Yoga Stillness at Mill Retreat Centre, Aumale, Normandy France 5th -8th October 2023
Thursday, 26th October 2023
Yoga Stillness at Mill Retreat Centre, Aumale, Normandy France 5th -8th October 2023
What a wonderful experience!
I feel healthier, taller, more content and younger!
Yoga with Sayoko and yoga & Qigong Fusion with Mairéad Amos. Two brilliant, sensitive, encouraging skilled and caring guides, leaders, teachers/ Masters….
What was the attraction?
Friends who had been to this yoga retreat centre spoke very highly of the whole experience.
As I age I am determined to take care of my health and mobility.
For many years yoga has always helped.
I wanted to go to France! The venue looked so good on the website.
Aged 79 I was not sure that I would be fit and able to engage fully in this yoga retreat but I am delighted that I benefited so much. As I take part in yoga classes every Thursday guided by Anne Taylor in the Camberley U3A group and once a month in Kilnhanger lead by Mairéad Amos I remembered the Yoga mantra: Listen to your body.
My journey began at 8:30 am Thursday 5th October. Fr John O’Sullivan, Parish priest of Our Lady Queen of Heaven Church, kindly permitted me to leave my car near the Parish House. I had purchased my rail ticket two days previously. It is a short walk to Frimley Station. Because the train stops for fifteen minutes at the next station, Aldershot, I had decided to board an early train. Thank goodness I had. When I arrived at the station passengers were informed that there was a points failure on the line. The anxious station master was struggling to cope and deliver information to all the concerned passengers. It was finally declared that the train could not proceed. When I made known that it was essential for me to get to Guildford in order to join the yoga group travelling to France, the station master arranged for a taxi to drive me to Guildford. My anxiety grew waiting for the taxi. However, once taxi driver, Mohamed, arrived my fears diminished. We were over the Hoggs Back within the half an hour to arrive safely outside Guildford railway station.
I was joined by Charlotte, Phil, Anne, Gina and Mairéad. Our minibus driver, Pawel, set off to collect Sayoko and the rest of our group in Horsham. From there we were driven to the entrance of the Euro tunnel at Folkestone. We missed the first train crossing because very thorough staff took some time in examining our sixteen passports. However, that provided us with a break and a chance to meet other travellers some of whom were orthodox Jews travelling to a meeting in Belgium. We whiled the time away getting to know each other and chatting to the Jewish women and children.
It must have been almost 6 o’clock where we reached Aumali. On Wikipedia I discovered the following:
The town’s Latin name was Alba Marla. It was raised by William the Bastard into a county, for his half-sister, Adelaide of Normandy. It was then held by various Norman and English nobles until its confiscation in 1196 by Philip II of France. Thereafter it was held by the houses of Dammartin, Castile, Harcourt, and Lorraine. In 1547, it was raised to the status of a duchy for Francis of Lorraine. It passed to the house of Savoy, from whom Louis XIV purchased the title in 1675 in order to bestow it upon one of his bastards as an appanage. In 1769, it passed to the House of Orléans.[3] The English Earls of Albemarle, meanwhile, also derive their name from the area.[
It was almost six o’clock(French time) when we reached beautiful Mill Hill Retreat Centre
It really was a lovely surprise to turn into this centre set in the undulating pastoral surroundings in the little hamlet of Aumale. A tree lined drive led up to a large impressive red brick building. 
Our driver,Pawel, who became our host together with two lovely young lady chefs were on the steps leading up to the house to welcome us and show us to our rooms. Immediately, Mairéad, our yoga leader, took my case and carried it up to the best room in the house. Old age brings many advantages! My amply big bed and bath room were overlooking the mill stream. A very comfortable and pleasing wooden frames rooms with a powerful shower. When I opened one of the windows I was entranced by the gurgling stream, expansive gardens leading down to an oval shaped lake. Such beauty and comfort!
Within half an hour of arrival we were treated to a delicious gourmet
vegetarian meal. The two young English chefs proving that they know how to prepare really tasty and delicious vegetarian dishes. Chatting and introducing ourselves to each other during our meal revealed that I was privileged to be counted among friendly, caring lovers of yoga who respected and welcomed each other.
The schedule for our yoga retreat began after our dinner,
The mantra of the retreat was: Practising with attention and intention
Introductions and short restorative yoga to help us prepare for deep sleep
Friday 6th & Saturday 7th October timetables were:
7:30 am Gentle breathing practice and quiet sitting with Mairéad/Sayoko
8 :00 am Breakfast….a good selection of food and drinks to choose from.
10:30 -11:30 Yoga & Qigong Fusion with Mairéad/Sayoko
11:35 Yoga with Sayoko & Yoga & Qigong Fusion with Mairéad
1pm Lunch
Afternoon Free to explore the grounds, venture into Aumale or just relax
4pm Afternoon tea and homemade cake
5:15 -6:30 Yoga Mairéad/Sayoko
7pm Dinner
8:30 Outdoor fire……Sharing/ singing/ tales..around a log fire in the grounds
Sunday 8th October
8:00am Breakfast
9:30-10:30 Yoga MairéadSayoko
10:30 Packing etc
11- 12:30 Light lunch (Takeaway)
12:30 Farewells and Depart in minibus.
What was it like to have so many opportunities to take part in these sessions.
At first I feared that it might be too much for my aging body. However, when each session finished I felt renewed. I admit that I was not always…in fact, very often, my body could not perform some exercise but then it was a case of
remembering that the mantra: attention and intention was important. Besides alternatives were often provided. Both Mairéad and Sayoko were always attentive. Very often. too, supportive equipment was provided so that we exercised and were enabled to sustain various positions without any strain.
I can truly say that Mairéad and Sayoko, members of the group formed friendships and each member of the staff were extremely caring and wonderfully encouraging and understanding. Most evenings when the programme ended some of us gathered around the log fire in the front hall to discuss and share many aspects of our lives. Yoga indeed seems to entice lovely folk together.
I thoroughly agree with the comment that Sarah, a past yoga guest left on the Centre website:
“The best retreat Centre in the world.”
“The Retreat was highly successful all round. We really do feel the Mill Centre is second-to-none for providing a conducive space to do the transformational inner work we all came to their to do. I can honestly say the space is perfect for retreats. It was always warm and everyone was very comfortable, the large attic room served as our yoga room and it holds a beautiful energy. The lounge fire served as a focal point for all the retreatants to gather round in between sessions, and . the caretaker was great, never intruding but always there if needed. The coach journey from and returning to Southampton all went really smoothly also thanks to Pawel.
This was our second retreat at the Mill Centre and we will be back again,….. We don’t feel any need to look any further for the perfect space, we’ve found it!
So a huge thank you for organising everything for us.
With much gratitude and well wishes”.
Sarah.
A little about our leaders taken from the information that they provided and I have copied:
Mairéad Amos:
Yoga is, for me, a way of life . And I feel my classes reflect this – I take my exploration and embodiment of these subtle teachings and weave them into my classes so that others can begin to understand what it means to cultivate awareness in how they breathe and move . I encourage my students to begin to explore a sense of trust and a felt-sense of their own experience which allows for real and lasting transformation and growth. Feeling more at home in ourselves allows us to feel more at home in our worlds. And really, as Ram Dass says, we are all simply walking each other home .
Mindfulness Meditation underpins my teaching – opportunities to fall still are rare in life so I aim to offer this choice to students of all ages. Dwelling in this inner awareness is rejuvenating and reassuring and reinforces our sense of self. My yoga classes are inclusive and welcoming of all body types and levels of flexibility. I have taught children as young as four and adults in their nineties. I will always meet you where you are at, so all you need to do is show up and take the first step.
I am a fully-qualified and insured British Wheel of Yoga teacher – having studied for 2 years at triyoga, London (one of the UK’s premier Yoga Teacher Training providers) under the expert guidance of Jean Hall and Mimi Quo-Deemer. i continue to work with them as part of the the team providing mentorship on their eponymous Daoist Flow Teacher Training. Other trainings include Teen Yoga and Mindfulness with Charlotta Martinus of The Life Centre and Yoga for Children with Susannah Hoffman of London’s triyoga. My training for both teens and children are Yoga Alliance Professional accredited.
Sayoko
I am sure that there is a good deal more that I need to discover about Sayoko but this is all that I have discovered so far about this lovely, gentle and extremely supple, agile, graceful and dedicated yoga teacher:
Yoga that I practise and teach is inspired by Vanda Scaravellii. I learned this way of practicing yoga mainly from Dian Long and Sophy Hoare who learned form Vanda directly. It is a way of practising yoga that we work from deep within our body, skeleton. The most important part of it is the spine.
The Mill Retreat Centre:
It seems that this centre started off as a cheese mill producing camembert cheese. I will need to check this but it appears to fit in with the information below:
The first camembert was made from unpasteurized milk, and the AOC variety “Camembert de Normandie” (approximately 10% of the production) is required by law to be made only with unpasteurised milk. Many modern cheesemakers outside of Normandy, France, however, use pasteurised milk for reasons of safety, compliance with regulations, or convenience.