THE SUN CENTRE
France

The Sun Centre Newsletter - Nov 2005

NEWS

Dear friend,

The Sun Centre is on the move! The sun is sinking on our current location in peaceful, picture-perfect Prades, and rising warmly over a fabulous new property we have just bought a little further south with room for exciting new developments to take place. We’re staying in the Cévennes mountains, which we love so much, but our new venue is a bit closer to both Nimes and Montpellier airports, and in a very pretty location just outside the market village of St André de Valborgne in the Gard department.

Basically, we want to expand slightly to be able to take some larger groups as well as the smaller, intimate ones that we enjoy at the moment. We have recently begun an exciting collaboration with a school of Ayurveda in France who are keen to run their trainings and workshops at The Sun Centre, with Alex as their teacher. Luckily, we have found the perfect location.

Gardoussel - ‘guardian of the birds’ - is a former homing pigeon ‘post office’, a very attractive, large stone property consisting of several ‘gîtes’ and separate bedrooms, sitting in 18 hectares of private land. It gives us much more space and privacy than we have at the moment. Unlike Prades, it lies on a wide valley floor so has lots of flat space round about but still with fabulous mountain views. A river runs through the property with a large bathing spot and waterfall just 5 minutes’ walk away.

The village of St André de Valborgne is 1km away. It’s small and very pretty with several shops, restaurants and cafés, where visitors in search of some ‘authentic’ French village culture can sit and watch the world go by. Transport links are much handier too: there are daily buses into the village itself meaning our guests can get to us by public transport, instead of having to take a taxi for part of the way as they do at present.

We are just starting work to renovate a barn and loft into workshop spaces meaning we should be ready to move to Gardoussel by spring 2006. It’s all been a bit of a rollercoaster ride (French bureaucracy is infamously tedious and twice we thought we might lose out on the property) but having now finally signed on the dotted line we are both relieved and excited about our future plans.

To coincide with our new move, we are making some small changes to The Sun Centre’s regular calendar. We will still offer retreats and themed events – yoga, Ayurveda, walking, self-development, writing, etc – during the summer months, run by ourselves as well as our excellent posse of external tutors. We may also run some retreats in spring and autumn to coincide with the school holidays. And during these times we will of course remain open for those wanting to come on an Open Retreat basis and do their own thing. But while up until now we have been open year-round, as from Jan 2006 we will no longer offer off-season Open Retreats. This is to allow us instead to host workshops for the European Institute of Vedic Studies (a school based here in France which trains people wishing to learn about Ayurveda for personal interest or to become practitioners) which all happen off-season, as well as some French events. In any case, we have always found that relatively few people want to visit outside of the typical summer / Easter / autumn holiday periods.

Having enjoyed a wonderful summer, in the presence of such fabulous teachers as Brownen Coghill, Simon Rowe and Nochenka Welsh, we are now working on our 2006 calendar, which should be ready in Jan/Feb 2006. If you’re not already on our mailing list for these details and would like to be, please let us know.

Other news is that Alex’s mother Frances, until now a summer presence only to help during our busiest months, is now a permanent fixture. Yoga teacher, ayurvedic massage therapist and all-round creative bombshell and unstoppable worker, Frances has settled into her very own tailor-made yurt. Her new, circular home is a piece of art in itself, having had its interiors handcrafted by our good builder/carpenter friend George, who is sticking with us for the time being to help carry out renovations on our new place. For all those interested in eco-sustainable housing, Frances’ yurt is well worth a peek. And having hankered after her own yurt for so long and finally managed to make the move to join us in here, Frances is only too keen to give anyone remotely interested a guided tour!

Meanwhile, Frances completed a specialist massage training this summer to qualify as an Ayurvedic massage therapist, in addition to the Swedish-based massage she has offered up till now. Many of our visitors enquire about Ayurvedic massage, given that Alex teaches the subject and provides consultations and our cuisine is inspired by Ayurvedic principles. Until recently we have had to rely on a therapist who lives over an hour away to fulfil demand. Now Frances is our on-site Ayurvedic body therapist – and her delicious, individualised massages using oils and techniques specifically to balance the individual’s constitution, are a sensual delight.

Finally, as we are due to move from our current location, we are selling our current house, should anyone be interested in this little spot of heaven. The property has 6 bedrooms, a studio apartment and 2.5 acres of land at the edge of a tiny hamlet, 4km from the village of St Martin de Boubaux. Nature lovers only need apply: the property is totally calm, with uninterrupted views across the valley and is in an isolated, unspoilt situation. For more information, contact me directly (sharon@thesuncentre.com).

As colour seeps into the hillsides with the onset of autumn, golds and oranges replacing the greens of summer, the cool air refreshes the spirit as our family turns inward to stock up, stoke the inner creative fire and prepare for the cold days ahead. Here, it is chestnut season and the split fruits are falling all around (painful as hell if you get one on your head!). In days gone by, children would be sent off to school in the mornings with a handful of roasted chestnuts stuffed into each pocket – to protect against the cold and to munch on the long walk down the mountainside. Today, the kids jump out of the car for the school run when it stops in Prades to pick up our two daughters, and they all grab a handful of raw chestnuts to eat on the way down the hill, the cram of each others’ huddled bodies in the back seat providing all the warmth they need.

Have a long, lazy, wonderful winter.We hope very much to see you next year at Gardoussel.

Namaste
- Sharon & Alex

Contact: tel: +33 (0) 4 66 60 16 78

Web: info@thesuncentre.net

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