La Ferme du Cerf Bleu · The Blue Deer Farm · Burgundy
Everything I teach comes from this ground.
An 18th-century farm in the heart of Burgundy, France. Twenty acres of land in the slow, patient process of being returned to itself.
A working farm, a rewilding project, a place of ceremony, and a home. And it is open to you.
When we arrived
We asked the land what it wanted to become.
When we arrived here, Rose, Juliette and I, the land was tired. Agricultural, stripped, quiet in the way that overworked things are quiet. We did not come with a plan. We came with our hearts. We walked the property for weeks before we planted a single tree.
The stone walls remember things the mind and the village have forgotten. The deep clay soil, the ancient forests at the edges, the morning fog that fills the valley like a held breath. It is all alive.
What this place is
This is not a spa. It is not a wellness destination.
It is a working farm, a rewilding project, a place of ceremony, and a home. The teaching happens here because the land itself is a teacher.
The owls arrive at 3am. The old cherry by the stone wall drops its fruit in September. The bees teach patience whether we want to learn it or not.
Come to the land
A retreat just for you
Not a group program. Time on the land, at your own pace, held by the rhythm of dawn and dusk and season. You might come to write. To grieve. To rest. To mark a threshold in your life: a birth, a death, a beginning, an ending.
3 to 4 nights
Long weekend
A threshold visit. Enough time to slow down, feel the land, and let something shift. For a pause, a marking, or a first taste of what this place holds.
5 to 7 nights
Full week
A deeper immersion. Settle into the rhythm of the farm, walk the land at different hours, sit with the fire. Most guests find that by day three or four, something opens that couldn't open in a weekend.
2 weeks or more
Extended stay
For a significant life transition, deep personal work, or simply a long stretch of quiet and ground. Shaped in conversation with Angell and Rose.
You do not need a spiritual reason to come. If you are tired in a way that sleep alone cannot fix, the farm is open to you. Not everything needs to be a ceremony. Sometimes rest is the medicine.
Where you will stay
Four places to rest, each named after an animal
Old stone and beams, simple and beautiful. Every room has its own bathroom, and there is a jacuzzi in the garden.
Gîte · own kitchen
Le Cerf
The deer. An independent gîte with its own kitchen. A good choice for a longer stay.
Gîte · own kitchen
Le Loup
The wolf. An independent gîte with its own kitchen. A good choice for a longer stay.
For a retreat stay, we recommend Le Cerf or Le Loup: having your own kitchen and living space makes a longer stay easy. Prices and availability are on our booking site.
Your stay
What's included, and what's possible
Included. Your accommodation at the farm. Access to the full twenty acres: the orchard, the meadows, the forest edges, the ceremony space, the fire. Silence. Sky. Time.
Meals, if you wish. Simple, good, seasonal food, mostly from the land or local producers. Or cook for yourself in a gîte.
By arrangement. A shamanic healing session or a conversation with Angell, a Rune Journey or RTT session with Rose, guided walks on the land, plant dieta, tree magic, wild medicine foraging, potion making, a breathwork ceremony, or simply conversation by the fire. Or nothing at all. The land itself is the teacher here.
The rewilding
Animism made visible. Twenty acres of it.
When we arrived, this was conventional agricultural land: compacted, simplified, stripped of its diversity. The work of returning it to itself is measured in years, not months.
So far: over a hundred trees planted (fruit, nut, native hardwoods). Fifty bushes. Eighty-five berry plants. A Mediterranean grove on one acre. A 7,000-litre rainwater system, designed after six months of watching how water moves across the land. Sections of meadow left unmown so the wildflowers can return. Habitat for pollinators, birds, and the small creatures that hold the whole web together. Beehives along the old stone walls are coming soon.
The biodiversity is already returning. The insects came first. Then the birds. The soil is changing. The land is waking up.
Where we came from
Different soil. Same roots.
For twenty years, Angell stewarded The Sanctuary, a 7-acre shamanic healing center in Callicoon, New York, alongside the Delaware River and the forests of the Catskill Mountains. It was where Sacred Paths was born, where the School opened its doors in 2012, and where hundreds of students first sat in circle.
The Sanctuary was certified as a safe habitat for pollinators by the New York Bee Sanctuary, designated a Monarch Waystation, and recognized as a certified wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.
In 2025, Angell and his family began again here. Not because the Catskills had failed them, but because something was calling from across the ocean. The Sanctuary's work continues at La Ferme du Cerf Bleu.
Where we are
Rural Burgundy, close to Paris
- By train: about 1 hour by TGV from Paris to Montbard, where we can arrange pickup.
- By car: about 2.5 hours from Paris.
- By air: the nearest airport is Paris Charles de Gaulle.
Detailed directions and travel guidance are sent once your stay is confirmed.
The door is open
If something in you is saying yes, write to us.
A weekend. A week. A longer stay. A reason to slow down. Retreat stays are shaped by personal conversation, because every guest is different. Tell Rose and me a little about where you are and what you're looking for. We read every message and respond personally.
Just want to book a room? See prices and availability. Bringing a group? Host your retreat here.