 At first he and Morgan performed in New York, and later in Paris, and elsewhere in Europe and Asia, including Leningrad, Morocco, and throughout France, with a grand finale at the annual arts festival in Avignon.He wrote of contrasts between the hectic life of performing in New York and Paris and evening walks in the countryside of Southern France, where it was "so easy to breath the "joie de vivre" and forget that there might be any destination or goal beyond just being itself".While living in southern France, Koob and Morgan conceived of developing a retreat center in an old monastery where they "could take a centuries long tradition and give it a modern twist to celebrate the arts, nature, health and spirit".