L'Etoile Guesthouse. A mountain retreat in the South of France Former resort Hotel built in 1926 in the architectural style typical of the "Roaring Twenties", L'Etoile Guest house is a mountain retreat in the South of France. With a beautiful garden along the Allier River, L'Etoile Guesthouse is located in La Bastide-Puylaurent between Lozere, Ardeche and Cevennes. Bedrooms are spacious and comfortable on the garden side. Big veranda, terraces, balcony, dining room with fire-place, piano and bar. Large garden along the Allier river. Meeting room, Private parking lot. Garage for bicycles. Many hiking trails like GR®7, GR®70 Stevenson trail, GR®72, GR®700 Regordane way, Cevenol, GR®470 Allier river, Margeride. Many hiking loops. The right place to relax.

Being the boss of a Guest-house, Bed and Breakfast or a Farmstay is the realization of an ideal for one and a necessary source of income for another. Here is a lover of adventure, Philippe Papadimitriou, who managed to join these two objectives in a small village north of the Cevennes. "A young man of high stature whose grandfather was at the time the owner of the Hotel de Paris to Cairo in Egypt (8, rue el-Maghraby, el-Abaseya district, near the University of Ain Shams)," was the description given by Nicholas Crane in 'Clear waters rising' after a long walk during a year and a half from Cape Finisterre in Portugal to Istanbul in Turkey with a stopover at L'Etoile. He enjoys a meal with wild mushrooms when Philippe is playing piano near the open fire. During his stay, he wrote the story how Philippe bought and transformed this former resort hotel. "It was, he said, an intuition, not a scientific experiment." Nicholas Crane was clearly fascinated by the Belgian-Greek Philippe Papadimitriou. No wonder this because the history of the life of this former gold prospector to the many small jobs is full of twists. How he landed in the Cevennes is a story in itself.

Small mid-mountain village at the start of many hikes