toward blustery rain, and the Autumn course ends with much shorter days (sunrise after 8AM, complete sundown by 5:30pm).