Booking termsand cancellation.

The short version

If you read nothing else on this page, read this. Everything below simply says the same things at greater length.

To hold a place

A €500 booking fee and a completed booking form. The place is not held until both have arrived. Jo confirms every booking in writing.

The booking fee

Non refundable. It comes off the total, it is not an extra.

The balance

Due ten weeks before the retreat starts.

If you cancel

More than ten weeks before the retreat: everything you have paid beyond the €500 booking fee is refunded. Within ten weeks: no refund and the full price remains payable.

Travel insurance

Strongly recommended and your own responsibility. It is not included in the price.

Booking and paying

A booking is made by returning the completed booking form and paying the €500 booking fee. Until both have arrived the place is still open to somebody else, however far the conversation has gone.

Jo confirms every booking in writing. If you have not had that confirmation, you are not booked. It is always worth asking rather than assuming.

The balance is due ten weeks before the retreat begins. If you book inside ten weeks of the start, the whole amount is due at the time of booking.

Prices are per person for the seven nights. Sole occupancy and twin occupancy are priced differently. The current figures for each retreat are on the rooms and prices page.

The twin price is for two women travelling together. Jo does not put two strangers in a room, so if you are coming on your own the sole occupancy room is yours.

The Madame Suite and Queen Suite upgrades are added on top of the room price, not instead of it. There are three upgrade rooms in the château and once they are taken there are no more.

What is in the price and what is not

Included: seven nights in the château, the meals set out in the programme, the Art of Doing Nothing sessions, the organised walks including the walk on the Camino de Santiago, use of the spa and the pools and the group activities and experiences in that retreat's programme. The spa has a hammam, an infrared sauna, a traditional stone sauna and a jacuzzi.

Not included: flights, travel insurance, spa treatments such as massages and facials, airport transfers (group or private), alcohol (you are welcome to bring or buy your own) and anything you buy outside the retreat programme.

If you have to cancel

Cancellations must be made in writing, by email. Tell Jo as soon as you know.

The €500 booking fee is not refundable in any circumstances.

If you cancel more than ten weeks before the retreat starts, anything you have paid beyond the booking fee is refunded.

If you cancel within ten weeks of the start, there is no refund and the full retreat price remains payable.

There are no refunds, part refunds or credits for late arrival or early departure, missed meals, activities or excursions, activities you choose not to join, a change in personal circumstances, illness or injury, travel delays or cancellations, or not having the right travel documents.

If the balance has not been paid by the ten week deadline, Jo may treat the booking as cancelled and release the room. The booking fee is not refunded.

This is the reason travel insurance matters. A policy taken out when you book is what covers you if illness, a family emergency or a cancelled flight stops you coming. Jo cannot make anyone take insurance out and cannot stand in for it if you have not.

If you cannot come, you may ask to pass your place to someone else. This needs Jo's written approval. The woman taking your place completes her own booking form, agrees to these terms and gives her dietary, health and emergency details. Jo may refuse where a transfer is not reasonably possible and any cost of the transfer is yours.

Bookings do not transfer automatically to another retreat or date. Moving to a later retreat is sometimes possible, well in advance, at Jo's discretion. It is a kindness rather than a right, so please do not book on the assumption that it will be offered.

If we have to cancel

A retreat has never been cancelled, but it has to be said. If Madame Retreats cancels a retreat, you will be offered either a place on another available retreat or a refund of the payments you have made to Madame Retreats.

Jo will tell you as soon as she knows herself.

Madame Retreats is not responsible for the cost of your flights or any other travel you booked separately. That is what insurance is for.

Health, food and getting around

Tell us about dietary requirements on the booking form. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, dairy free and allergies are all normal here. If your list is long or very specific, Jo would rather talk to you herself before you come than guess.

Tell us about anything that affects how you get around and about a health condition that might matter during the week. The château has ramps, a lift and two adapted bedrooms. Every walk is optional. Jo will be honest with you about what would and would not work rather than telling you it will all be fine.

The walk on the Camino de Santiago is thirteen kilometres and takes about three hours. It is not climbing: there is one slight hill at the start and after that it is about distance. Once the walk starts there is no turning back halfway, so decide beforehand whether you can do the whole distance. If you have never walked for more than an hour, Jo would not recommend it. Nothing else in the week asks this of you. Nothing at all is compulsory.

Photographs

Photographs and video are sometimes taken during a retreat and are sometimes used afterwards on the website or on social media.

If you would rather not appear in them, say so at any point, before or during the week. You will not be in them. Nobody will make it awkward.

The château and each other

The château is somebody's building and it is shared for the week with fourteen other women. We ask for the ordinary things: reasonable hours and care with the château and its contents. We also ask for courtesy to the other guests and to the people working there.

Jo reserves the right to ask a guest to leave if behaviour makes the week difficult for everybody else. It has never happened and there would be no refund if it did.

Law

These terms are governed by French law. If something goes wrong, write to Jo first. Most things are quicker to sort out directly.

Questions before you book

Ask. The questions page answers most of them and Jo answers the rest herself, usually quickly. Nobody has ever been talked into a retreat and it is a bad way to end up on one.