Newly retired and ready to relax, Jeanne Leaning traveled to the south of France to see the Roman architecture, stroll past the sparkling fountains and soak up the sun. Yet the place where she lingered longest wasn't an artist studio or ancient cathedral. It wasn't even a shaded sidewalk cafe.

One of her favorite places was in front of a stove.

Comfortably seated around a long table in a 17th-century chateau, Leaning and her daughter joined four other couples from the Baltimore area last summer in learning the fine points of Provencal cooking. They took notes as a chef demonstrated how to prepare lamb and a rich tomato-and-onion tart. They talked about herbs and the almonds needed for the crust of an apricot pie. Better yet was the way the mouthwatering lessons ended: Everyone would gather in the garden to sample the dishes and sip wine.

"It was unforgettable. All the food was beautiful as well as delicious," says Leaning, 63, a retired reading teacher in Phoenix, who impressed her husband, Bill, and friends with several recipes upon her return.

She laughs and adds: "I now have a little French cooking area in the kitchen, but it's not quite the same. I think of the one dinner - it was still light out - and the ambience afterward. What my husband missed!"

More and more vacationers nowadays are choosing to spend time away from museums and beaches in a most ordinary location: the kitchen. Drawn by the chance to be tutored by a professional chef, learn local recipes or simply better their culinary skills, people are signing up in ever-larger numbers for cooking vacations. Tuscan cooking holidays rival Costa Rican eco-tours, according to travel experts, and the number of culinary programs worldwide has more than doubled in the last decade.

"Food isn't like tennis or art. Everyone likes to eat," says Dorlene Kaplan, editor of ShawGuides, which publishes an annual cooking vacation guide and has seen its listings swell from 271 in 1992 to 632 today. "There's a lot more special-interest travel these days because people have seen the sights or want to do more than sit on a beach. If you get into the food of a culture, it makes it more of an in-depth experience."

Capitalizing on the interest in cooking classes, chefs and tour operators have set classes up in all kinds of kitchens, from historic villas to restaurants and even private homes. Several Maryland inns offer midweek or weekend getaways during which guests prepare and enjoy gourmet meals. Cooking schools in vacation spots, such as San Francisco and the Colorado Rockies, also are catering to out-of-town visitors.

Perhaps the most popular are cooking vacations at romantic destinations: California's wine country, Tuscan villas, Paris' Ritz-Carlton kitchen and small farms in Spain's Rioja region. After all, even the most committed of cooks often want to get more out of a summer vacation than the proper technique for making a perfect butter sauce. They want to learn about the culture of a region through its cuisine.

"It's a fabulous way to explore and learn by tasting your way through the world," says Larry Martin, president of Food & Wine Trails in Santa Rosa, Calif. "Take our noshing tour in Florence: You don't just cook, you see and taste. You go to this old warehouse, and there's an incredible market where families have come for hundreds of years. But a trip to Florence would not be complete without also seeing the Uffizi. A lot of people are interested in food and wine who don't want to spend a whole week cooking."

Such tours usually last five days or longer and feature half-day cooking classes led by local chefs. Some are formal demonstrations in commercial kitchens; others are informal, hands-on sessions at private homes. There's time for traditional sightseeing and cultural stops.

Many tours also include excursions to vineyards, markets or olive groves. Baltimore professor and tour operator Peter Adams, for instance, always arranges wine tastings and hires local guides to direct walking tours to major sights.

"Foodies love it," says Adams, who leads European culinary expeditions with his wife, Donna Crivello, owner of Donna's coffee bars and restaurants. "But even people who are not terribly proficient may be interested in this little risotto specialty of Venice. Sometimes, the men choose not to go to the cooking classes, but we try to encourage them because afterwards, we always eat the meal we've just cooked."

Cooking vacations mostly appeal to middle-aged couples, retirees and mother-daughter pairs. Not only serious cooks sign up - so do spouses and friends who can't tell two kitchen knives apart. Kent Manor Inn's chef, Dennis Shakan, has taught the art of trimming tenderloin and roasting red peppers to "a baker, a guy who said his wife wanted him to learn to cook - and everything in between."

Women often outnumber men, but sometimes it's the husband who wants to go. Such is the case with Larry Galvin, who takes evening cooking classes, remodeled the kitchen in his Columbia home and came back from Adams' Tuscany tour two years ago with a new understanding of gnocchi and fettuccine.

"Where better to learn about pasta than from an Italian chef?" says Galvin, 53, a computer specialist.

Costs vary but can be considerable. Local inns charge from $300 to $500 per person for cooking weekends that include accommodations. Cooking schools usually are less expensive but don't include lodging. The Cooking School of the Rockies in Boulder, Colo., offers five-day vacation courses that cover everything from soup to roasting meat for $575. Weeklong Californian and European vacations typically range from $3,000 to $5,000 per person, including hotel rooms and some meals, but not air fare.

Even more variable is the amount of time actually spent in front of a stove. At some cooking classes, the chefs do demonstrations and guests simply sit in front of the burners, observe and take notes. Others offer more hands-on opportunities; class participants are expected to chop vegetables or debone fish.

Stockbroker Brent Berry of Whittier, Calif., has toured the Napa Valley and New York's Hudson River Valley in the last few years to participate in classes at the Culinary Institute of America. Berry, 61 and a cook since childhood, likes to talk to professional chefs about their latest trends and equipment.

"Just leave me in the kitchen," he says. He appreciates Larry Martin's tours because he improves his own skills, and notes that there are other activities to interest his wife. "I always learn something; last time it was how to break down shoulder roast for kebabs. I want to do it hands-on. Otherwise, why go?"

Kate Mead, 30, of Reston, Va., agrees. She and her mother enrolled last August in the Cooking School of the Rockies. Both are accomplished cooks but left with new confidence that they could make a perfect omelet or roast a duck. They saw the mountains and shopped in Boulder. Mead says she found the mornings in the kitchen "relaxing." She adds, "I like to cook, to accomplish something and sit down to eat."

Not everyone would want to spend five hours a day in the kitchen on vacation. Joan and Eric Thompson of Roland Park signed up for Adams' Provence tour last June, less for the cooking than the chance to see the sights with a small group.

The cooking classes at chef Marc Heracle's chateau outside Aix-en-Provence suited them: They didn't want to pit the cherries but enjoyed learning how to make the tartine. The Thompsons, both avid gardeners, wandered around his garden. One morning, the group followed Heracle to the local market, overflowing with flowers and ripe produce, to pick out the ingredients for lunch.

"It was very relaxed and informal," says Joan Thompson, a second-grade teacher at Baltimore's Friends School. "I liked talking to the chef and learning more about family life in Provence. These were his grandmother's recipes, it was interesting - the number of courses, the care in presentation.

"It wasn't exactly a working vacation," she says, laughing. "We were pampered."

Since getting home, they've tried several of the recipes. She teased her husband: "I'm going to expect you to do some of the cooking." He grilled the lamb shoulder for dinner. So the vacation turned out to be "a good influence."

What could be more relaxing?