Body Tonic Fitness Retreat at a French Riviera Château

Château Lou Casteou is owned and run by Morag and Chris, and that shows in how the week is put together. It is a large, grandly restored period house rather than a purpose-built fitness hotel: en-suite bedrooms, a pool, terraces, several lounges and dining rooms, mountain views one way and sea views the other. Meals are cooked on site by Matteo and Silvia, an Italian chef couple who also cook for the château's tennis weeks — breakfast is French pastries, fruit, omelettes and coffee; lunch is often poached salmon, salads and pasta served on the poolside terrace; dinner is a larger feast with wine.

The Body Tonic programme is the fitness week here. A typical training day has two or three sessions — something like a stretch and mobility start, then a circuit or kettlebell or TRX block, then a cardio or boxercise session — with classes rotating so you are not repeating the same workout. Dance classes are part of the mix, which is unusual for a fitness retreat and gives the week a lighter, more social feel than a bootcamp. Water aerobics uses the pool. Outside the château, the programme includes kayaking and guided treks on the coastal paths and into the Estérel hills.

What separates this from a standard fitness camp is the house itself and the food. You are staying in a château with Simon Cowell's X-Factor judges' house among its past credits — it has also hosted weddings, events and film crews, including France TV's period drama 'Romance'. Meals are a proper part of the day rather than fuel: Provençal rosé with lunch, big dinners with wine, a games room downstairs with a pool table that tends to get used late. It is a holiday that happens to have a serious training schedule, not a bootcamp with beds.

David Higgins and Dan Tegg lead the fitness programme. David is an experienced personal trainer who runs the sessions with a lot of energy; Dan is a performance fitness coach who also works on the tennis weeks at the château. Between them they cover strength, conditioning, boxing-style work and mobility. The retreat is deliberately non-competitive — the point is to train well, eat well and enjoy the south of France, and the group mix tends to be sociable rather than intense.

The location is genuinely useful for a fitness week: Valescure sits just inland from Fréjus and Saint-Raphaël, on the edge of a pine forest and the Estérel massif, so hiking and coastal walks are on the doorstep and the sea is a short drive away. Nice airport is about an hour by car; Cannes is 45 minutes. Guests can also add guided coastal walks, trips to St Tropez, Fréjus or Saint-Raphaël, or simply spend an afternoon by the pool when they want a session off.

What's included

- 5-day Body Tonic fitness programme - Château accommodation in en-suite bedrooms - Breakfast, lunch and dinner prepared by visiting chefs - Wine with meals - Daily fitness classes: stretching, core, kettlebells, boxercise, TRX, cardio blast, circuits, water aerobics, legs bums and tums - Dance classes - Guided coastal and mountain treks - Kayaking session - One relaxing massage - Use of the pool, terraces, lounges and games room

What's not included

- Flights to Nice - Airport transfers (can be arranged separately) - Travel insurance - Personal expenses - Optional trips to St Tropez, Fréjus or Saint-Raphaël - Additional spa or massage treatments