Maison de Lunel
Lot, France
Tranquil detox, wellness, yoga and relaxation retreats in rolling French countryside
Set in 35 acres of private grounds just outside the attractive village of Mauroux in south-west France, this tranquil retreat offers themed breaks on set dates throughout the year. Led by British couple Ross and Neil Beckley, retreats include daily yoga, meditation, morning walks and nutrition workshops, and there’s a pool, sauna and lovely hot tub with gorgeous country views.
our Reviewer Sharon Walker says:
‘I waited apprehensively for the dreaded detox ‘slump’, but I felt completely fine all week. Not just fine but fantastic’
Queen of Retreats says:
‘Thoughtful touches include being met at the airport by a driver proffering a tray of refreshingly cool hand towels, and personal adjustments during yoga sessions to build your confidence. The walking trails are gorgeous - take in the dramatic gorges, slow moving rivers, local villages and bastide towns’
Experiences
The regular juice detox and yoga retreats offer the ultimate cleanse, with shots, juices and soups served as part of a supervised programme to detoxify your digestive system. There are also educational workshops on nutrition and practical juicing demos.
Ninety-minute yoga sessions twice a day support the body's detoxification pathways, with morning dynamic ashtanga flow, and evening restorative yoga with breathwork. There is also a 30-minute candlelit bedtime meditation.
Every morning there is a scenic, guided, one-hour walk in the surrounding countryside, building gradually throughout the week, with the option to use a weighted vest to raise your heart rate.
Take a swim, relax in the wood-burning hot tub and infrared sauna, and enjoy highly intuitive, deep tissue massage. The brave can try breathwork in the cold tubs.
You can go lake swimming, horse riding, and canoeing and kayaking on the Lot.
Spaces
Enjoy yoga in a spacious high-ceilinged, stone-walled barn with original beams. Flooded with natural light in the day, it’s beautifully lit in the evening.
There’s a comfortable massage room in a characterful stone outbuilding, an (unheated) swimming pool, an infrared sauna and a wood-burning hot tub with incredible views of the rolling French countryside.
Inside the house, relax in the library lounge and another covered lounge next to the dining area. Meals are taken around the table in the open-air dining room.
A former farm and equestrian centre, Maison de Lunel has 10 bedrooms in a former stable block next to the main house and barn. There is one apartment, a former hayloft, that looks out over open countryside.
En-suite bedrooms radiate a soothing, almost monastic simplicity with white walls, light stone floors, lofty high ceilings and crisp cotton bed linen. Bathrooms have power showers.
Sustenance
If you’re on a juice detox retreat, a typical day starts with a warm lemon water at 6.30am, followed by an 8.30am fresh wheatgrass shot and a 10am ginger shot and first juice. At 1pm there's a second juice, at 4pm a third juice and at 7pm a nourishing soup.
Juices are made freshly using a cold-pressed juicer and organic produce from a local biodynamic farm. They are based mainly on vegetables, with a little apple and pear to sweeten. In the evening, expect grounding, freshly made, thick vegetable soups, such as flavourful roasted red pepper and tomato, creamy pumpkin or spiced cauliflower.
On other retreats, you’ll have three wholesome plant-based meals a day. Breakfast might be fresh fruit, overnight oats, berries, smoothies, gluten-free pancakes and homemade gluten-free breads. For lunch, expect colourful salads with freshly made dressings, burritos and wraps, beans and pulses, kebabs and quinoa.
For dinner, there are nutritious soups, fusion-inspired dishes such as tasty stir fries, Moroccan cous cous and falafel, vegetable chilli and mixed rices, homemade nutloaf, raw vegan pizza, and healthy fun desserts, including ice cream and cake.
There’s unlimited filtered water and organic herbal teas. Detox retreats are alcohol free.
