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Awake Space: Chateau De Montcuquet
| Chateau de Montcuquet | Meditation Retreat France | Yoga Training France | Yoga Retreat France | Awake Space | Mindfulness Retreat |

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"I can't wait to move back to the countryside". For most of her life, she has lived in the countryside or isolated places.

"When I was first married, we lived and worked in far-flung places like a tiny island in the Caribbean called Virgin Gorda, a remote village in Northern Ireland and recently, we operated our retreat center/home outside a small village in France with a population of 300 people. The villages were so tiny that all the children from three villages were grouped together to go to the same school."

Isolated, far-off places, away from the crowds are a rare commodity these days. These places help us go inside ourselves and deeper into meditation. "Yoga for me is first and foremost a spiritual practice. In my own personal practice, meditation is before any asana." Says Sunshine Ross.

Sunshine Ross is the founder of Awake Space, a yoga teacher training school (Formation de Professeurs de Yoga) that has its beginnings in Scotland and has now adopted France as its home. This small family-run school has over 300 graduates from all over Europe. In 2024, the school will be moving to a tiny village in the South of France.

The Rosses have recently acquired Chateau de Montcuquet, a medieval chateau dating back to the 1400s. "It's huge for us, not just as a school but as a family, but I think everybody is excited about the change and our years ahead in the castle. I think the yoga students will love the castle, the nature, the countryside, the medieval village, and the people."

The castle sits on a hill just outside the village of Lautrec, surrounded by plantations of pink garlic, a gastronomic and agricultural phenomenon in France. The village itself has the prestigious designation "Plus Beaux Villages de France", one of the most beautiful villages in France. The name might be familiar to you because it is the old seat of the family of the famous painter Toulouse Lautrec!

Every summer, the village of Lautrec celebrates the la fête de l'Ail Rose (pink garlic festival), La fête du Pain (a bread festival) and the Grande fête des vieux outils (a medieval tools festival).

You walk along the village's cobbled streets and stone walls, to the heart of the village to a lonely windmill sitting on a tiny hill. There, you have a bird's eye view of the village. There is an orientation map hand-painted on a tile on which you can find "Chateau de Montcuquet". The windmill dates back to the 1600s and still produces flour! Visit the magnificent 14th-century church classed as a Historical Monument. Walking around the village is like being back in the medieval ages, you can imagine yourself as a maiden, princess, knight, or fairy!