Ferme Terre d’Arômes

As you turn off the tarmacked route Napoléon on to Ancienne Route Napoléon, there’s a dramatic change in the road surface. This aged track stretches back to Roman times and once provided an escape route for Napoléon and his army. The 1-mile (2-km) trek up the mountainside by car (let alone foot) is hard work – but reassuring signposts remind you that you’re on the right path just when you might contemplate turning around.
 
Ironically, Pierre and Olivia found Terre d’Arômes when their car broke down by the side of the mountain four years ago. Then, the site was little more than a tumble-down farm building, scrubland, and a wild forest. And so professional builder Pierre set to work, dragging 12 Mongolian yurts up the mountainside, erecting a log cabin and restoring the old farm building into rooms for guests who need a little more comfort – and a lot less bugs. If you’ve spent most of your holiday in a tent, then the yurts are comfort enough. With soft beds and low lighting it’s like sleeping in a warm heartwood womb – and you’ll sleep well here, only to be stirred by the braying of family donkeys, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, waking you up in time for breakfast. You’d be a fool to miss out on the fig or rosehip jam.
 
Suitably refreshed from a great night’s sleep, you’ll be ready for the day’s activities and to be worn out again. There are lots of walks in the area and if you’re feeling athletic you can trek to Parc de la Moulière on the north side of the mountain in Caille – or it’s just 20 minutes by car. It’s a ski slope in winter and a playground for outdoor pursuits in summer. When the chair lift’s not carrying skiers up the piste, it’s depositing mountain-bikers on the summit. Elsewhere in the park, there’s tree-climbing with one of the longest zip wires in France, and an underground Via Ferrata course, cleverly known as Via Souterrata.
 
Nearby Gorges du Verdon offers water sports from rafting to canyoning, and only an hour from Terre d’Arômes are Nice and Cannes – nice for a spot of lunch. You won’t catch Pierre or Olivia there, though; they came to the mountains to escape the city.
 
The real delight of Terre d’Arômes is that you’re accepted into Pierre and Olivia’s extended family. Email them in advance and they’ll include you for dinner. This removes the pretence of some luxury campsites by being rough around the edges – something we like to call ‘rustique boutique’. Reinforced by the fact that Pierre has seemingly created this mountain getaway with his bare hands.
 
While Olivia never stops smiling or being the perfect hostess, Pierre never keeps still and is permanently on the go. Plans are in place to take Romany caravans up the mountainside and Pierre wants to build a zip wire across the valley. He also wants to clear scrub for tent pitches, ready for the hardiest of campers, and finish off the jacuzzi and sauna for those who want to be pampered. Olivia used to own an aromatherapy shop in Antibes and she brings her experience of essential oils to harness the nearby resources (including lavender, St John’s wort, yarrow, Scots pine, and juniper).
 
Whether you like it rough and rugged or reclined and refined, Ferme Terre d’Arômes has got it covered.