Embrace your STRENGTH and CREATE Retreat, 19-24 April 2027

Embrace your STRENGTH and CREATE Retreat in Provence

Move, breath, explore, and create in the rhythm of nature.

Reconnect with your body, move with intention, and enjoy five restorative nights of Pilates, nature, and rest in a 150-year-old monastery surrounded by mountains and lavender fields. This retreat is for curious movers ready to explore their practice more deeply, without the pressure of performance.

Meet Your Hosts

Mariana da Silva Parreira: Pilates Teacher/GYROKINESIS® Trainer

Caroline Newson: Pilates Teacher/PT

Erin Clarke: Massage Therapist

Lucie Jacquet: Chef

This is our fourth year returning to Monastère de Ségriès, a peaceful 150-year-old monastery set in the heart of the Verdon Natural Park in Haute-Provence. Surrounded by ancient trees, gardens, and mountains, it’s the perfect place to slow down, move with intention, and reconnect with yourself.

Just 1 hour 45 minutes from Marseille Airport and around 2 hours 40 minutes from Nice, the monastery is easy to reach, yet feels a world away.

We encourage people to fly to Marseille, where we organize the taxi pick up point. But you can fly to any other Airport if you are planning to rent a car.

Over six days, you’ll deepen your Pilates practice, be introduced to the GYROKINESIS ® practice, explore creative expression, and enjoy nourishing food, nature, and community in this unique, inspiring setting.

The Space

Our home for the week, Monastère de Ségriès, is lovingly run by a local family and offers a blend of history, charm, and calm. The property includes:

• Expansive gardens with ancient trees

• A swimming pool, sauna, and gym

• A beautiful chapel and peaceful communal areas

Accommodation is boutique-style, with five shared rooms and limited single rooms, each with a private bathroom. The monastery also welcomes other small retreat groups, adding to the sense of shared calm and community.

Nourishing Food

All meals are vegetarian, prepared by our talented chef Lucie, who creates seasonal Provençal dishes using local produce and vegetables from the monastery’s own garden.

We’ll share breakfast, lunch, and dinner together each day.

Please let us know if you have any allergies or special dietary requirements when booking.

Movement & Creativity

Our Pilates sessions will take place in one of the monastery’s spacious living rooms, the chapel, or outdoors in the gardens (weather permitting).

Mariana and Caroline will guide you through a thoughtfully designed program to:

• Revisit familiar exercises

• Explore new movements

• Build strength, ease, and freedom in your body

Mariana and Caroline will teach through the Pilates repertoire and its fundamental principles, helping you develop body awareness and proprioception. Their approach focuses on building confidence, strength, and agility, while encouraging you to move with more spontaneity and grace.

The classes are inclusive and open to all levels. Whether you’ve been practicing Pilates or GYROKINESIS for years or are joining for the first time, you’ll explore and understand each movement at your own pace, developing a sense of control and freedom in both body and mind. The practice is about creating space - in the body, the joints, and the mind - to move with more ease and presence.

We’ll also have a creative workshop guided by a professional artist. This workshop is a dialogue with movements, colours, textures, natural dying. An invitation to reconnect with your imagination and self-expression and play.

The chapel will remain open during the day for quiet reflection or your own personal practice.

Exploration & Local Adventures

Bicycles are available for you to explore the nearby countryside at your own pace.

Massage Therapy & Private Sessions

Our massage therapist Erin will be offering 75-minute treatments for €110. Her sessions are in high demand, so we recommend reserving your spot when you book your retreat.

Private Pilates sessions with Mariana or Caroline are also available:

• 30 min - £35

• 60 min - £60

Retreat Pricing

• £1,480 pp - Shared room (2–3 people)

• £1,670 pp - Single room. SINGLE ROOMS ARE LIMITED

****£100 pounds discount if you book before 5th Nov 2026.****

What’s Included

• 5 nights’ accommodation

• 5 breakfasts, 4 lunches, 5 dinners

• 8 Pilates classes (2 per day) and 2 GYROKINESIS classes

• 1 creative workshop

• Optional group trip to nearby villages/lake

• Organisation of your taxi to and from the airport to the Monastery (payment by the guest)

Not Included

• Flights

• Transfers from/to Marseille airport (approx. €110 return pp for group taxi)

Booking Details

A £300 non-refundable deposit is required to secure your place, plus 3 or less installments. The balance is due by MARCH 28, 2027.

Cancellations (excluding the deposit) can be refunded if another participant takes your place.

Cancellations within a week before the retreat are not refundable.

Check-in: Monday 19 April at 4 pm

Check-out: Saturday 24 April at 11 am (you’re welcome to stay at the monastery until the afternoon)

As a condition of booking, all participants must have TRAVEL INSURANCE that covers cancellations and other unforeseen events.

Monastère de Ségriès website

To reserve your place, email Mariana at marianadsp@yahoo.com.ar