As quietcations surge, Alexandra Pereira connects with nature (and herself) deep in the French forest

Driving through a grove of pine and beech in France’s Loire Valley, a giant dog around twelve feet tall greets me, and so does the overwhelming but rather less ominous scent of fresh magnolias. In the distance, a woodpecker drills away, the surest sign that I am amidst nothing but 750 acres of sheer, uninterrupted forest.

My driver dispenses me at an old hunting lodge dating to the 16th century which houses the resort’s two restaurants (everything else is outside, under the stars). The building is covered with ivy and surrounded by ancient oaks, although a series of structures disrupt the undergrowth: the first of many treehouses on stilts.

My treehouse for the weekend had its own dining room, from which I ate farmed treasures – yes, 15 feet in the air – and at ground level, elsewhere on the resort there is cycling, sound baths, and sauna and spa treatments, the facilities woven through the forest.

There is a chic green outdoor pool to swim in, alongside the rose garden and olive trees, from which I laid underneath to gaze up for sightings of buzzards, eagles and nightjars.

Opened after a pandemic lodge-and-land acquisition, the Lodges are the lovechild of Anne-Caroline and Bertrand Frey, two Parisians who pooled their experience in art collecting and farming to create these lodges, which contrast with the typical Loire Valley chateaux and crumbling guesthouses. Caroline has spent a decade in art dealing after twenty years working in the media.

As for the couple, he keeps shtum, but she is the face. Together, they are Parisian to the nines; fabulously dressed, chic, and witty – I can’t say this is always the case dining with owners and management, especially when guests and owners are forced on top of one another in such a confined space, but I never tired of bumping into these two.

Esvres is the nearest village just 5km away, which has postcard pretty churches and a river you see people basking in come summer. The town of Tours is 15km away with an airport that flies to London, though I enjoyed the ease of Eurostar and an hour’s TGV from Paris Montparnasse to Saint-Pierre-des-Corps and a short transfer to the depths of the forest.

It may be that wine, castles and stories of royals characterise the Valley, but this glamour is offset by undeveloped forests, unpolluted rivers, cycle routes all the way west to the ocean, and of course France’s long-adored camping culture.

They saw a gap in the market for something between no frills and high class. With a particular affinity to modern art – on site is also a sculpture park where giant creatures leap out of the thicket and towering angels gaze from trees – the couple birthed a retreat that feels simplistic in approach, borrowing from Scandinavian and Japanese design aesthetics. There’s a name for that, by the way: Japandi – the interior design style blending Japanese minimalism with Scandinavian functional simplicity. Visually, the manicured gardens in the resort’s foreground blend with the rugged forest beyond.

So far, so chic: hoist your personalised breakfast picnic up the pulley come 8am though, and you’re reminded where you are. Croissant loaf, baguette, goat’s cheese, pears, apricots, green juice, and a vial of birch sap to rouse me. Delighted after a sweat in my private sauna, I wafted half naked around the decking (each accommodation is private from the next) watching deer skip through the green as I steeped rosemary tea in a glass teapot.

Each lodge is individually designed. Mine is called ‘Trianon’ and is inspired by Versailles, decorated in pinks and greys, and with genteel furnishing. Huge showers, air con, heating and blackout blinds for the floor to ceiling windows feature in each of the 21 lodges. All have an outdoor terrace for taking morning coffee and massive windows for observing nature from the pillow, and a desk for writing.

Such remote forested getaways are more en vogue than Paris itself; Holidaycottages.co.uk has a portfolio of remote cabins in woodland areas across the UK, and according to travel insights conducted by the Bcorp company 37% of UK staycationers now actively seek out peaceful nature retreats like woodland and forest areas. A region that’s no stranger to cabin life is Scandinavia.

In the Arctic Circle, Rokaglim is an intimate forest homestead in Arctic Sweden merging nature, local culture, and hospitality around the historic Kvarnbacken homestead. Further south in Sweden’s Skane region, The Quarry Houses have seen a surge in popularity for families, couples, singles and retreat groups this year.

One thing though: these treehouses aren’t actually anything of the sort; rather, they’re wooden structures on four-metre-high stilts. Elevated rooms rather than the image of in the mind’s eye, they are nonetheless whimsical enough to feel escapist and totally different.

Three are recently unveiled, and those accommodations celebrate contemporary artists. Wild’, ‘Reflets,’ and ‘Ride My Bike’ explore the works of US collage artist Peter Beard, French Paris-based photographer David Sitbon and Brooklyn-based painter and printmaker Thalia Lempert respectively.

As for the future, Anne-Caroline and Bertrand Frey’s plans involve growing the art collection and continuing to focus on attracting those on cycling tours across the country.

I also explored the French forest, touching and sniffing and tasting things. Everything felt heightened, smelling way more intense than it ever had in a supermarket or local store. One night, I took a walk though the blacker than black forest. Red slugs decorated the ground and I thought I saw a flash of a wild boar’s tail.

Dinners were taken in Ardent (led by Chef Thomas Besnault, who runs the two restaurants onsite), and the cuisine follows the ‘locavore’ concept, in which almost all produce eaten is grown, harvested or produced locally. Besnault has worked his entire career across the Loire Valley at various auberges and chateaux and most recently at Michelin starred L’Évidence in Montbazon.

Some of the food was so good that I laughed with pleasure. Lovage labneh, crispy onion tuiles. Acacia flower fritters with sweetbread wontons, which even the squamish at the table couldn’t resist. Seared foie gras with artichoke cream and mushroom broth with lichen. Monkfish, wood-fired potato purée, anmd wildflower butter sauce (so good I ordered it twice). A spelt risotto with charred leeks, and hazelnuts. Steak smoked on Bertrand’s woodfire.

Needless to say, the Lodge’s family also has their own winery providing some excellent whites; usually a red wine sipper, I am a vouvray convert. Dinners in the hunting lodge occasionally run late, but they’re the exception to the wholesome rule. At our final night banquet with the owners, who were fresh from a trip to visit one of their artists in the Atlas Mountains, an aged cognac was cracked open, lubricating us all to spill more secrets, and to dish out saucy jokes and earnest life advice, like old friends.

Then we went to the fires, lit under starlight, for late-night drinks.

Turns out all you need is a forest and a table of strangers to find true bliss.