When was the last time you had several days when nobody needed you to answer an email, attend a meeting, make a decision, or keep a conversation going?
Even when we take time away, we tend to fill it with activities, sights, and photographs, and some of us come home needing another break. I have been asking what becomes possible when time away is organized differently, around enough room to pay attention to what is already around us.
That question shapes the 2 contemplative walking retreats I am leading in France in 2027. Each is a week on foot along the Camino, mostly in silence, with no more than 4 walkers. Your private rooms, daily bag transfers, and route logistics are arranged, so you can leave the planning behind and give your attention to the walking and the living world around you.
Registration is now open, with 10% off for anyone who registers by December 31, 2026.
Who These Retreats Are For
These retreats are for people who love walking and being outdoors and want more from time away than exercise, sightseeing, or another destination to check off.
You might already have a spiritual practice and wonder what changes when you bring it outdoors. You might spend time in nature and sense a deeper relationship waiting beyond the scenery. You might be in a transition and want time to reflect without pressure to reach an answer, or you might simply be tired of always being available to others.
Some walkers come with years of pilgrimage behind them, and others are walking a Camino for the first time. You do not need to speak French, belong to a religious tradition, or have retreat experience. We walk a historic Christian pilgrimage route, our practices focus on the living world, and people of any faith or none are welcome.
You do need to be fit, trained to hike several long days in a row (hills included), and willing to spend long stretches in silence. These retreats are a poor fit for anyone looking for a fast hiking challenge, constant group conversation, or a full schedule of organized activities.
What I Learned Guiding the First Retreat
In September 2026, I guided my first contemplative walking retreat, 7 days from Le Puy-en-Velay to Conques with 4 walkers, on my 7th Camino.
Years earlier, I walked my first Camino with a guided group, and the constant expectation to walk and socialize together left me little room for quiet. With this retreat, I wanted to offer the kind of pilgrimage I had been looking for. We shared a route and a daily rhythm, each person walking at their own pace, and when I passed someone on the trail, a nod or a quick “Everything good?” was usually enough.
I call this solitude without isolation, and both 2027 retreats are built on it.
Why This Kind of Walking Matters
Contemplative walking draws on mindfulness, with a different emphasis.
Rather than concentrating on our own breath, thoughts, or sensations, we turn our attention toward the living world and the relationships we are part of: a bird calling from a hedge, light moving across a field, a stream finding its way around stones. Many of us approach the Earth as scenery, recreation, or a resource. Even when we love nature, we often go to it for what it gives us, such as exercise, beauty, or relief from stress.
Those are real gifts, and these retreats make room for something more: interest in the lives unfolding along the path, for their own sake.
I have been exploring this through practices such as Earth-Based Lectio Divina, which adapts a contemplative tradition many centuries old to encounters with the living world. On a retreat, that attention has time to grow. Rather than practicing for 20 minutes before returning to daily responsibilities, you can carry it into the next hour, the next village, and the next day.
What each person experiences is their own. What I offer are the conditions for sustained attention: time, silence, walking, guidance when it helps, and the freedom to meet the living world in your own way.
2 Retreats, 2 Different Paths
Both retreats share the same daily rhythm, small group, and freedom for each walker, and they pass through very different landscapes, each with climbs, descents, and uneven ground. The Célé Valley has shorter days, though its rocky, narrow trails make them no less demanding.
The Le Puy Camino: Le Puy-en-Velay to Conques
August 27 to September 4, 2027
Pilgrims have set out from Le Puy for more than a thousand years, and the Via Podiensis remains the best-loved Camino in France.
Over 7 walking days, we cover about 145 km (90 miles) of the classic route, with short transfers on 2 days. We travel from the volcanic hills around Le Puy, across the high, open Aubrac plateau, and down through river valleys to the abbey village of Conques. The Aubrac’s broad pastures, changing weather, and long horizons invite a slower pace of attention.
Along the way we walk 2 of the route’s UNESCO World Heritage stretches and pass through 3 villages listed among the Most Beautiful Villages of France.
Walking: 15 to 25 km (9 to 15 miles) a day, with steep climbs and descents
Price: $3,200, paid in 4 monthly installments
Best for: walkers drawn to wide, open high country on the classic route
Full details for the 2027 Le Puy Camino Contemplative Walking Retreat.
The Célé Valley: Gramat to Cahors by Way of Rocamadour
September 10 to 18, 2027
The Voie du Célé is a recognized variant of the Le Puy Camino, and so few pilgrims take it that it is one of the quietest stretches of the Camino in France.
We begin in the Alzou canyon and climb to the clifftop sanctuary of Rocamadour, then follow the Célé beneath limestone cliffs, past houses built into the rock, and through river villages to Cahors. Along the way we visit the cave of Pech Merle, where people painted horses on the rock 29,000 years ago, and climb to the hilltop village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie.
Where the Aubrac offers openness and long horizons, the Célé draws attention to the details of a more enclosed landscape: the river moving below, plants rooted in the limestone, and villages that grew up with the valley over centuries. A river is never quite the same from one moment to the next, and the cliffs above it hold a far longer history than ours.
Walking: 11 to 21 km (7 to 13 miles) a day, about 114 km (71 miles) in all, with climbs on rocky, narrow trails
Price: $3,500, paid in 4 monthly installments
Best for: walkers drawn to a quieter river valley of cliffs, caves, and small villages
Full details for the 2027 Célé Valley Camino Contemplative Walking Retreat.
A Day on Retreat
Each day has the same simple shape, loose enough to bend around the weather and the trail.
After breakfast we gather for a few minutes, and I offer a theme for the day, such as thresholds, resilience, gratitude, or belonging, with a question to carry along. We walk mostly in silence, each at our own pace, and stop at midday for a picnic and a rest. In the afternoon we walk on to the night’s lodging, noticing who else shares the path: perhaps a hawk circling over the Aubrac or a heron on the bank of the Célé.
Evenings hold dinner, journaling, conversation, or quiet, and some evenings we share a little of the day together, always by choice. Some people find meaning in conversation, while others prefer to keep their experiences private, and both are welcome. As a spiritual director, I also offer optional one-on-one spiritual direction during the retreat, at no extra charge.
What Is Taken Care Of
I arrange the retreats this way to lift the practical demands that can take so much of our attention when we travel.
You will still need to train for the walking, and you will not spend each evening working out where to sleep, how to move your bag, or how to reach the next village. Each retreat includes:
8 nights in a private room, so there is always a quiet place to rest and write at the end of the day
8 breakfasts and most dinners, including the welcome and closing dinners
Daily bag transfers, so you carry only a daypack while walking
All planned bus, train, and taxi transfers along the route
Daily themes, contemplative walking practices, maps, route notes, and a journal companion
A one-on-one Zoom planning call, including help with travel, and optional group calls before we leave
Travel to the start and home afterward, lunches, and the required travel insurance are not included.
How to Join
After 7 Caminos, walking still gives me something I struggle to make room for in everyday life: sustained time to pay attention, with nothing to accomplish beyond the day’s walk. It is why I keep returning to France, and why I now invite others to walk this way with me.
Each retreat is limited to 4 walkers, and registration is now open:
Le Puy Camino Contemplative Walking Retreat, August 27 to September 4, 2027
Célé Valley Camino Contemplative Walking Retreat, September 10 to 18, 2027
There is no minimum number of walkers, since I will walk each route on these dates either way. Register by December 31, 2026, and use the code Camino10 for 10% off the full price.
If you are considering both retreats, write to me so we can talk about the possibilities. If you are unsure whether the distances, the contemplative approach, or the small group would suit you, you can schedule a Zoom conversation through the website.
Explore both retreats on my website, Walking Through Nature.
The Practice: A Morning Intention Walk
Each retreat day begins with a theme to carry, and you can begin the same way this week. Whether you are considering one of these retreats, planning a Camino of your own, or simply unable to travel right now, this walk brings a little of the Camino’s daily rhythm to wherever you are.
A Morning Intention Walk
How long. About 20 minutes.
Where. Any familiar route where you can walk comfortably and safely, such as a park, a neighborhood street, or a nearby path.
What to attend to.
Choose 1 theme before you leave: thresholds, resilience, gratitude, or belonging.
Carry 1 question about it, such as “What am I crossing into?” or “What is holding me today?”
Walk mostly in silence, and let the question rest in the background.
Notice who else shares the path: a bird, a tree, a patch of wildflowers, or another presence that catches your attention, and stop to spend time with it if you wish.
What you may notice. Something unexpected may catch your attention, or you may simply enjoy 20 minutes of walking with nothing to accomplish.
The Camino offers something special through its long days, its landscapes, and its centuries of people walking with intention, and the practice itself belongs wherever your feet meet the Earth. Try the morning intention walk this week.
If you could walk in silence for 1 week, would you choose the open Aubrac plateau or the quiet cliffs of the Célé Valley?