NATURE

Open the gates of the lodge and you're immediately in the heart of the Forest of Fontainebleau, a vast expanse of 25,000 hectares. It's a patchwork of oak, beech, and Scots pine, with sandy tracks running between rocky ridges and shaded glades. Deer and wild boar live here, though you're more likely to hear them moving in the undergrowth than see them. Birdlife is easier to spot: green woodpeckers flash through the trees, nuthatches and short-toed treecreepers dart along trunks, and in spring you might hear honey buzzards and black kites overhead. More patient watchers can look for nightjars at dusk or the red-backed shrike in summer scrub.

The forest changes with the seasons. In late summer mushrooms appear under the trees - chanterelles, porcini, and ceps if you're lucky. Autumn brings chestnuts and vivid colour, while winter strips everything back to bare sandstone and pale lichen. By spring the clearings are full of wildflowers, and the nearby villages hold lively vide-greniers, local flea markets that take over their squares. From the lodge, the forest isn't a backdrop but part of everyday life, shifting with light and weather.