The last retreat! That is just crazy! How did we get here? Already? Also, finally? All of the emotions are happening all at one time. For the last retreat we had the fewest number of guests with only three ladies, and seven volunteer/staff members. That makes it surprisingly tricky! How does one make sure that guests feel like they are having a good group experience when there is another group (volunteer/staff) that already know one another and have a rapport that outnumber guests?
We didn’t have a creative in residence for this retreat – she could not get her visa. That gave the volunteers the opportunity to host workshops and try out new ideas. I mentioned that I had hurt my ankle and this week it was getting better but still stiff and sore which made it difficult to teach yoga the way I normally would. Luckily one of the other volunteers is also trained and offered an additional yoga session. Another staff member took guests through the gardens to harvest. I held my workshop on building intuition again one evening. There was a large brocante (flea market) nearby on Saturday and all of the guests wanted to experience it, so that plus a walk around the nearest village (La Petite-Marche) helped to fill the schedule. We had all of the vendors we work with come to the chateau this week – Sabine for breadmaking, Patricia for watercolors, and Emma Jean for massages (finally got one and it was amazing!). I took everyone to the winery and Grace took everyone to the thermal baths. Vango (the retreat van) is back and no longer squealing in protest with every press of the brakes! Since it was the last retreat we all put on Root&Rise t-shirts and had a pillow fight for Instagram and did other fun photo shoots.
We had one “situation” where two guests who had left their windows open got an infestation of gnats. They were very small and weren’t going to hurt anything but their sheer numbers were astonishing! We managed to usher the bugs out of one of the rooms, but they were pretty insistent upon staying in the other. It was odd to see the staples in the kitchen dwindling and not being replaced since the season has now come to a close. The chef got her next gig in Spain and will leave the chateau the same day as I do – September 10th.
One volunteer left this weekend with guests on the early shuttle on Sunday morning. She is going to be an au pair for a family in a town nearby for the next two months. After guests departed the volunteers/staff went to check out a cheese, wine and bread festival in the town where the thermal baths are located, Evaux-les-Baines. There was a circus comprised of three performers juggling and doing some stunts. We learned that this area of Central France has a large Portuguese population thanks to immigration during the 1960s and 1970s to escape dictatorship and conscription. The festival featured some traditional Portuguese dancing and music. Sabine (the breadmaker who comes to the chateau) had a stand at the festival and there were a myriad of other vendors – sausages, cheese, pots and pans, crafts, and of course wine. There was a lineup of tractors old and new and a car show. The festival was near the casino in town so we wandered in there because we had always been curious. Looked like every other casino I have been in but surprisingly was a non-smoking environment.
I will be at the Chateau until Thursday and then spend a few days decompressing in Vichy which is about a 2 hour bus ride. Then I get to reunite with my friends Claudia and Stefan (and their kitten Blanca) in Germany for a week!
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