Host your retreat in Provence

One venue, held for your group

Most retreats we plan work on a base-camp model. A farmhouse, a bastide or a small hotel is privatised for your group, so the house belongs to your retreat in Provence and to nobody else for the week. There is a dedicated room for your morning and evening practice, set up once and left the way you want it. Dinner is served at shared tables, which is where a group of strangers becomes a group. And nobody repacks a bag during the week: participants unpack on arrival and settle in.

Before you commit to anything, we source two or three venue options matched to your group size and your budget. Each one comes with written group terms: what is privatised, how many rooms and beds, what the practice space really holds, what the rate includes, and how the deposit and cancellation schedule works. You compare like with like, and you choose with the full picture rather than a brochure.

The practice room deserves its own attention. We look at the floor, the light, the noise from the kitchen and the road, how many mats it takes with space between them, and whether there is a covered alternative when the weather turns. These are details a website never mentions and a retreat leader always notices on the first morning.

The days write themselves around your practice

The rhythm we build most often is simple. Mornings belong to your sessions. Afternoons go out into the landscape, at a pace that keeps the effect of the morning rather than undoing it. A forest picnic and a mountain walk. A village market, on the day it is worth visiting. A vineyard with a story worth telling, where the person pouring is often the person who made the wine. The sea, for a swim or simply to sit and look at it.

One vehicle and one driver follow the whole week. The driver learns the group, the group learns the driver, and timing stays soft: if a session runs long or a circle needs a little more time, the afternoon moves with it. Nothing in the week depends on a coach that leaves at a fixed hour.

You decide how much of the week is programmed. Some leaders want every afternoon planned; others prefer two outings and long free hours at the house. We build either, and we leave room for the day that changes once the group has found its own pace.

Food your group will talk about

Food carries a retreat more than most leaders expect. We work in two ways, often in the same week: a private chef cooking at the house, or a village restaurant that can hold a long table for the whole group. The chef at the house means meals timed to your schedule, served where you want them, with menus that follow the intention of the week. The village restaurant means a change of scene and an evening that feels like an outing.

Meals also set the rhythm of the day: something light after the morning session, a picnic carried out on the afternoon walk, a long dinner that ends when the conversation does. The chef works from your schedule rather than the other way round, and knows in advance which evenings are quiet, which are celebrations and which end in silence.

Dietary requirements are collected once, before arrival, and handled everywhere: by the chef, by the restaurant, at the picnic and on the day out. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, allergies, a participant who prefers to eat early: it is written down, passed on and checked, so that nobody has to explain it again at the table.

What working with a DMC changes

Running a retreat abroad usually means a long list of separate agreements: the venue, the chef, the transport, the guides, the activities. We hold all of them. The contracts, the deposits, the cancellation terms and the plan B with every supplier sit with us, under a French licensed operator: Aura Provence is registered with Atout France under IM013250009 and covered by an APST financial guarantee.

For you, that means one quote, one contact and one invoice. When something moves on the ground, a delayed arrival, a closed road, rain on the day of the walk, it is ours to solve. You stay with your group; we handle what happens around it. First proposal within 48 hours.

Net rates or a commission, as you prefer — and your participants remain yours. We never contact them directly. Your name is on the retreat, your participants book with you, and our role stays behind the scenes.

For wellness programmes we design from start to finish rather than around your own teaching, see our page on wellness retreats in Provence. To start, send us your dates, your group size, the kind of venue you picture and a budget range, through the form below or our contact page.