Retreat to the French countryside for:

Time, space and inspiration to get creative
Projects and practical guidance from two experienced creatives
A visit to a gallery or other creative space
Down time to relax and smile!
Introduction to meditation
5 nights full board (with wine)
Glorious Dordogne-Périgord countryside setting
Airport / rail transfers from Limoges

Your Creative Arts Retreat:

We are all deeply creative in different ways. Your stay at Le Verger is designed to tap into your naturally creativity, pique your curiosity, and get your creative juices flowing.

No previous experience of art or any particular technique is required. Come with your smile! You’re here to explore, relax, have fun and connect with yourself! The workshop will be held in English and French (and in bright colours, in wool, leaves and objets trouvés!)

As well as practical guidance, Michèle and Nathalie offer you the time and space you need to get creative in conducive natural surroundings. On each of the five mornings there is a three-hour guided session from 10-1pm in a dedicated space, a converted piggery. Each day, the tutors offer you a new creative project. This might be painting on local slate, or making greeting cards, bookmarks, a paper weight, mandala designing, collage... In the afternoon you are free to experiment with the technique and work (play!) at your own pace in The Piggery.

Note: Most materials are provided (paint, paper cutter, scissors, A3 paper, slate, glue) but we ask you to bring your own sketchbooks, card, water colours and paintbrushes. And your enthusiasm! Don’t be surprised if we go foraging for natural materials in the rich forests and fields around Le Verger! Pine cones, feathers, seeds, and flowers may inspire your creation!

Each day starts 9:30 am with David’s 30 minute (optional) creative visualization in the Garden Room to get you in touch with your creativity.

Your Tutors:

Michèle Lambert is an experienced teacher of language, but she’s a natural creative with a keen esthetic sensibility and has been delighting friends and family with things she’s made for many years. People are always so happy to receive a unique card or gift fashioned by hand and designed specifically with them in mind! She recently attended a course on mandala design in India and is full of enthusiasm to share with you this beautiful and self-exploring art from the east. Michèle is British and a fluent French speaker.

Nathalie Langlois is passionate about the joy of handling paper, using thread and wool to bring creations to life, playing with colours and materials, sculpting materials, putting words together to make them resonate, finding beauty, awakening her curiosity (and cultivating her vegetable garden!). Her practice has been enriched by training courses with porcelain painters, dressmakers and potters. She has trained at a Fine Arts Academy and attended workshops online led by Manon Lavoie (Canada) on the power of creativity to produce art and bring about personal transformation. A retired speech therapist, Nathalie doesn't speak English!

David Lambert is a creative writing teacher. He is interested is in how meditation and silence release our creative energy. He leads a 30 minute meditation each day at 9:30 am in the Garden Room to get you in touch with your creativity. He speaks French and English.

Dates:

18-23 September 2025

Prices:

£515 shared room or cabin
£565 own room or cabin

*Prices include group transfers to / from Limoges rail station or airport

Ask us about a scholarship if you feel you need financial assistance

When you’re not creating:

You’re in Dordogne-Périgord, a glorious part of South-West France! Feel free to sit in our gardens or take yourself off on well-signposted walks to Le Puy des Ages (2.5 km), the château-forge of Savignac-Lédrier (1.5 km) or stroll to the local village bar (1.5km). There’ll be a visit to a local site of interest, market or gallery.

About your hosts:

David and Michèle Lambert have been welcoming creative people to Le Verger since 2010. David has an MA in Creative Writing from UEA, and discovered the transformative value of going away on creative retreats to write. His novel ‘The House in Bacolet’ is due out with Peepal Tree Press in 2025. https://www.peepaltreepress.com/books/house-bacolet

David and Michèle both have experience in developing creativity and mindfulness gained in several visits to India over the years.

Accommodation

You’ll be accommodated in your own simple but comfortable room with a desk and lamp in the main house, sharing a bathroom usually with one other person. There is wifi in all the accommodation. Two Cabins (3 x 3.5m and 3 x 3 m) each provide simple but comfortable individual accommodation (occupant uses the main house downstairs bathroom). There’s also a glamping option – a tent ( 3m x 3 m) which you can stand up in with a single bed, a lamp, a chair, hanging space, (occupants use the main house bathrooms). Subject to availability, participants may have their own room or share accommodation in the main house with another person, or an accompanying non-participant partner (contact us for rates).

*While we do our best to satisfy your accommodation request, please note that in the event that this is not possible, you will be offered the alternative at the advertised price.

Meals

Breakfast is on a help yourself basis and can be from as early as you require it and before the start of the (optional) meditation class. A buffet lunch will be laid out in the kitchen from 1-2pm. Tea- and coffee-making facilities are available whenever you require. A sit-down dinner with wine is served from 7.30pm and we encourage all participants to join the group for this (let us know on the Booking Form of dietary needs or other intolerances). Retreaters take turns after the evening meal to help clear away.

Getting there

The course fee includes transfers between Limoges and Le Verger (80km). It is important you are all on the same outward and return Ryanair flight to Limoges to facilitate this. NB. Wait for us to let you know when you can go ahead and book your flight or train.

Travelers by train can be picked up / dropped off at Limoges-Benedictins at a time which coincides within an hour or so with airport collection/drop offs.

If you can’t make the group transfer, a local taxi to Le Verger will charge around 160 -190 euros. We will do our best to pick up separate travelers and charge 80 euros.

In the unlikely event of a Ryanair flight rerouting to more distant Poitiers or Bergerac airport, an adjusted pick up /drop off charge will be applied.

Coming by car? Our address: Le Verger, 7 route de la Colline, Veau le Coteau, St Mesmin 24270

What to bring

We recommend you travel light (we provide a towel and a hair drier) as luggage space in the transfer cars is limited. You should bring your own card, paper, pencils, crayons, sketchbooks and paintbrushes.

A warm jumper is recommended in all seasons – at the highest point in the Dordogne (410 m), even hot days can have cool evenings.

Please ensure you bring the dietary essentials you need. We provide vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and soya alternatives.

The nearest pharmacie is 7 km away (and costly) and French supermarkets cannot sell even aspirin so please bring supplies of any personal medication you know you’ll need (travel sickness, hayfever). We recommend you bring an effective anti-tick preparation as there have been reports of ticks in the region. Rose Geranium (pelargonium graveolens) essential oil, or anything with 30% deet is effective. Recently there has been the odd mosquito at night so a repellent is recommended.

Please bring your own European plug adapter.