Press Pause Retreat – 5 Days

You don’t have to be burned out to need a break.

This private 5-day/4-night Press Pause retreat in southwest France is for people who have been trying to cope with too much for too long, and is hosted by Dr Margaretha Montagu and her small herd of Friesian and Falabella horses

on the Camino de Santiago in the sun-blessed southwest of France

No matter how overwhelmed, stressed, confused, insecure, threatened, lost or downright exhausted you feel right now, this retreat can help you feel calm again, clear, and confident in your ability to handle whatever comes next without sacrificing your physical or mental health.

Maybe it’s burnout finally catching up, escalating relationship difficulties, an unexpectedly complicated career change, a finally unavoidable retirement, a midlife crisis, a mind-numbing relocation, the piercing loneliness of an empty nest, a life-arresting health scare, the soul-wrenching loss of someone precious, the cross-country relocation, or the promotion that somehow feels like a trap.

Are you running on empty with no end in sight? If your stress levels are rising and you’re questioning whether this relentless pace is sustainable, it’s time to step away before burnout becomes your breaking point.

This is the 5-day/4-night ‘Press Pause’ Retreat, and it’s for you if:

• You’ve told people you’re “just really busy right now” for so long that it’s started to feel like a personality trait, and you keep telling yourself you’ll rest once this next big thing is done, except there’s always, somehow, another big thing.
• You’ve been called resilient, capable, together, so many times that you’re not sure anyone would notice if you weren’t, and part of you wants someone to notice.
• You’ve got this at work, got this at home, got this in every group chat that needs an answer, and you can’t remember the last time nobody needed anything from you at all.
• You’ve thought about taking time for yourself and immediately felt guilty, told yourself you don’t have time, and then stayed up too late wondering if that guilt is actually the problem.
• You said yes to something you didn’t want to do, again, and spent the drive home rehearsing what you should have said instead.
• You cried in the car, or the shower, or somewhere private and practical, over something that seemed too small to justify it, and you know it wasn’t really about that thing.
• You’ve become the person everyone else leans on, and you can’t quite remember the last time you let yourself lean on anyone.
• You’ve said “I’m fine” so many times this year that you’ve started to believe you have to keep saying it, even at 2am when you’re wide awake for no obvious reason.
• Maybe there was a specific thing, a divorce, a diagnosis, a job that ended badly, that tipped you into this. Or maybe there wasn’t, and it’s simply been too much, for too long, with no single cause you can point to.
• You keep meaning to do something about how depleted you feel, and keep not doing it, because doing something about it feels like one more thing on the list.

Press Pause Retreat Summary

This 5-day, 4-night, bespoke, one-on-one retreat is your permission slip to press pause, rest, recharge your batteries, and understand your own stress patterns well enough to actually do something about them.

Hosted in a 200-year-old authentic French farmhouse, on the Camino de Santiago in south-west France, it offers a modern-day sanctuary to anyone who knows something needs to change, but is too tired to work out what — maybe because of a crisis, maybe simply because life got too busy. This retreat draws on the clarity that comes from walking the Camino de Santiago, the wisdom of spending time with a small herd of Friesian and Falabella horses, and the grounding power of storytelling and storywriting—all woven together to give your nervous system enough confidence to actually stand down.

You don’t need fixing. You simply deserve the chance to pause long enough to notice what’s happening to you, because trying to cope with too much for too long comes at a cost, even when you’re managing it well.

There are practical, grounded tools for getting your stress levels back under your own control, tools you can actually take home and use, not just three pleasant days you’ll wistfully remember from your desk in October. Deep down, you already know more than you’re giving yourself credit for about what you need to feel steady again.

Sometimes what’s needed most is simply a quiet place where nothing is required of you, where you can rest, breathe, and let your body remember what calm actually feels like, on its own schedule, not yours.

Feeling overwhelmed and exhausted doesn’t mean you’ve failed in some way. It doesn’t mean you’ve missed your chance or fallen behind everyone else. It can be disorienting, occasionally maddening, and inconveniently persistent, but it is temporary, and it responds well to the right tools, used consistently.

Slowly, over your five days here, you’ll feel your stress levels drop and your footing return, and for some guests, that also brings a clearer sense of which direction feels like theirs, rather than one they inherited or simply never had time to question. That part isn’t the point of the retreat, but it’s often a welcome side effect of finally getting some rest.

The person you have always been is still here: intelligent, resilient, curious, compassionate, and wonderfully capable of building a genuinely low-stress life. Your experience, your strengths and your values have all been quietly waiting for you to have the energy to use them again.

Have you always been fascinated by horses? Do you long to connect with them on a deeper level but have always been intimidated by their size?

This retreat will forever change how you cope with stress. Here, a small herd of Friesian and Falabella horses (think majestic black beauties and adorable miniatures) isn’t just waiting to meet you—they’re waiting to help you discover effective strategies to dramatically reduce your stress levels and create the long, happy and healthy life you are meant to live. 

You will spend the whole retreat in the presence of these patient, caring, and generous animals, allowing you to benefit abundantly from the horses’ intuitive and authentic wisdom. You will be able to breathe with them, touch them, talk with them, walk with them and share your most secret thoughts with them.

My purebred Friesian horses make these retreats UNIQUE. Friesians and Falabellas are generous, patient, warmhearted and affectionate breeds.” Dr Margaretha Montagu

All activities happen with everyone’s feet firmly on the ground – there is NO HORSE RIDING during these retreats.

This is your opportunity to thoroughly rest and restore your body and your mind, not only by connecting with the horses, but also by walking a short section of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. During this 5-day retreat, hosted in the foothills of the mighty Pyrenées mountains in the unspoiled and largely undiscovered sun-blessed southwest of France, you’ll have the opportunity to intervene before exhaustion becomes burnout.

If you’re feeling the quiet nudge that now might be the time to pause, rest, and reflect, I’d love to welcome you to my little corner of France.

Why Do You Need A Retreat Hosted by Dr Margaretha Montagu?

Meet Dr. Margaretha Montagu, the woman who turned stress management and burnout recovery into an art form:

“After two decades as a medical doctor, working in psychiatry and general practice, and nearly as many hosting retreats, I’ve mastered the art of helping you remember you’ll get through this. 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 might be reading this late at night, when the house is finally quiet and you’ve told everyone you’re “fine,” handled what needed handling, and only now allowed yourself to notice how tired you actually are. You may be convinced you don’t have time for something like a retreat, while privately suspecting your body’s been telling you the opposite for months.

And you definitely don’t have to accept “constantly overwhelmed” or “thoroughly exhausted” as your permanent state of being.

I’m all too familiar with the “no idea how I’m still standing, but the calendar is full” situation, the 2am replays of a conversation from Tuesday, the way even choosing a paint colour can suddenly feel like one decision too many. I know how much quiet effort it takes to keep acting “I’ve got this” while your shoulders are somewhere up around your ears and you can’t remember the last time you took a full breath. I know how much stamina it takes to keep everything functioning while running on a kind of tired that sleep alone doesn’t fix. It’s a lot to carry, even if, from the outside, you make it look deceptively easy.

You don’t have to hit rock bottom to justify getting help. You don’t have to wait for a full breakdown to justify taking a break. And you certainly don’t have to keep white-knuckling your way through a life that technically works but is quietly costing you more than it should.

Whatever stage of “exhausted” you’re in, wired and tired, flat and foggy, or just running on fumes and caffeine, there’s a way to bring your stress levels down that doesn’t require blowing up your life to prove you’re serious. I’ll show you how to get your body out of overdrive and your mind quiet enough to actually rest.

Been there, done that.

The Foundation Blocks of this Solo Retreat

Feeling stressed is a signal, not a sentence.

This retreat is designed as a peaceful waypoint along the way — a place to pause, rest, and regain your bearings before taking the next steps forward. No fixing, no forced optimism, just thoughtful guidance, quiet support, and the tools needed to continue your journey with more clarity.

The foundational blocks of this retreat are:

• Reflection while walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela:  On the Camino, you’re gifted long, uninterrupted stretches of time to simply walk and be—an especially powerful experience in the midst of overwhelm. Mile after mile, the steady rhythm of your steps creates space for introspection—gently acknowledging what you feel, without judgment, and gradually returning to yourself. Surrounded by open skies, quiet trails, and the changing countryside, you can process the practical and emotional realities at your own pace, away from the questions, opinions, and constant demands of everyday life. This time alone isn’t about replaying the past; it’s about making room for honest self-assessment, reclaiming your sense of self, and letting new possibilities take shape—one grounded step at a time.
• Equine-facilitated Mindfulness and Equine-Guided Meditation: You’ll also meet my horses, a small herd of Friesians and Falabellas, who have strong opinions and absolutely zero interest in polite small talk. In this session, we don’t just talk about feeling stuck; we explore it in real time through gentle, ground-based interactions with the horses (no riding, and no surprise pop quizzes). Because horses respond to what’s happening in the present moment, they’re excellent at reflecting patterns like people-pleasing, over-explaining, shutting down, bracing for rejection, or holding it all together—usually with more honesty than your friends, and without needing to “get it right.” This session is a safe, confidential, non-judgemental space to admit what you actually want. With the horses’ clear feedback and my guidance, you’ll practice recognising your own instincts again, distinguishing what’s genuinely yours from what you’ve simply absorbed, and rebuilding the kind of self-trust that doesn’t evaporate the moment someone raises an eyebrow at your choices.
• Guided Storytelling and Storywriting: With 7 books under my belt, personalised storytelling and journaling sessions, tailored to whatever’s actually sitting on your chest right now, are a core part of this retreat. Together, we’ll turn the noise in your head into something quieter: what you’re holding that isn’t yours to hold, where you’ve been bracing for something that isn’t even happening anymore, and what it would take for your nervous system to genuinely stand down. With guided prompts, flexible structure, and a few moments of lightness, you’ll have time to get it all out of your head, onto paper, and off your shoulders, without needing to arrive at a five-year plan by dinnertime. We’ll use narrative tools like reframing and perspective shifts to help you spot the story you’ve been telling yourself, that you’re always “fine,” that slowing down is a luxury you haven’t earned, and start drafting a calmer, more honest one.

Absolutely NO writing skills required.

You haven’t lost your equilibrium. It’s just buried under other people’s expectations, a calendar with no white space, and a hundred small decisions made on autopilot because there wasn’t time to make them any other way. This retreat gives you the time, expert guidance, and a properly restful setting to dig it back out, so you can feel steady again instead of just managing to look it. Think less “quit your job and move to Bali,” more “let’s get you out of fight-or-flight and back into your own body, so you’re choosing your next move instead of just reacting to whatever’s loudest.”

What My Press Pause Retreat Graduates Are Saying (And Why They Keep Coming Back)

More testimonials (40+)

Here’s how your adventure unfolds:

Day 1: Arrival and check-in at 2 PM. Equine-assisted Mindfulness session at 3:30 PM Dinner at 6 PM. Your New Story Writing session Part 1 (choose from a variety of prompts) at 7 PM.

Day 2: Meraki Morning Routine (self-guided) at 9 AM. Brunch laid out on your own patio at 10 AM. 11 AM Transport to the Camino: Ease into your stride with a gentle 11km (7miles) stroll from Eauze to Manciet. It’s a bit like a walk in the park, if that park stretched for 11km and was steeped in centuries of history. Time: 2.5-4 hours (depending on how many photos you stop to take – and trust me, you’ll want to take plenty). 3 PM. Pick up in Manciet. 4-6 PM Equine-guided meditation under your favourite 200-year-old oak tree (choose from Merlin, Morgana, Melchior or Methusalé). 6 PM Dinner. 7 PM Your New Story Writing session Part 2. Yoga Nidra under the stars (no light pollution)

Day 3: Meraki Morning Routine (self-guided) at 9 AM. Brunch laid out on your own patio at 10 AM. 11 AM Transport to the Camino: Walk from Manciet to Nogaro – a breezy 10km (just less than 7 miles) that leads you to a town that’s been doing its thing since the 11th century. The Romanesque church is so photogenic that it practically demands its own Instagram account. Another 2.5-4 hours of wandering this wonderland.. 3 PM. Pick up in Manciet. 4-6 PM Equine-guided meditation under your favourite 200-year-old oak tree (choose from Merlin, Morgana, Melchior or Methusalé). 6 PM Dinner. 7 PM Your New Story Writing session Part 3. Yoga Nidra under the stars (no light pollution)

Day 4: Meraki Morning Routine (self-guided) at 9 AM. Brunch laid out on your own patio at 10 AM. 11 AM Walk to the closest enchanting medieval village (more about the village) where half-timbered walls whisper stories from 1400 years of unbroken history. Here, where Roman settlers first planted vines in sun-drenched soil, generations of winemakers have crafted their liquid poetry for centuries—and that ancient tradition continues today. You can meander through narrow stone passages, discovering hidden treasures at your own perfect pace, or simply surrender to the profound tranquillity back at the farm, where time seems to slow, and your soul can finally exhale. Before you set off on this walk, you have an equine-assisted experiential learning session with my Friesian and Falabella horses. Evening includes dinner at a local bistro where you’ll experience rural French life, authentic and undiluted. Budget 15-30 euros for a meal that’ll ruin you for chain restaurants forever.

Day 5: Meraki Morning Routine (self-guided) at 9:30 AM. Brunch laid out on your own patio at 10:30 AM: savour the delicious local flavours one last time and carry the warmth of these precious final moments—and the rested and refreshed new version of yourself—back into the world. The retreat ends at 12h00.

None of the activities is mandatory. If you prefer to skip an activity and just relax, read or write, you are more than welcome. The program is not set in stone and may be altered according to circumstances, e.g. inclement weather.

Why This Retreat is One-of-a-Kind

• It is hosted by a fully qualified medical doctor with more than 20 years of medical experience, plus nearly 20 years of experience hosting retreats.
• The setting is exceptional: a 200-year-old, authentic Landaise farmhouse that has seen more history than your average museum and accumulated more charm than should be legally allowed. Nestled among Armagnac and Côtes de Gascogne vineyards, in the southwest of France, surrounded by woods, meadows, sunflower fields and, of course, the horses’ paddocks, it’s the kind of place that doesn’t just let you reconnect with nature—it practically insists on it.
• The opportunity to walk a section of the legendary and potentially life-changing Camino de Santiago de Compostela: the rolling countryside that you walk through doesn’t just look like a painting—it actually makes you feel like you’re living inside one. Fair warning: you may find yourself using words like “bucolic” and “pastoral” in casual conversation after this.
• Equine-facilitated mindfulness and equine-guided meditation make a unique contribution to this retreat because horses respond to what’s real in the moment—no judgment, no pep talks, and no patience for “I’m fine” when you’re not. In simple, ground-based exercises (no horse riding during the retreat), you’ll see your less-desirable habits show up in real time—people-pleasing, shutting down, procrastination—and you’ll practice new skills right there: respecting your own values, setting clear boundaries, and communicating with steady confidence.
• The storytelling and storywriting component doesn’t just help you unwind, it helps you understand what’s actually been running you down. With personalised prompts, you’ll spot the scripts that keep you stuck in “I’m fine” mode, the ones that make rest feel like something you have to earn, and start finding calmer, more honest language to replace them (absolutely NO writing skills required).
• You have the opportunity to indulge in some of the best food that Gascony has to offer – mindfully: Paella with an African twist, Tagine à la Française, Ratatouille aux 7 Epices served al fresco…your taste buds will think they are in seventh heaven.
• Discover the laid-back French way of life: the French live happy and healthy lives well into their nineties because they cope with stress by focusing on être (being) instead of faire (doing) or avoir (having) as represented by the Slow Food and Slow and Sustainable Travel movements.
• You can end your days by stargazing and communing with the universe by doing Yoga Nidra last thing at night (there is barely any light pollution here) to remind you of the infinite possibilities and innumerable opportunities that await you.

This retreat is not just a getaway—it offers an experience so unique and unforgettable that it’ll have you planning your return before you’ve even left.

Retreat Dates

These retreats are available year-round, on demand, although I do also host a variety of other retreats, so your chosen dates might not always be available. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at MargarethaMontagu@gmail.com, with a bit of juggling, I’m sure we can find a date that’ll suit both of us.

How do you get here?

Maison Meraki is a 2-hour drive south-east of Bordeaux, and 2 hours south-west of Toulouse, between two small towns: Eauze and Nogaro.

The easiest and most effortless way to get here is to rent a car at Bordeaux, Toulouse, Biarritz, Pau or Lourdes airport. It is a highway nearly all the way here, a breathtakingly beautiful drive with the Pyrenées mountains as background and the road signs are clear, even if you don’t speak a single word of French.

Most of my guests choose to spend a day in Bordeaux or Toulouse on their way here so that they arrive well rested, and then again a day or two in Bordeaux or Toulouse while they process what they have experienced during the retreat.

If you prefer to use public transport, the best option is to fly to Toulouse, take the train to Auch, and visit the impressive cathedral with its exceptional hand-carved choir. When you have had a scrumptious lunch at one of the sidewalk bistros on the square in front of the cathedral, you take the bus to Nogaro, where you’ll be picked up and transferred to the retreat.

The most entertaining and cheapest way to get here is by getting a lift from the carpooling website, BlaBlaCar(dot)fr, which is available in English.

Direct transfers may be available from local train stations (Mont de Marsan for Bordeaux and Auch for Toulouse) but need to be booked well in advance.

Investment

This retreat is designed so that by the end of it, you feel calmer, steadier, properly rested, and equipped to keep it that way once you’re back home.

Investment in a Steadier, Less-Stressed and Stronger You: €1,999

includes all activities, transport to and from the Camino, accommodation in a private bedroom and bathroom, access through double French doors to a private patio, shaded by 200-year-old oak trees, a view of the horses’ paddock (they are excellent company), 2 scrumptious brunches and 2 generous Gascon dinners, coffee, tea and biscuits at any time during the day(or night.)

To secure your reservation, a €450 deposit is payable at booking.
Flexible payment plans are available, with full payment due 30 days before the retreat begins.

This retreat is also available to two people travelling together: friends, couples, mother/daughters etc. Please contact me for prices.

Before booking, please take a moment to read the Terms and Conditions
By reserving your spot, you confirm that you’ve read, understood, and accepted them—including the Cancellation Policy.

Think of asking your employer to pay for this as a 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.

Ready for five days that leave you calmer, clearer, and considerably less depleted than you’ve felt in a long time? Contact me at MargarethaMontagu@gmail.com to check availability and secure your spot with a €450 deposit.