What if the wellness reset you’ve been looking for doesn’t involve another routine, app, or treatment? Writer Laura Field headed to the French Alps to explore the restorative power of nature at Chalet Sisar.
Words: Laura Field. Images: Mathilde Sauvage, Chalet Sisar, OVO Network, Pierrick Aubert
I was surrounded by the tinkling of cow and goat bells. The chirps of birdsong were thrown into the mix. The Summer Solstice morning sun was making itself known and I could feel it kissing my skin. Insects were crawling around beneath me. And this was all while I was stretching in downward dog as my yoga teacher, Marie, was gently guiding me through our morning practice.
We were on the front lawn of Chalet Sisar, a sanctuary built from wood and stone that overlooks the Col des Aravis, just outside the town of La Clusaz in the French Alps.
These various observations and sensations of what was around me couldn’t have been in more of a stark contrast to the noise and overwhelm of a heatwave-stricken Paris where I’d been the day before. Arriving in the Alps felt like a true breath of fresh air and I wanted to prolong this sense of calm as much as possible.
We speak a lot about reconnecting to nature to improve our health, especially in the mountains, with alpine air long heralded for its healing power. But actively reconnecting with nature requires both lots of intentional effort and also absolutely none at all. I was grateful to be guided, so there was no option but to listen to Marie’s instructions and mindlessly follow suit. Being guided to reconnect with nature was the undercurrent of my five-day stay in the French Alps.
Food for thought
After our mountainside yoga session, we returned to the cooling embrace of Chalet Sisar’s living and dining area to feast on the colourful creations of nutritionist and ayurveda-inspired chef, Valérie Germain.
Pots of refreshing beetroot gazpacho, apricot and avocado tartelettes adorned with bright orange flowers, and a chocolate mousse made with barley and sesame were washed down with a cordial infused with meadowsweet that had been foraged from the alpine slopes outside. I noted how quickly we can adapt to the soothing feeling of being in nature; I’d only been in the Alps for a day and yet I felt that I’d been there for several.
The following day, we were treated to a cooking masterclass by alpine chef Damien Burgat-Charvillon who co-chefs at restaurant Le Bois Clair in Thônes, a town between La Clusaz and the lakeside city of Annecy. He shared simple secrets for how to cook subtly sweet, glazed carrots (not boiling them with water and adding a generous portion of butter was the general gist) as well as how to successfully fillet a fish and make a traditional fluffy Savoie cake, accompanied by seasonal local strawberries. I found his class meditative.
There’s nothing as relaxing as watching an expert chef go about their rhythm in the kitchen, all the while sharing their tips with you and encouraging you to try your hand at these tricks yourself. I found his handwritten notebook firmly placed on the counter as his trusty companion particularly charming.
Using our hands to prepare and transform ingredients and make a communal meal is surely one of the simplest joys in life, and an immediate way to feel grounded and reconnected to the natural world.
The great outdoors
And sure enough, we spent plenty of time outside. We got to experience Le Plateau de Beauregard and the views of the jagged Aravis mountain range aplenty. Led by expert hiking guide, Béatrice Fierens Gevaert, we made our way past peat bogs that present as picturesque humid meadows, which are part of a Natura 2000 nature conservation area.
Béatrice explained how the local community collectively works together to protect the land while ensuring that they can make a livelihood like the farms that produce local Savoie favourite, the softly pungent reblochon cheese. “A messy forest is a healthy forest,” she shared, as we wandered through woodland that had branches scattered here and there.
It was reassuring to see the natural world in a dishevelled yet thriving state. I wondered how this might translate to us as humans and how we don’t need to be pristinely groomed to be perfectly healthy. A bit of disorder actually does us a world of good.
Foraging wasn’t just done by the experts. We got the opportunity to get hands-on too. We ventured out with Nicolas Collomb-Clerc, a plant specialist and foraging expert based in La Clusaz who also teaches his plant knowledge to children in local schools. Within just a few hundred metres of Chalet Sisar, he walked us through a plethora of plants and flowers, carefully explaining their health benefits and how to prepare them in infusions, meals, sweet treats and ointments.
He showed us wild thyme, hyssop and wild spinach, which can be added to salads or used to make soothing infusions, plantain that can be rubbed on sunburn or blisters, and St John’s wort, which can be used “for a lack of sunshine in your heart” as Nicolas shared, or in other words to help treat depression. I was astonished by just how many plants and flowers had medicinal properties.
I barely knew their names, let alone their health benefits. “I’m not a good gardener. Nature is my garden. It’s already here…” Nicolas shared, which left me inspired. It proved that we don’t need to be an expert in anything, or bear the burden of feeling pressured to be all-knowing; we just need to learn from the land that surrounds us.
Chalet Sisar is available to rent from June to September, with OVO Network offering 7 nights’ rental for €2690 from 5 September 2026. For resort information about the town of La Clusaz and the village of Manigod in the French Alps, visit: www.laclusaz.com and www.manigod.com
