Where would you go?
To Sénanque, in Provence, in its quiet valley right in the centre of the Luberon. It’s the place made famous by all the photographs of its gardens full of lavender. The Cistercians are still there, singing the sevenfold office every day. It’s a beautiful part of the world and it’d be hugely uplifting to sit in the cool abbey church at the end of a hot and dusty walk and listen to the monks chanting the plainsong after their work in the fields. It’d be the perfect combination of history meeting the present day – they’ve been there since the 12th century – and recalling us to something deeper than our world of iPhones and emails. They’re serious about retreats: they even insist that their guests don’t use a car during their stay to preserve the detachment of their experience, so it’s just as well that we’d be on foot.
