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An Ethical Traveller
We’re back in the Shed (Millican HQ) after a thoroughly enjoyable and successful 4 days at Burghley Horse Trials. The six and a half hour journey back up the A1 and across the M62 was not the most pleasurable but there you go.
It was great to see friends and familiar faces and hear about the travels they had been on with their bags.
As a new school year begins the summer holiday comes to an end. Between the four of us over the last couple of months we’ve managed trips to Cornwall, Devon, Avignon and Lecco.
You may recall a few months back travel writer Catherine Mack shared her experiences on Matthew the Daypack via her blog, The Ethical Traveller. We’re not ashamed to admit that we’re a little jealous of the destinations Catherine gets to visit. Who wouldn’t be…
Having shared the odd email over the last few months, Catherine kindly agreed to tell us about a recent trip to Echologia in the North West region of France.
I hand you over to Catherine…
After two weeks at the superb eco campsite Huttopia in Le Perche region of France, a forest rich landscape which rolls its way gently between Chartres and Normandy, our last three days of French Fest had a hard act to follow.
We had been camping with friends, and so before we hit the road back to London, we went in search of something a little remote but quirky to regroup as a family before the madness of schools and schedules took over our lives once again. Echologia, a new eco enterprise in the Mayenne region, just south of Le Perche, and two hours from Caen, our port of call for taking us home, turned out to be the icing on the cake, after a holiday already packed with the finest French ingredients.
The proper name is actually EcH20logia, because this extraordinary 70 hectare site revolves around water, ecology and lodgings, with three disused limestone quarries offering natural gems of a getaway now that their underground water sources have been allowed to seep back up to the brim again.
Photo courtesy of Catherine Mack
Poised in and around these teal coloured water holes are a collection of twenty different places to stay, from yurts spread across a wild meadow, cabins poised among the trees which overhang the waters or two cabins which float serenely in the middle of one of the basins.
This was, of course, our choice, as the notion of canoeing out to our accommodation and having breakfast delivered to the pontoon by the water nymphs that created these beauties, was irresistible.
Photo courtesy of Catherine Mack
On arrival, at dusk, we were given headtorches, buoyancy aids, and a dry bag for our valuable luggage, including my camera, kids’ Kindles, iPods, new Opinel knives from camping trip, tickets and passports, all of which had been put in my faithful Tardis-like Matthew bag in advance, so that just needed to be squeezed into the dry bag and we were ready to paddle.
Following our map of the site, we walked past burgeoning vegetable gardens, a restaurant built into the arches of the huge stone lime kilns, pathways leading up to forested heights, and finally down to the water’s edge where a canoe and a rowing boat awaited us. At this point, there is just a narrow waterway in sight, and it was only as we paddled round the corner that the two ‘cabanes flottantes’ came into view, our oohs and aahs echoing around the spookily quiet rocks which surrounded us.
The cabins are roped on to the shore, and so they only move gently in these still waters. Sleeping four, the two kids on a fold out sofa bed, this is plain, simple and charming accommodation, clean and new throughout.
The eco principles are strict, with a dry toilet, no running water (a large bottle of water is provided by the sink) and a table on the balcony to enjoy one of our most memorable breakfasts as the sun came up over the cliffs all around us.
You can’t swim in the quarries, which is a bit torturous as the water looks so beautiful, but they have made up for this fact by creating the most Zen like natural swimming pool for guests, with a small waterfall flowing in to it, the herby aroma of the plants which filter it adding a scent to your swim.
Photo courtesy of Catherine Mack
There are also some unfussy tipis by the pool, so you can sleep and swim with a little more speed than we could. But I wouldn’t swap anything for the floating cabin. It was a divine way to spend a few days and it felt a privilege to be there at this project’s nascent stage. The cooperative of owners, a team of local men and women all committed to sustainability and conservation, will ensure its growth and development is organic and natural, although once the word is out, the rate of bookings might just blow them all out of the water.
Cheers,
Catherine
Catherine is a travel writer specialising in eco and responsible tourism. You can read about more of her travels on Ethical Traveller or follow her on Twitter or Facebook.
