Foyer de Charité Notre-Dame de Lacépède
In the heart of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and in this wonderful corner of Lot-et-Garonne, just 4 miles from Agen, Foyer de Charité Notre-Dame de Lacépède welcomes you for week-long preached spiritual retreats, weekend recollections...
The retreats are open to everyone from age 18, to be experienced alone, as a couple, and sometimes even as a family.
The small community on site works to ensure that this Foyer de Charité, like all the others around the world, is a house open to all. Called "foyer of charity, light and love", this name testifies to the potential for inner renewal for those who come here to find spiritual refreshment.
"This Agen Foyer, we don't just come here for the plums!" (Fr. Gabriel Imbert, first priest of the Foyer)
Retreats organized by the community
Brief history of Foyer de Charité Notre-Dame de Lacépède
The community currently there is not the first on the site. Arriving in 1975, they were preceded by a community of Franciscan Sisters who founded an agricultural orphanage for boys in 1875. Following the rhythm of the seasons, they took care of the human and spiritual education of these children who lived there like one large family.
Before them, Lacépède was the secondary residence of the well-known count Bernard-Germain de Lacépède (1756-1825), a zoologist who participated in the founding of the Natural History Museum in Paris.
A living, joyful and welcoming community
Following the model of simple and beautiful family life, a community of consecrated laypeople and a priest animate the Foyer, according to the philosophy of Foyers de Charité.
The vocation of the international work of Foyers de Charité is to give everyone the opportunity to find spiritual refreshment and regain the strength to do good around them. It is addressed to believers, but also to people who do not have faith.
The daily life of Foyer members is divided between prayer life, fraternal life, and work life. All positions are related to hospitality and maintaining a house designed to receive you in the best possible conditions.
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What to expect during your stay
Come to Lacépède to find what we no longer find in our lives
"I need beauty, calm, gentleness, alone and also as a couple"
"I don't even know the prayers of the Hail Mary and Our Father but I dared to come and it changed my life"
"I move forward when I am challenged by the power of the homilies, the teachings of the faith"
"Your great added value as a community here is the hospitality, the fraternal and lively atmosphere, the meals you prepare with local products...this is quite rare today in spiritual retreat centers"
"I would like to better know the contributions of St. Hildegard, the Vittoz method, the Feeling God retreat!"
Experience a spiritual retreat at Foyer de Charité de Lacépède
Foyer de Charité Notre Dame de Lacépède welcomes you for a preached spiritual retreat, to be experienced alone or as a couple, for six days, a weekend, or even for a day. The spiritual center also welcomes students for exam study periods.
With its well, its plane trees, its large park-wood of nearly 50 acres, its dovecote, its buildings arranged here and there... the Foyer has the appearance of a small village!
At the heart of this preserved natural space, more than 50 rooms (many of which are doubles), a chapel and an oratory overlooking the park, reception offices... The most modern building, with the appearance of a tobacco drying barn and decorated in contemporary style, is preferred for welcoming retreatants. Each person will have their own private room, with complete bathroom facilities.
Some house specialties:
- The itinerant retreat for motorcyclists, introduction to the Vittoz method (ideal to help you discern an important decision, fight stress or even irritability), the mono-diet retreat with Saint Hildegard during Lent.…
- For a hands-on activity during the retreat (such as gardening), speak with the person in charge of hospitality.
- At Lacépède, retreats are experienced (and eaten) on full board! The cuisine is 100% homemade.
What are the ingredients of spiritual refreshment at Foyer de Charité de Lacépède?
- A beneficial climate of silence (but meals are taken with music)
- Lively talks (2 to 3 conferences per day) on major questions related to Christian life and the Scriptures
- A setting of greenery with soothing lines, times of silence, meditation or prayer (even if you feel like a "beginner" in this area and without it being a required condition for going there)
- The opportunity to meet with a priest or a member of the Foyer for an exchange or a free and benevolent conversation.
Geography and activities
A spiritual retreat location a few miles from Agen, in Lot-et-Garonne
Foyer de Charité Notre Dame de Lacépède is located in the commune of Colayrac St Cirq, 5 miles from Agen, in the department of Lot-et-Garonne (47) in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
Careful, false friend! Foyer de Charité de Lacépède is not exactly located in the village of Lacépède, but only 4 miles from Agen! It is equidistant from the cities of Bordeaux and Toulouse, each an hour and a half away by car.
You will have the opportunity to stroll through the Foyer's orchard, to walk in the vast surrounding woods, in the countryside and on the heights of this Garonne valley. One thing is certain, walks are plentiful.
- By car: Agen with its canal bridge (extension of the Canal du Midi), Moirax priory and its 11th-century Romanesque church, the lovely Talives lake, the hazelnut house located in an old stone barn, in an exceptionally natural setting, Salaber lake.
- On foot: Madaillan castle and all these walking loops in this setting with the gentle and rolling lines of the hillsides…
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Practical information
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