Privacyand cookies.

Who is responsible for your data

Madame Retreats, run by Joanne Braham in the Gers, south west France, decides what is collected on this site and why. In data protection language that makes her the data controller.

The business name, SIRET and contact address are on the legal notice page. Any request about your data can go to the address given there.

What we collect

Only what you type into a form on this site, or give to Jo directly. There is nothing else. We do not buy lists, we do not track you around the internet and we do not collect anything in the background while you read.

The brochure form

Your name, your email address, which retreat you are interested in and the optional message you write.

The newsletter box

Your email address and the language of the page you signed up on.

A phone number, if you give one

There is no phone field on this website. If you write your number in the message box, give it to Jo in a message or on a call, or put it on a booking form, it is kept with your enquiry so she can reach you.

Where you came from

If you arrived from a link with tracking parameters on it, such as a Facebook post, that source is recorded with your enquiry so Jo knows where you found her.

Server records

Our host keeps ordinary technical logs, such as the address your request came from, for security and to keep the site running. They are not used to build a picture of you.

Why we collect it and the lawful basis

The brochure form exists so Jo can send you the brochure and answer your questions. That is a step you asked us to take, at your request, before entering into a contract.

The newsletter is consent. You gave it by typing your address in and pressing the button. You can take it back at any time using the unsubscribe link at the bottom of every letter.

If you book, your details are used to run your stay, which is the contract itself. Some records are then kept because French accounting and tax law says they must be.

Marketing by text message is separate consent and is covered in its own section below.

Text messages and WhatsApp

Jo may send you a text message or a WhatsApp message if you have given her your number. Most of these are about a booking you have made or an enquiry you have sent: confirming a detail, answering a question, or telling you what time the transfer leaves.

If you have separately agreed to hear about future retreats by message, she may also send you those. That agreement is asked for on its own, it is never bundled into anything else, it is never a condition of booking. You can withdraw it at any time.

We will never sell your mobile number. We will never share it with third parties or affiliates for their own marketing or promotional purposes. It is used by Madame Retreats to reach you and by the messaging provider that carries the message on our behalf. Nobody else uses it.

Messages are occasional rather than regular. There is no set number in a month. You will not be messaged repeatedly to fill a retreat.

Message and data rates may apply, depending on your own mobile plan and where you are in the world when you receive one.

To stop marketing messages, reply STOP to any of them, or write to the contact address on the legal notice page and say so. Replying STOP ends the marketing messages; Jo may still contact you about a booking you have already made, because that is part of running your stay. For help, reply HELP or use the same contact address.

Who else sees it

Your details are sent from our own server to GoHighLevel, the customer system Madame Retreats uses to hold contacts and send the brochure. GoHighLevel processes the data on our behalf, under our instructions and does not use it for anything of its own.

GoHighLevel is operated by HighLevel Inc., a company based in the United States, so your details are stored outside the European Union. Transfers of that kind are covered by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses, which is the legal mechanism that allows an EU business to use a service based outside it.

The website itself is served by our hosting provider, named on the legal notice page. If Jo sends you a text message, the messaging provider that carries it also handles your number for that purpose.

When you start filling in the brochure form or the newsletter box, a security check from Cloudflare Turnstile loads to make sure a person, not a bot, is sending it. It looks at technical details of your browser for that purpose only, sets no advertising or tracking cookie and does not follow you to other sites. Cloudflare, Inc. is based in the United States and the same standard contractual clauses apply. Nothing from Cloudflare loads while you are only reading the site.

Nobody else receives your details. They are not sold, rented or shared.

How long it is kept

Enquiries and newsletter subscriptions are kept for three years from the last time you were in touch with us, which is the period the CNIL treats as reasonable for someone who has asked about a business but has not bought from it. After that they are deleted.

If you unsubscribe from the newsletter, your address is removed from the mailing list at once. A minimal record that you asked not to be contacted is kept, because that is the only way to be sure you are not added again by mistake.

If you book a retreat, the records of that booking are kept for ten years after it, because French commercial and accounting law requires it.

Your rights

You can ask to see what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, ask us to stop using it for a while and object to us using it for marketing. You can also ask for a copy in a portable format. You can set out what you want done with your data after your death.

Write to the contact address on the legal notice page and we will answer within one month. There is no charge for asking.

If you are not satisfied with the answer, you can complain to the CNIL, the French data protection authority, at cnil.fr, or to the authority in the country where you live.

Cookies

This site sets no advertising cookies and no analytics cookies. Nothing is set for tracking when you arrive. Nothing loads from an advertising network while you read.

The only cookie this site can set is the one that remembers your own cookie choice, so you are not asked again on every page. It is a first party cookie, it is kept for no more than six months. It holds nothing but that choice.

You can change your choice at any time with the Cookies link in the footer of every page.

If that changes

If advertising tools are added later, for instance to run Facebook advertising, they will only load after you have agreed to them. Refusing will always be as easy as accepting. This page will be updated before that happens rather than afterwards.