Welcome to Esprit Meraki Retreats – un Coin où il fait Bon Vivre
Retreats start every first and third Saturday of the month, in a rustic, 200-year-old French farmhouse, surrounded by sunflower fields, woods, vineyards and meadows in the sun-blessed southwest of France
Life isn’t going according to plan. Current headlines read like a script rejected by Hollywood for being too implausible: escalating conflicts, political theatrics, and a level of global tension nearing breaking point…
That doesn’t mean you can’t cope.
All you need to do is “press pause.”
If the current state of the world has left your nerves feeling slightly frayed, you’re not the only one. Consider a small but radical act of self-preservation: step away for one, three, five, or seven days on retreat in the nerve-soothing calm of the Gascony (the French Tuscany) countryside, at a little French farmhouse lost-in-time and give your mind a chance to rest from the constant noise. No shouting politicians. No endless debates. No meaningless drama. No breaking news alerts every two minutes. Just the simple pleasure of reconnecting with nature, spending time with asmall herd of Friesian and Falabella horses, quiet conversation, and allowing your mind to unwind in its own time.
By the time you return to the world, you’ll most likely discover that the chaos hasn’t disappeared—but you’ll feel far better equipped to face it.
I spent the first half of my life being very good at ignoring what my body was telling me. I suspect you might recognise that particular skill. What I discovered is that the life you’re tired of living is not the only life available to you. There is another way — slower, simpler, more meaningful, more fulfilling and much more sustaining than most of us were ever taught to want. I can’t give you that life in a day, or even in a week. But I can show you what it feels like. And sometimes that’s enough — a week of feeling it in your body, so you know what you’re aiming for when you go home.
So press pause and come when you’re ready. Come before you have to.
Come again and again.
Why I created these retreats
My name is Margaretha Montagu.
I spent years telling my patients to reduce their stress levels. I delivered this advice with great authority and the confidence of someone who clearly understood the problem. The only minor flaw in my strategy was that I did not take my own advice. My body eventually rebelled, in the most brutal way it knew how. I lost one of my eyes and now have significantly reduced vision in the eye I have left.
What I found on the other side of that loss — here, in this undiscovered and unspoilt corner of France, in this rustic 200-year-old farmhouse, on this ancient path — was a different kind of life. Slower. Simpler. And, somewhat to my surprise, far richer than the ambitious, over-scheduled life I had been sprinting through before.
I walked the Camino, boots crunching on gravel, the smell of wild thyme warming in the sun, a hawk circling lazily overhead as if it had nowhere urgent to be — which, in fact, it probably didn’t. Something curious began to happen to a mind that had spent racing along for too long. It slowed right down. It loosened its grip on all the problems that once seemed so terribly important. Thoughts that refused to resolve themselves at a desk started to sort themselves out somewhere between kilometre two and kilometre five.
None of this was very dramatic. There are no flashing neon signs announcing a life-changing transformation coming up.
And yet, quietly, things shifted.
As they will for you, when you press pause. Come when you’re ready. Come before you have to. Come again and again.
I’m not here to fix you. I don’t believe you’re broken. I believe you’re tired — the particular kind of tired that comes from carrying too many responsibilities, too many expectations, and absorbing far too much mind-numbing news.
My role in all of this is modest.
I simply provide the ideal conditions.
A lovingly-restored, authentic farmhouse in Gascony. Sunflower fields stretching to the horizon. The majestic Pyrenees mountains shimmering in the distance. A small herd of Friesian and Falabella horses. Ancient Camino paths through medieval villages. And a retired doctor who learned — the hard way — that rest isn’t a reward. It’s essential self-care.
What makes this retreat unique?
The Camino de Santiago de Compostela on my doorstep
The Camino de Santiago has been walked for over a thousand years — by pilgrims seeking absolution, by the grieving seeking comfort, by the lost seeking direction, and increasingly by the exhausted seeking nothing more complicated than the feeling of moving through a breathtakingly beautiful landscape in their own time and at their own pace.
You do not need to walk to Santiago. You do not need a shell on your backpack or a spiritual agenda or a complicated feeling about religion. You need comfortable shoes and a willingness to put one foot in front of the other through some of the most quietly beautiful countryside in France.
A small herd of Friesian and Falabella horses
There is something that happens when you stand next to a horse. The thinking mind — the one running the endless internal commentary, the to-do lists, the low-level anxiety — goes still. Horses don’t respond to status or urgency or the story you’ve been telling about yourself. They respond to presence. To the quality of your attention.
My Friesians are huge — the kind of horses that make you catch your breath the first time you see them. My Falabellas are small enough to be hilarious and wise enough to be humbling. Some guests spend hours near the paddock. Others are content to watch them from the terrace, glass of local wine in hand, as the light thickens into gold over the oak forest.
And they have never failed to give someone exactly what they needed — even when neither of us could have said in advance what that was.
Gascon Food: In Gascony, food is not fuel. It is art.
Brunch is laid out each morning on the farmhouse table — thick slabs of bread from the Eauze boulangerie, local cheeses chosen by the woman at the market stall who has opinions about cheese and is always right, cool creamy yoghurt, bowls of muesli, jams so intensely fruited they’re almost embarrassing, and juice cold enough to make you close your eyes. You eat as much as you want. You sit as long as you like. Nobody is waiting for the table.
There is always good coffee. Very good coffee. And tea.
Dinner is where it gets interesting. I cook Gascon food — the rich, unhurried cuisine of southwest France, built on the particular generosity of this region’s larder. But my time in Africa influences each dish: a spice that shouldn’t work but does, a technique from a different continent that makes something familiar suddenly surprising. Guests often can’t quite identify what makes the food feel different. It just does. It’s not fusion. It’s just what happens when two food cultures live in the same kitchen long enough.
One evening, we eat at a local bistro I love, where the cooking is unpretentious and intensely satisfying and the menu depends entirely on what the chef feels like cooking. We each pay for our own meal and support the local economy at the same time.
Food at Esprit Meraki is one of the main events. Come hungry.
These retreats are for you if you recognise yourself in any of these:
- Your idea of self-care has evolved beyond green juice and bath bombs. You need something with more… substance. Everyone calls you “the strong one,” and frankly, holding up the sky is getting old. There’s a whisper inside saying “something’s got to give” — but you can’t quite hear it over the noise of your calendar notifications, your obligations, and the seventeen tabs you have open at all times.
- You’d rather have a root canal than sit through another rah-rah wellness workshop with a flip chart and a gratitude journal. You’d prefer to wander through ancient Gascon woodland, with the Pyrenees mountains on the horizon and nothing more demanding than a well-marked path ahead of you.
- You’ve always dreamed of owning a farmhouse in the French countryside. Or maybe you wish you had a (fairy) godmother who lived here, in a rambling house full of sunshine, so that you can visit her when life gets too chaotic – well, now you can. And you can come back to recharge your batteries here every year. Or several times per year, as some og my guests do.
- You’ve developed an allergy to quick fixes and motivational platitudes. You don’t want a new morning routine. You want to actually rest — properly, deeply, in a way you haven’t managed in longer than you can remember.
- You know intellectually that you need to slow down. The problem is that slowing down feels impossible, vaguely irresponsible, and somehow harder than just carrying on. You are very good at keeping going. It is also quietly killing you.
- You need rest that actually reaches the tired parts. Silence that isn’t just the gap between one demand and the next. And enough distance from your normal life to remember what you actually feel like underneath all of it.
- You want somewhere you can drop the mask entirely. No elevator pitch. No personal brand. No version of yourself curated for other people’s comfort. Just good food, ancient paths, horses who couldn’t care less about your productivity, and room to finally exhale.
- You are craving simplicity — a few days without constant noise, endless demands, or performance anxiety and you are curious about what a slower, simpler life might feel like — even just for a week. You want to be looked after, in that warmhearted French countryside way, without fuss.
You are ready to press pause. Come now that you’re ready. Come before you have to. Come again and again.
Why Do You Need This Specific Retreat?
Feeling like you’re running on empty with no end in sight? If your stress levels are through the roof and you’re questioning whether this relentless pace is sustainable, it’s time to step away before burnout becomes your breaking point.
Enter Dr. Margaretha Montagu: the woman who turned stress management and burnout recovery into an art form.
After two decades as a medical doctor and nearly as many hosting retreats, I’ve mastered the art of helping you remember you’re allowed to breathe once in a while. My credentials read like alphabet soup (MBChB, MRCGP, MedHypDip, NLP Master Pract Cert, Prof Life Coach Cert, EAGALA Cert), but what really matters is this: I get it.
I’ve worked with enough people to suspect you’re probably reading this at 11 PM on a Sunday, convinced you don’t have time for a retreat but desperately needing one anyway. I’ve seen the impossible deadlines, the back-to-back meetings that make you forget to eat lunch, and the weight of responsibility that sits on your shoulders like an overpacked backpack.
You know what? You don’t have to choose between success and sanity. You don’t have to burn out to prove you’re valuable. And you definitely don’t have to accept “constantly overwhelmed” as your permanent state of being.
No matter how overwhelmed, stressed, confused, insecure, threatened, lost or downright terrified you feel right now, these retreats can help you to feel calm, clear, and confident in your ability to handle whatever comes next without sacrificing your physical or mental health.
You have “buts”?
“I can’t afford it.”
I hear this one often — and I said it myself, for years, right up until my body stopped asking and started rebelling. So let’s be honest about what “can’t afford it” actually means in practice. You are already paying for your stress — in sleep that doesn’t restore you, in health that’s sending you increasingly pointed memos, in the slow erosion of the things and people that matter most to you. And you are almost certainly spending money trying to manage it: The supplements. The weighted blanket. The journaling app. The gym you attended twice and still feel guilty about. The city break that required its own recovery period. A few days in Gascony — ancient paths, farmhouse food, actual rest — costs considerably less than most people spend trying to outrun burnout. And guests consistently tell me the effects last for months. I’m not saying it’s cheaper than doing nothing. I’m saying doing nothing isn’t actually free.
“It feels selfish. Self-indulgent.”
You are allowed to be tired. It’s perfectly normal to need rest. The belief that your needs come last is almost certainly one of the reasons you’re reading this page right now. Rest is not self-indulgence. It is essential maintenance. Ask any doctor — including the one who wrote this.
“I don’t know if I can just… do nothing.”
You won’t be doing nothing. You’ll be walking ancient paths, eating extraordinary food, sitting with horses, sleeping profoundly, and rediscovering what your nervous system feels like when it isn’t under siege. It will feel strange for about a day and a half. Then it will feel like your new normal.
“What if I don’t connect with the other guests?”
With a maximum of four guests, the group is small enough to be genuinely intimate and varied enough to be interesting. In practice, the shared experience of the Camino, the food, and the horses creates connections with remarkable speed. That said, solitude is entirely available whenever you need it.
“I don’t like horses.” No problem whatsoever. The horses are simply part of life on the farm — magnificent, unhurried, and entirely optional. You can spend hours communing with these large, wise animals, or you can admire them from a perfectly respectable distance over a glass of something cool and refreshing. Both are valid life choices. The horses have no preference and no feelings about it either way, which is honestly one of their better qualities.
“What if I have dietary requirements?”
Tell me when you book. I cook from scratch, using fresh market produce, and I can accommodate a variety of preferences and most intolerances and allergies – with pleasure. Good food should be available to everyone. If you have very complicated needs, I might have to charge an additional fee.
“Will I be fit enough to walk the Camino sections?“
The routes I suggest are chosen for their beauty, not their difficulty. They are gentle, well-marked, and entirely manageable for anyone in reasonable health. If you have mobility concerns, tell me when you book and we will find something that works for you. Not every day needs to be a walking day.
“I don’t like rigid retreat programs.”
Good, because there isn’t one. No timetable slid under your door, no morning meeting where everyone shares their intentions, no enforced activities AT ALL. Equally, you won’t be left alone in a farmhouse in southwest France with no idea what to do with yourself — which sounds appealing in theory but tends to get uncomfortable around day two. Think of it less like a retreat programme and more like staying with a friend who happens to live in one of the most beautiful corners of France, knows exactly how to feed you, has horses in the field and an ancient pilgrimage route on her doorstep, and has absolutely no expectations of you beyond showing up for dinner.
“What if something comes up and I need to cancel?“
Life happens — and sometimes it happens at the worst possible moment. I’m not able to offer refunds, which is why I strongly recommend taking out travel insurance to protect your investment. What I can do: if something comes up and you genuinely can’t make it, I’ll offer your spot to those on the waiting list first, and if someone can take it, I’ll transfer your payment in full to another date within the same calendar year.
What do the retreats cost?
Costs vary from 149€ for a 1-day retreat to 1099€ for a 5-day retreat, 1999€ for a 7-day retreat. 3-day retreats are specialised, themed, one-on-one retreats; see individual prices.
| Think of asking your employer to pay for this transformational stress management retreat; you can motivate your application by mentioning that, according to Forbes, approximately 70% of people experienced burnout in the last year. Work-related consequences include job dissatisfaction, decreased productivity, poor performance, professional mistakes, absenteeism, quiet quitting and resignations, resulting in a high turnover rate. Although conditions at work may also need improvement, a retreat focused on stress management, led by a medical doctor, can contribute significantly to preventing burnout in employees. |
The residential retreats include:
- A comfortable bed in a single or double room in a much-loved, authentic Landaise farmhouse. Thick walls, ancient beams, proper linen, and the soft soundtrack of the countryside instead of traffic and sirens. The kind of sleep where you wake up slightly confused about what year it is — and deeply rested in a way modern life rarely permits.
- Brunches that induce lingering: Each morning begins with a buffet that politely suggests you cancel any plans you might have had to rush. Bread from the best localboulangerie, local cheeses, live yoghurt, muesli, confitures that taste like bottled sunshine, and fresh fruit juice. Eat generously. Pour another coffee. Stay as long as you like. Nobody will be looking at their watch.
- Decadently delicious Dinners. Every evening except one, a three-course dinner cooked from scratch — Gascon at heart, African in spirit, and market-fresh in every way. The kind of meal that causes conversations to stretch out and phones to mysteriously remain untouched.
- Reconnect with Nature: A Guided Journaling Course Inspired by Horses. Free access to a 7-part digital (online) stress-reducing journaling course that sells for 399€ that is yours to keep and explore at your own pace — beside the horses’ paddock, under an old oak tree, or on the terrace with something refreshing in your hand. Writing as a quiet way of discovering what you actually think — which can be illuminating, occasionally immobilising, and surprisingly liberating. Epiphanies not guaranteed, but they do have a habit of showing up when you least expect them.
- Free WiFi: It’s available whenever you need it. We simply try not to make a big fuss about it. In fact, we don’t mention it. Much. And only because you need it for the course (see above)
- Horses, as much or as little contact as you like: Some guests enjoy quiet moments beside the paddock, watching them graze or offering a gentle scratch behind the ears. Others prefer simply knowing they are nearby, adding their calm presence to the landscape. Riding is not part of the retreat, but peaceful horse company most certainly is. An Introduction to Equine-guided Meditation (recording) for those who are interested.
- An introduction to Walking Meditation: Because it turns out the Camino has been a moving meditation for about a thousand years, and most of us somehow missed that memo. I’ll gently correct that oversight.
- The Meraki Morning Routine: A simple, self-guided way to begin your day that you can take home and continue to use long after the retreat ends. Encouragingly, it does not require waking up at 5 a.m., submerging yourself in icy water, or purchasing equipment that looks like it belongs in a biohacking laboratory.
- Unforgettable walks along the Camino de Santiago through rolling countryside, ancient villages, and landscapes that have been calming restless minds for over a thousand years. You don’t have to be a seasoned pilgrim. You just have to be willing to walk, breathe deeply, and occasionally stop to admire the view.
- Free, shaded, safe parking.
Maximum 4 guests. Small by design, entirely unapologetically.
Please read the Terms and Conditions before booking.
“The opportunity to experience walking a portion of the Camino de Santiago, as a retired, single woman, without concern for lodging and meals, was truly a gift. I’m recovering from extreme personal loss, and felt safe and cared for, while encouraged to explore independently. Dr Montagu is a very gracious hostess and, I hope she’ll agree, someone I can now count as a friend. She provided beautiful meals and some meaningful local experiences. Because of what she shared of the area, I hope to visit Southern France again.” Brenda M. via Tripaneer
“Margaretha herself was the best thing about the retreat. Quietly kind, supportive, informative, insightful and fun! She and I, and my one fellow guest at Esprit Meraki, formed such a unique and special bond and I think we will be friends for life! Other than our wonderful host I also appreciated the farmhouse itself, its tranquil outside spaces, especially the sunlounger under the trees which Margaretha designated for me in the afternoons to laze on and reflect after the long daytime walk on the Camino – balm for the feet and the soul!” Julia D. via Tripaneer
©MargarethaMontagu