About us and our approach

We love our little corner of the mountains

Laurent & Treacle

We are a Franco-British family. Laurent arrived in the Vosges in 1996 and Treacle followed him in 2003. We opened our first gite, The Annexe in 2013 and our second gite, The Charri in 2015.

Laurent and Treacle are both trained teachers with a globetrotting past. Working in tourism was a naturel step. Treacle spent several summers working at the visitors centre for the Ballons des Vosges Regional Natural Park. Laurent’s interested in archaeology saw him spending his summers taking part in several excavations for Les Mynes de Thillot. More recently, Laurent joined the team of guides in the mines.

Our own travel interests taught us tolerance, curiosity, love of nature and the need to take care of it.

Holiday Home in the midst of a preserved countryside

Our desire to have a limited impact on the environment guided our choices when renovating and decorating the house. So we tried whenever possible to:

Our achievements

Materials used for construction and decoration

We had fun learning ancient techniques while renovating the gîtes

Lime/hemp or lime/sand plaster on the walls
Insulated with wood wool and cellulose
Natural paints: whitewash, organic and homemade paint (linseed oil, natural pigments and Flour based paint)
Wood felled and sawn within a radius of 5km
Green roof on the Annexe veranda.