If you go down to the woods

Image on prevIous page: One of the property’s 18 individually designed lodges aBove Image: Owner Anne-Caroline Frey chose furnishings to complement the artwork

Loire Valley Lodges is something of a fairy tale for today – 18 stilted treehouses dotted across 300 acres of private forest, 20 minutes outside Tours. Once inside the alluringly labyrinthine estate there are no cars, and beyond the public spaces (two restaurants, a bar and pool area), Wi-Fi is non-existent. For weekending Parisians and international visitors, the property is an escape into nature – albeit one defined by ultra-slick design and a wealth of thoughtful luxuries.

The lodges themselves hug the treetops, architecturally designed by Tours-based Isabelle Poulain and fashioned from wood species present in the surrounding forest – the exteriors Douglas fir. Amidst a curtain of dense greenery, they are visible as intermittent bursts of modernity; stylistically man-made interventions, but seamless with the environment in their use of material.

Each treehouse features immense floor-to-ceiling bay windows, affording views of the ensconcing canopy and part of owner Anne-Caroline Frey’s philosophy that guests should be in direct contact with the forest ‘at every step’.

“We even made the decision that they shouldn’t open, so as to avoid a vertical upright in the middle that would pollute the view,” she explains. “It creates a window without joins; just an expanse of glazing so that, even in winter, one has the impression of being outside.”

Frey led on the project’s interior design and while each lodge features an identical surface area and common bones (parquet floors in oak and chestnut walls), they are all different in attitude and aesthetic. Frey worked with a series of artists – some local and some from further afield – to create a unique creative identity for each. Among those tapped to create or display pieces, Frey describes Philippe Pasqua, Jacques Bosser, Aurèle and CharlElie Couture as some of those with an important international dimension, while Michel Audiard, Cedric Marcillac and Charlotte Perrot are examples of those from the region; giving guests an opportunity to discover lesser-known talent.

Just as the exterior represents a highly-considered relationship between lodge and forest, so inside is a têteà-tête between Frey and her chosen creatives.

“I first worked with moodboards, in response to the works proposed by the artists,” describes Frey, “and then I hunted for small objects and furniture with the right colours. Everything coexists in harmony and every item resonates with the other. Material is very important to me, for example. Often forgotten is touch and it’s vital to feel the soft, the cold and the hot, and to choose what feeling we want and at what moment. I always suggest that my clients walk barefoot in the lodges. It helps to create an emotion and a connection.”

Set some four metres off the ground, the height of the lodges also offered an opportunity for some uncommon flourishes. Breakfast is part witty design, part engineering exercise and part playful guest experience – food and drink delivered in a sturdy woven basket that has to be hoisted skyward on a spectacularly traditional pulley system.

Works by many of the same artists deployed in guest quarters are also displayed in the public spaces – a renovated, centuries-old farmhouse now serving as lobby, bar, bijou shop and restaurant twice over. One,

Asperatus, is not only a swish dining spot for guests, but a destination restaurant with a revolving rota of guest chefs – some established names, others disruptive upstarts bringing exceptional, progressive cuisine to this slice of the Loire.

At Ardent, Loire Valley Lodge’s more relaxed eatery, Frey wanted to steer away from some of the region’s grander clichés. “It’s really different from the local codes of the Châteaux,” she says. “My objective was to create a cool, natural and actually quite simple atmosphere. Even though the service and food are gourmet, we don’t have white napkins and roses, just plain wooden tables, small wildflowers and handcrafted plates.” opposIte page, cLockWIse from top: Treehouses feature wellappointed bathrooms

Through their brand Elixe, Frey collaborated with Xavier Legrand and Laure Conte, recovering dead wood in the forest that Legrand works, ‘patinates’ and burns to reimagine as practical, beautiful objects – including a tray, butter dish, stool and coffee table. In this way, “the forest also comes back to the center of meals,” explains Frey.

The vast English-style gardens (devised by Frey’s green fingered husband, Bertrand) and woodland are described as a ‘living gallery’; the lines between indoor and out wooly and diffuse. Contemporary sculptures pepper the grounds, some monumental in scale, such as Philipe Pasqua’s metal whale skeleton – intended to highlight the impact of climate change – and Aurèle’s Lost Dog, blue and enormous, presiding over the entrance to the estate.

Sustainability and social justice are threads woven throughout the project which, far from a blight on the landscape, is instead intended to restore and protect. Frey, a keen environmentalist, is both conscientiousness and conscience-driven in her design and operation decisions. For the property’s outdoor garden furniture, she collaborated with Djilene Création, a young designer whose pieces are made in solidarity with children in difficulty in Senegal, from coloured fishing lines. More broadly, at Loire Valley Lodges she encourages guests to develop a meaningful relationship with nature –reconnecting with what ‘matters’ while taking time to disconnect from what we might otherwise think we can’t live without, even if that’s simply Wi-Fi.

Terraces come as standard

Lodges sit within a 300 acre private forest