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“TODAY” was the word carved on a stone on John Ruskin’s desk. “NOW” is the word displayed on the wall at the end of the summer-house, the main group room at Le Sentier Tranquille. And it says most of what needs to be said about this centre set amid the ancient forests of Ariège, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Here you are accepted as you are and nothing is expected of you, except that you allow yourself to go with the flow of nature’s rhythm, as you walk slowly along le sentier tranquille, the quiet path.
What is on offer is a therapeutic stay, where the therapy is in the atmosphere and the surroundings and the gentle pace. True, there are retreats, which you can be part of if you wish, with themes ranging from ‘stories and identity’ through ‘reflective passage’ to ‘keeping a balance’, but you can also ask for what you want, or simply come to read and join with other guests and the hosts for talking, eating, drinking… The owners respect anyone’s beliefs or preferences, but offer a setting which espouses no particular message. “We are non-religious, we provide for any diet, we drink wine with dinner, we talk about ordinary things – and if it is wanted,” says Simon, “I can provide counselling, training and practice in meditation, philosophical discussion, companionship in walking.” Simon Cole has been a counsellor for over 20 years and is a senior accredited practitioner of BACP ; his wife Janet, an ex-teacher, acts as host.
Simon : “You don’t have to be ill to come here – everyone feels under strain some time. Our approach draws its inspiration from Carl Rogers, the American founder of the person-centred approach to counselling, and RD Laing, the Scottish psychiatrist, who believed that, with the right atmosphere, healing happens naturally and from within.”
Feedback from guests suggests that there is something created here which goes beyond the confines of the way counselling and therapy is conventionally practised. It seems it has to do with a lack of rigidity, a relaxed approach to when and how things have to happen. In this setting there is not the same need for times and appointments, rather things can happen when they need to happen. There is a fluidity apparent between the day-to-day and the therapeutic, but no loss of the feeling of safety which goes with a professional environment. If you ask you will be told that this seamlessness is important, because living is seamless as each moment moves into the next.
Le Sentier Tranquille is a collection of village houses and converted farm buildings nestled in its own space by a stream on the edge of the tiny hamlet of Dardé. Its pièce de résistance is the addition of the large first floor ‘summer-house’ constructed in wood, with a solid pine floor, and with almost continuous French-style windows around three sides. Giving a privileged view of the prolific bird life (and at dusk the bats), it was described by one visitor as a tree-house for grown-ups. For public areas there is also the terrace room (used for meals) and the library, and, outside, many corners for individual contemplation and reading, as well as space for barbecues and al fresco dining. The setting is very rural with the rich farmland of the Douctouyre valley below and the wilderness of the hills and ancient woodlands above, but there is also a sense of containment within a very special ambience.
From the gate you can take the track up onto the range of hills above. This is gentle hill-walking through varied terrain and offering superb views over the plains to the north and the Pyrenees mountains to the south. You are in the foothills and you have a sense of being where wilderness and people meet. The nearest mountain walks start from a point about 30 minutes drive away (the last part along forest tracks), where you can de-camp at around 3500 feet and from where your journey to the nearest peak (if you go that far) will be the equivalent of climbing Snowdon from sea-level. But paths and routes are well-marked and graded and can be selected according to capability or inclination.
Within 30 minutes drive also are a variety of small towns, mostly mediaeval in origin and with their own particular characteristics… Mirepoix has original 13th century oak covered walkways around its central square; Pamiers, the largest, is steeped in ecclesiastical history; Foix, the ‘county’ town, alongside the Ariège river, has the impregnable castle of the counts of Foix rising on its vast rock out of the mediaeval town centre. All have markets and all hum with the outdoor activity of summer in this part of France.
So much within reach… and the therapy is in allowing yourself to unwind and to fall in with another rhythm. “NOW is all we have”, says Simon, “the past may hang over us and the future may worry us, but the present is where we are living. Each moment in the present makes the next moment different. So we can bring all the regret and hurt and anger from the past and let it contaminate the present and prejudice the future, or we can find a way to let the present just be now, and offer hope to the future.” After a couple of days it is difficult not to feel the power of the present at Le Sentier. It is to do with the relaxed pace, the lack of expectation, the informality in talking and eating, and it can include, if you want, meditation and other means for creating a new sense of self-awareness. And there is the walking – no, it doesn’t have to be strenuous – and the visits to evocative places. And always the encouragement to notice (another favourite word of Ruskin), notice what meets your eyes, what fills your ears, what greets your senses… notice what is NOW.
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