When Anne-Christelle Roussel and Bertrand L’huillier decided it was time for a change, they left Paris and their jobs in pharmacy and television to build Rosalie’s house – in Costa Rica. But then Covid hit and a surprise guest appeared in their lives: their young daughter. So instead of escaping halfway around the world, they stayed put. Well, almost. The couple packed up their lives, grabbed a plot of land on the edge of a forest with its own lake in trendy Perche (lower Normandy) and built three cozy wooden nests for townspeople in need of rest and fresh air.

We are such urbanites, my partner and I together with our little daughter. We’re leaving Paris at rush hour on a Friday night, so by the time we’re nearing our destination, our nerves are on the wane. We drive along an empty highway until we have to make a sharp turn into the dark. We arrive in the village of Tourouvre with a handful of houses and no signs of life. Everything is calm. It’s 8:16 p.m. and it’s pitch black. We continue on a small unlit road, rolling over a small stream until we reach an open field with several wooden huts with huge windows lit by small lights.

Stepping out of the car, we walk under a blanket of stars stretched out above our heads. I have never seen so many stars, not even in places far more remote than this little corner of Normandy less than two hours from the French capital. It was like suddenly looking right at the entire Milky Way. My phone suddenly vibrates: “You will see the lake after the second house. Continue. Your cabin is in the woods by the water,” reads Anne-Christelle’s message. As we go deeper into the blackness, our cabin comes into view.

The next morning we open our eyes, looking at the pine wood ceiling, soothing drawings on the walls and deer jumping in the wooded surroundings on the other side of the floor-to-ceiling windows. our cabin, Casa Slow, is a bit secluded, with windows letting in lots of warm golden sunshine and looking out over bushy trees, big blue skies and a heated pool that overlooks the lake. With views like these, it’s tempting to just sit for a while, watching the changing colors in the sky, under a blanket on a large, comfortable couch strewn with pillows.

Every cabin on Rosalie’s house it has a fully equipped kitchen, we have a mezzanine with space for two additional people above and a chest of drawers with toys and games for children. Bertrand, a tall, cheerful figure, brings us a breakfast of fresh croissants and jams from the village. Before heading off again, she tells us about her little houses designed and used by the Compagnons du devoir, a prestigious guild created in the Middle Ages known for the meticulous knowledge of its artisans, to build, while Anne-Christelle focused on the interior, throwing cozy rugs and looking for colorful wallpaper and cushion covers that add pops of color to a soothing palette of muted tones.

The houses are compact, but feel spacious because of the gables and huge windows. There are freestanding tubs against a forest backdrop and lunches of mushroom risotto and home-made hams and pâtés left for us by the owners to enjoy at the dining table or on the poolside terrace – days can easily be spent pawing from one to the other. At house of the moonthe next house down which we can almost see in the distance through the trees, there is no pool, but there is a nordic bath with an open tub steaming under its lakeside cover. Casa Friendlylike Casa Slow, it is more spacious, also with its own heated pool.

Woodland walks can be enjoyed nearby, and a short drive away is the picturesque village of Mortagne, which deserves exploring for its handful of medieval cobblestone streets and the atmospheric Hôtel du Tribunal restaurant, which is worth booking to sample French classics like a local. black pudding (black pudding).

So far, Anne-Christelle and Bertrand, who live nearby, are enjoying life in the countryside and have no regrets about leaving the big city. However, they enjoy nothing more than a new challenge, so don’t be surprised to see these little passenger cabins popping up on a plain somewhere in Costa Rica.