Welcome to my world—Champêtre at Camont
The Camont Journals mark my time living at my 300-year-old French farmhouse. I write to capture the days and seasons in the house, kitchen, garden, and markets I haunt. Here are my stories of a quieter life, authentic food, fertile gardens, generous farmers, and wonderful neighbors that have formed my delicious life in Gascony; these are the stories behind the recipes I love to cook.
Kate at 70+
The first half of my life was formed as a restless international adventurer, working as a baker, a restauranteur, a yacht chef, an art dealer, a puppeteer, and a barge captain while traveling across the USA, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. In my mid-thirties, I slowed down to take a long, deep dive into the food and culture of Southwest France. I began to write in 1995 for the media and in my published books—A Culinary Journey in Gascony, Cassoulet: a French Obsession, and A Gascon Year- Jan-Dec.
In 2021, after a decision to stop teaching cooking and charcuterie in person, I created a new way to share my experiences writing here on Substack in The Camont Journals and by hosting writers’ residencies year-round at the newly branded Relais de Camont. This transformation to embrace full-time writing and encourage other writers and artists by offering “a quiet place to work” allows me to continue a slow, sustainable adventure of understanding how to live the good life in rural France.
Reading Finding France is like taking a 10-minute vacation to France—every week.
Hungry for France? Subscribe to The Camont Journals and join me every week for a small bite (or a deep plunge!) into what makes the cooking of Southwest France so interesting and vital. Here are the stories and recipes that define my memoir, Finding France, and now Champêtre: A Field Guide to French Country Life. My Instagram account, @KateHillFrance, illustrates my writing with personal photographs of my home and garden, table, and art.
Why subscribe?
Subscribe to get full access to The Camont Journals—my new book of stories and the many recipes from this old stone French farmhouse floating in a Gascon landscape—as well as the Relais de Camont website. Never miss an update, a recipe, a video, or a celebration of seasonal French life. Subscribing keeps the stories flowing; paid subscribers are the fuel. Paid subscriptions keep us writing… and sharing. Every new episode of The Camont Journals goes directly to your inbox, or you can read it on the Substack App.
Readers who read, share, and support these publications are a part of the growing way we communicate and share the delicious worlds we live in. Thank you for contributing, supporting, and celebrating life in the slow French lane at Camont. As a writer running a writer’s residency, I know that every little word counts and adds up to the bursting-at-the-seams library we call Life.
