What Remains: Forest Therapy at the Citadel of Champtoceaux
Among the ruins of this ancient stronghold, Sunday 6 December 2026 from 10am to 1pm
There are places where time seems to have left a deeper imprint than elsewhere.
At Champtoceaux, high above the Loire, the remains of a vast fortified settlement now rest beneath the trees.
Fragments of walls appear between the trunks. Roots meet stone. Moss slowly covers what people once built to last.
Centuries ago, Champtoceaux — then known as Châteauceaux — was a major fortress overlooking the Loire and prized for its strategic position. In 1420, after a final siege, the citadel was destroyed and rebuilding was forbidden.
People never rebuilt it.
And slowly, the Living World rebuilt it in another way. 🌳
The forest returned.
Trees grew between the stones.
Leaves covered the old paths.
And six centuries later, something remains.
This is where I invite you to experience our final forest therapy walk of the year:
What remains when everything else changes?
By early December, the trees have shed much of what they carried. What filled the landscape only months earlier falls, decomposes and returns to the earth.
Forms become visible differently. Trunks. Branches. Stones.
The essential structures can be seen again.
What if winter invited us, too, to return to our foundations?
We spend our lives building.
An identity. A family. Relationships. Projects. A profession. Dreams. A certain idea of the person we thought we would become.
Then life moves on. It adds new levels, opens doors and closes others. Sometimes it transforms the landscape completely. We are no longer exactly the person we were ten, twenty or forty years ago.
And yet... some things are still here.
A value. A conviction. A way of loving. A deep aspiration. A relationship with the world.
Something on which, despite all our transformations, we have continued to build.
And you — what are your living foundations?
And above all: what do you want to keep building the next chapter upon?
Remaining does not mean standing still
The ruins of Châteauceaux tell us something subtler, too.
What remains does not necessarily remain intact. The stones have eroded. Walls have opened. Trees have joined them. Mosses cover them.
The landscape is still transforming.
And yet, six centuries after the citadel disappeared, its foundations still tell its story.
Perhaps the same is true for us.
Our foundations are not walls meant to imprison us.
They can support something alive — something that evolves, grows, changes direction and transforms while continuing to root itself in what matters deeply.
To remain is not to become fixed.
It is knowing where your roots are while continuing to grow. 🌳
A morning of forest therapy in the heart of the old citadel
This walk is not a historical guided tour of Champtoceaux.
History will be present, of course, in small touches — a presence through which we can explore our own relationship with time, traces and foundations.
But during these three hours, we will return above all to the body, the trees, the senses and the Living World.
We will walk slowly through the citadel.
We will meet the trees that have taken root among the old ramparts.
We will touch bark and stone.
We will take time to listen to what exists when, for a few moments, we stop trying to fill the silence.
During the morning, I will invite you into experiences including:
🌳 moments of conscious connection with trees;
🌿 sensory and grounding experiences;
🪨 a symbolic exploration of our foundations and what remains within us;
🤫 moments of silence and contemplation among the ruins;
✏️ if the weather allows, a short creative invitation to give form or a trace to what we have encountered;
🎶 a few sound-based pauses, opening another way of sensing;
☕ and time with a hot herbal infusion, gathered in the wooden circle nestled at the heart of the site.
Because in December, contemplating the deeper meaning of existence is still nicer with something warm in your hands. 😉
When everything is stripped back, the essential appears
This walk closes a cycle that began at the start of autumn:
In September, at La Turmelière, we explored what we could let go of.
At All Saints’ Day, on Île Mouchet, we explored death, cycles and transformation in the Living World.
And in December, when the trees have shed their leaves, we will go and meet... What remains.
What the seasons do not carry away.
What can pass through change without preventing movement.
Foundations solid enough to support us and alive enough to let us keep building.
You can of course join this walk without having attended the previous ones. Each gathering is a complete experience in itself. Together, however, they tell a story trees have known for a long time: letting go. Transforming.
And continuing to live from what remains. 🌳
Practical information
📅 Sunday 6 December 2026
🕙 10am to 1pm: please arrive ten minutes early so that we can begin on time.
💶 €30 per person, payable in cash or by cheque.
📍 Ruins of the Citadel of Champtoceaux – Orée-d’Anjou (Maine-et-Loire): meet at the entrance to the path by the small car park below the citadel, at La Bondé.
⚠️ Before booking: access to the ruins includes a steep section that cannot be avoided. Good walking shoes are essential and walking poles are strongly recommended if the ground is wet. Please also bring warm clothing suitable for spending three hours outdoors in December.
The walk may be postponed or cancelled if weather conditions make this section unsafe.
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