Mother Yoga Retreat Chateau de Borie
Agen, France
Saturday April 18th – Saturday April 25rd, 2026
Limited to 12 participants
Imagine waking in a sunlit room of a nineteenth-century château, surrounded by vineyards and quiet countryside. Each morning begins with yoga and meditation guided by Mother Yoga founder Nancy Nomellini, grounding the body and freeing the spirit. Nourishing meals, crafted by a local chef with ingredients from nearby farms, sustain you as the rhythm of the week unfolds. Between practices, there is space to rest, wander the château’s salons and terraces, or join gentle excursions to nearby markets and villages where the beauty of southwest France is felt in daily life.
As evening falls, we gather in community — sharing apéritifs on the terrace, dinners in the Grand Salon, and conversations under a sky bright with stars. Timed with Earth Day, this retreat is both a gift to yourself and an honoring of the natural world: a celebration of living simply, in harmony with one another and the land.
Your teacher:
Nancy Nomellini
Nancy Nomellini is a revered teacher of Eastern mysticism and yogic philosophy, whose life’s work has been devoted to guiding others toward inner freedom and spiritual clarity. As founder and creative director of Mother Yoga in Seattle’s Historic Chinatown-International District, she
has shaped one of the West Coast’s most respected sanctuaries for practice, devotion, and community renewal.
For more than two decades, Nancy has touched the lives of thousands, weaving together physical discipline and mystical insight into an integrated path of self-realization. Her teaching bridges the timeless wisdom of the Vedas with the living pulse of sacred sound, devotional movement, and stillness offering modern seekers a way to embody ancient truths in everyday life.
Her leadership has graced some of the region’s most cherished public gatherings:
● Friend of the Waterfront – Leading thousands in a historic yoga activation of Seattle’s revitalized Pier 62.
● Yerbana at Gasworks Park – Guiding community-wide open-air practice in an iconic setting.
● Litt Yoga Festival – Serving as keynote teacher for central Washington’s largest yoga gathering.
Nancy’s retreats are known for their depth and intimacy, often set in places that carry their own spiritual resonance:
● Chiang Mai, Thailand – Teaching in harmony with elephant sanctuaries dedicated to ending animal captivity.
● India – Leading pilgrimages through Varanasi, Rishikesh, Haridwar, and Vrindavan while supporting humanitarian projects such as the Baba Hari Das Orphanage.
● Ubud, Bali and Teotónio, Portugal – Crafting journeys that unite mantra, tantra, meditation, and the sacred feminine.
Having studied extensively with esteemed gurus in India and the U.S., Nancy’s presence carries both the authority of deep knowledge and the warmth of lived compassion. She continues to mentor the next generation of teachers through advanced 200- and 300-hour trainings, international workshops, and daily classes at her Seattle studio.
Her work calls each student to live with courage, consciousness, and compassion on and far beyond the mat.
Your host:
Abigail Carter
The owner of Chateau de Borie, Abigail Carter is a published author, artist and website designer. Her memoir, The Alchemy of Loss: A Young Widow’s Transformation was published in 2008, a cathartic expression after the death of her husband, Arron in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Her second book, Remember the Moon, a novel, was published in 2014 and is also based on themes of grief and loss.
After a difficult breakup in 2017, Abby returned to painting after a thirty-year hiatus, re-discovering another outlet for her renewed grief and self-discovery.
During the pandemic, Abby became obsessed with the idea of owning a chateau in France that could be used as a retreat center and managed to see the dream come to fruition in 2022 with the purchase of Chateau de Borie. She now lives full-time at the Chateau with her Boston Terrier minion, Lulu.
About the Retreat
Join Mother Yoga founder Nancy Nomellini for a weeklong retreat at Chateau de Borie, a lovingly preserved nineteenth-century château set among the rolling vineyards and quiet countryside of southwest France. Timed with Earth Day, this gathering is an offering to the rhythms of the natural world, an honoring of land that has remained largely unchanged for centuries, and a celebration of living simply, in harmony with one another and with the earth.
Each day will open with yoga and meditation to ground the body and free the spirit. Meals will be prepared by a local chef using ingredients grown by local farmers, crafted with care, and with as few preservatives as possible, so that nourishment is as close to the earth as it can be. Our time together will weave rest and renewal with the beauty of the place, spacious rooms within the château, excursions to local brocantes and antique markets, and visits to the town of Agen, where museums, cathedrals, and timeless streets invite us deeper into French culture. Evenings will be spent gathered in the Grand Salon or, when the weather allows, enjoying apéritifs on the terrace before dinner. At night, far from city lights, the stars themselves will become our companions.
This retreat is not only a gift to ourselves but also a way of supporting traditions and communities that keep heritage alive. By choosing a woman-owned property like Chateau de Borie, we honor the caretakers of this land and help sustain ways of living that are both rooted and regenerative.
Local Market and Cooking Demo
Join us on an unforgettable culinary adventure with an esteemed chef, where we'll explore the vibrant Agen farmer’s market, handpicking fresh produce. Later, back at Chateau de Borie, we will be guided through an immersive cooking workshop, crafting our evening feast.
The Retreat Experience
Each retreat participant will be housed in a private room equipped with a desk. During your stay, you will enjoy the sweeping views of the French countryside, free time, intimate workshop mornings, and organized excursions to explore nearby sites and partake in the local wine and cuisine.
Inspiration, Instruction
Each day, we will have a lesson and discussion, followed by an hour of writing to a prompt, and conclude with a half-hour of debriefing and discussion on the generated writing. You will also have some free time on most days to do self-directed writing in many of the nooks, the garden and private spaces on the property.
Fresh, locally-sourced French home cooking
Continental breakfast and family-style dinner will be served daily. Lunches will either be provided at the chateau or will be on your own during excursions. All meals will be prepared by a local French chef using fresh local ingredients. Coffee, tea, and snacks will be available throughout the day. We will do our best to accommodate dietary restrictions.
Pricing
Premium Room:
Cygne, Etoile, Gingko, Rossignol, Jasmin
Solo: €4,600
Shared: €4,000 per person
Standard Room:
Magnolia, Colibri, Chouette, Renard,
Lapin, Paon
Solo: €4,000
Shared: €3,600 per person
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
All rooms have a private bathroom down the hall with the exception of:
Rossignol: Partial ensuite (shower down the hall)
Jasmin: Full ensuite
Twin/2-bed options are ideal for friends:
Lapin (two doubles),
Paon (double + single),
Cygne (double + single).
Rooms with one bed are perfect for solo guests
or couples.
Premium Rooms
Standard Rooms
Chateau de Borie
Chateau de Borie is located in Pont-du-Casse, just a five minute drive from Agen, located between Toulouse and Bordeaux in an area renown for it’s fresh fruits and vegetables, particularly its dried prunes. The area is a little off the beaten path for many tourists, but boasts beautiful countryside, proximity to two splendid wine regions, historic “Bastide” villages and incredibly fresh local food.
Agen and environs
The town of Agen is equidistant between Toulouse and Bordeaux and boasts a TGV train station, making it a 3-hour journey from Paris or a 1-hour journey from either Toulouse or Bordeaux. The town is fairly substantial with a population of 35,000 and has a wide array of shops, restaurants, bars, weekly markets and annual festivals. There is also a wonderful Art Museum and an Opera House, as well as several cathedrals, one of which has an intricately painted interior.
The surrounding countryside is known for its orchards and fruit growing, particularly its prunes, which you can find in all forms - stuffed, soaked in alcohol, or made into aperitifs.
The surrounding countryside is beautiful and dotted with many “Bastide” towns – fortified, medieval towns often built atop hillsides with a templated grid pattern (developed by the brother of one of the kings of France) with a main town square, surrounded by a covered gallery housing shops and restaurants.
Sommelier Visit
Learn about and taste local wines from passionate sommelier, Stephan who will come to Chateau de Borie bearing some wonderful wines of all types from a variety of areas. Cahors.
An afternoon in Agen
Agen is an easily accessible town that has an excellent art museum, opera house, two cathedrals, and lots of shopping along a pedestrian-only boulevard. You will have the option of spending some time at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Agen or spend the afternoon at your leisure before meeting the group at the end of the day for an aperitif back at the Chateau.
Dinner in a local restaurant
There will be a dinner at a nearby restaurant specializing in French cuisine with particular emphasis on farm-to-table and local specialties.
The Details
The contribution for this retreat is $3,700 for a standard room or $4,000 for a deluxe room. A non-refundable deposit of $1,008, a sacred yogic number, reserves your place, with the remainder due by February 1, 2026.
NOTE:
The Chateau de Borie is multi-leveled, with no bedrooms on the ground floor. Good physical mobility is required for retreat, as the Chateau has one or two sets of stairwells depending on the room you choose, and we will be on foot on the cobbled streets around France. The physical ability to walk unassisted is necessary for this retreat.
Because of the proximity of the cliffs and the seven springs on the property, mosquitos are an issue between July and October. Bug spray is highly recommended.
Lulu, Abby’s Boston Terrier will be in attendance. She is very companionable, but if you have any issues with small dogs, you might want to consider this before booking.
Participants might want to consider arriving in France a day or two before the retreat to get acclimated. Toulouse is an enjoyable place to explore. Citiz Hotel in Toulouse is well situated a block from the train station and a block from the center of town and is reasonably priced.
Travel
Arrivals: Saturday, April 18th, before 4 pm
Retreat/workshops: Sunday, April 18th - Friday, April 24th, 2026
Departures: Sunday, April 25th, before 12 pm.
Class participants are responsible for their own flights and travel to Agen. The closest international airports are Toulouse and Bordeaux, France. It is an hour's train ride to Agen from both cities. You can also fly to Paris and take a 3-hour TGV train from Montparnasse station in Paris to Agen (via Bordeaux).
It is recommended that you purchase your train tickets ahead of time, as trains do fill up. We recommend using www.thetrainline.com or https://www.sncf-connect.com/ to book your connections.
You are welcome to rent a car at the airport, though we will be providing transportation for the various excursions, so unless you want to get out on your own, it is unnecessary.
We offer pick-ups and drop-offs between the Agen train station and Chateau de Borie.
NOTE: To arrive at the villa on Saturday, April 18th, requires a flight departure from North America on Friday, April 17th.