Holiday Course Overview
This holiday retreat has been created so you can have a week of "no hassle", simply meeting people and having fun. A week in the beautiful Bordeaux wine region de-stressing with art-workshops, delicious food, cycling, swimming and much more. Le Centre is a holiday with a difference, because you have a retreat and a holiday in one. The Retreat in the form of participating to informal morning group talks; to air your problems and find solutions to what stresses you. And a holiday because the rest of the time is enjoying all the pleasure that the area and Le Centre offers. Being food, wine, activities and having a laugh. All the things we want from a holiday!

When you come for a week of relaxation we offer:

• Full week program activity
• Full Board - Delicious meals prepared with local produce
• Comfortable accommodation, five bedroom beautifully restored in the village house
• Opportunity to meet new friends
• Small groups - less than eight participants
• Experienced leaders to help you make the most of you holiday

Here is our suggested daily routine:

Breakfast until 9:30am. I will be meditating for a while before breakfast, you are welcome to join me.

• 10:00am: Informal discussion group on stress management where you learn new coping strategies in a nurturing group, all in complete confidentiality.
• 11:30am: Bernard offers an art class in his studio or on location around the village (coffee and biscuits)
• 1:00pm: Lunch: lots of fresh vegetables, roasts and French patisserie. If you have a favourite recipe, we can make it together.
• Afternoon: At your leisure or would you prefer a siesta in a deck chair by the river?
• 7:00pm: Usually everybody goes to Jacques' the cafe des sports in the village for an aperitif.
• 8:00pm: Dinner in the house, or if you prefer eating out in one of the restaurants within walking distance, for around 15 Euros for three courses.

After dinner if some of you want to talk about a specific topic, we can sit around with a cup of tea.

There are a wide range of other activities available which we have listed under the 'Location' section further down the page.

Pricing
Six nights full board at Le Centre full board for £325
Bookings are taken Saturday to Saturday (arrive pm, leave am) - the price for a week is from £300 which includes shared accommodation, seminars and all meals taken in the house. Guests are responsible for booking their own flight arrangements.

Accommodation
The house is a very large old stone French townhouse, it sits between a sleepy river "the Baïse" on one side and a corner fountain on the other in the village of Lavardac, Gascony, South West France.

There are 6 bedrooms, all spacious and simply but comfortably furnished to add to the restfull environment. Each bedroom sleeps 2 people. We believe that sharing for a short period is condusive to keeping some containment on one's feelings and to creating a closer group. The house is a very large, as well as the bedrooms there are several communal areas including a huge sitting and dining room with a whole panoramic of windows looking out onto the river.

Meals at the house are prepared and eaten communally from the most delicious fresh local produce and excellent local wine. Or you can sample one of the many charming local restaurants that are within walking distance from the house.

Tutor
Jocelyne Spencer, Centre Director
Jocelyne is a trained French Psycotherapist, with 15 years’ private practice in London. She has 7 years experience working in ‘stress management’ units, and is the permanent teacher on your Le Centre holiday, teaching the first morning seminar during all holiday weeks. In the years that she has been practising she has recognised the need to not only look inwardly through psychology but also to open outwardly through eastern philosophy, which she will share with you.

Bernard Spencer, Creative Partner
In relaxed, daily morning sessions at the Le Centre studio, and then later in their stay at locations by the Baise riverside that it overlooks, Artist and Film maker Bernard Spencer will guide guests through all the aspects of drawing from life. Depending upon each student's level of ability, he will teach the fundamentals of pencil and charcoal to their degree of proficiency, instructing the more advance with critiques on their work; sometimes in other painterly media.

For complete beginners, he will endeavour to teach composition and design, using objects and the human form to explain some of the excitement and mystery of making art that hopefully, at the end of their stay, they will carry away with them as a positive together with their finished drawings.

Location
Lavardac lies between Agen (1hr drive) and Bordeaux (2.5hrs drive) - surrounded by acres of vineyards and sunflower fields and bisected by the river Baïse (pronounced La Ba-ease). It is a peaceful little village in the heart of Gascony as yet un-discovered by the tourist crowd.

As well as Mosquetere country this is also Armagnac and wine country. There are innumerable chateux to visit and sample Buzet, the local wine, and of course the famous Armagnac brandy too!

As for local food, the region is famous for it's duck, excellent sausages and smoked ham, fresh goat's cheese, mill of cheese, pruneaux, foie gras and patisseries (there are 3 patisiers in Lavardac alone). Lavardac is home to some of the most varied local festivals, from shepherds on stilts to the world cork pulling championships.

Outside of town the forest of Les Landes starts and runs for the 150 miles to the coast, offering multiple man made lakes (the closest is 10 minutes drive from the house) with beaches for swimming and sunbathing.

Additionally all of the following activities are available locally:

• Canoeing: The canoe school is just below the house. beginners welcome, you can paddle away on the tranquil river.
• Lake: 8 minutes away by car. I can take you or you can share a taxi, to this lake unspoiled sitting in the middle of the forest of pines.
• Cycling: You can hire a bike in the village. I can show you some interesting routes.
• Walking: Plenty of beautiful walks. We can organise it a of few of us are interested. Walks are usually indicated by coloured arrows, so we can meander happily in the countryside.
• Riding: Beginners welcomed. They provide hats. A promenade of 90 mins through the forest, costs 6 Euros. It usually starts at 7pm so that it is not to hot for the horses.
• Golf 18 holes golf course, just outside the village, with a beautiful old stone club house.
• Restaurant boat Moving by the house, called: La Croisiere Cathy. Eat on the top deck while leisurely going down river.
• Midnight art and craft market Every Friday night, in the medieval town of Vianne. Wine tasting stalls, food and arts and craft stalls.
• Wine tasting the local wine is Buzet. Trips to the winery to test and buy very good wine, at incredibly cheap prices.
• Painting and drawing Bernard, your art teacher lives on a hill, just outside the village. His studio is set in a spectacular views of the valley. He will guide you so you can express yourself through art.

How to Get to Us
Flight from London to Bordeaux ideally in the morning. Going from the airport to Gare St Jean (local train station). There are buses leaving Bordeaux airport every 20 mins. 1 hour to travel from Bordeaux airport to Gare St Jean train station. There is one bus a day to Lavardac Gare St Jean which leaves at 4pm. Arrive in Lavardac at 6:30pm