Villa Gaia

Stays

A charming hotel on the edge of the Alpes de Haute-Provence, for a break, a thermal cure, a hike from one artwork to the next, or a workshop.

Charming hotel and gardens

For many years we have hosted personal development workshops in our house. Its size, its natural setting and the attention we pay to our guests’ well-being make it a peaceful place to take a break and find new resources within yourself.

Bright room with turquoise walls hung with floral fabrics, a work table, straw chairs, a chest of drawers and a French window onto a balcony.
The house desk, under the floral fabrics

Health and wellness stays

Digne-les-Bains is a thermal and climatic resort in the heart of the Haute-Provence Geopark. The thermal baths offer medical cures and fitness treatments, and the region enjoys plenty of sunshine.

To make the most of a thermal cure, you need to rest and take a pause. Villa Gaia, a small charming hotel surrounded by a large wooded garden, offers that natural, restful setting. It has its own wellness facilities and menus adapted to all diets.

We favour simple, healthy, balanced and natural food, convinced that it is the first medicine. We regularly host yoga, Pneumacorps and holistic gymnastics workshops, presented further down this page.

A yoga room with terracotta walls and a waxed parquet floor, several white, pink and purple mats laid out near large French windows.
The yoga room

  • Wellness stay

    Five days, four nights on half board, in a double room shared by two people.

    Discover the benefits of healthy, balanced eating.

    €390per person

  • Health stay: thermal cure

    Twenty-one days on half board, in a double room shared by two people.

    If you are taking a thermal or medical cure in Digne-les-Bains, we adapt our menus to your wishes and your treatment. The natural, restful setting of Villa Gaia will help you get the full benefit of your cure.

    €82per person per day

  • Hiking and contemporary art stay

    From 15 April to 15 October. Three days, two nights on half board, with a tasty homemade picnic each day.

    Price based on a double room shared by two people.

    €210per person

  • In the footsteps of Alexandra David-Néel

    Two days, one night on half board, in a double room shared by two people, with a packed “lunch box” for lunch.

    €115per person

In addition, subject to availability

  • Join a hiking group to get some fresh air and discover our beautiful region.
  • Book a mini-cure at the Thermes de Digne-les-Bains.
  • Sign up for a yoga, Pneumacorps, holistic gymnastics or crafts workshop.
  • Visit the nearby David-Néel Foundation, the art refuges and the contemporary artworks set in open nature.

Contemporary art and geological heritage

Put on your walking boots and set off to discover the UNESCO Haute-Provence Geopark, its geological heritage, its fossil deposits and the works in the Musée Gassendi’s mountain art collection. Renowned contemporary artists have installed works along the trails: Joan Fontcuberta, herman de vries, Richard Nonas and Andy Goldsworthy, whose art refuges can be visited in a star pattern from Villa Gaia.

With our partners at the Musée Gassendi and the Haute-Provence Geopark, we can help you organise a themed stay or put you in touch with approved, passionate guides. Groups hike in a star pattern around Villa Gaia with an approved guide: ask us for the next dates.

A pink wrought-iron handrail with decorative scrolls beside a stone staircase, in front of a large leafy tree.
Wrought-iron handrail in the park

Land art and art refuges

The Haute-Provence Geological Reserve, a UNESCO Geopark, is a source of inspiration. For many years, contemporary artists have placed their works along the hiking trails. Around Digne you can find Joan Fontcuberta’s mermaids on a cliff face, herman de vries’s inscriptions and “traces” in the hollow of a rock, or a Richard Nonas “alignment” on a mountain top.

Andy Goldsworthy was one of the first contemporary artists to install works in the region. Over time he created seven “art refuges” all around Digne-les-Bains, which we invite you to discover in a star pattern starting from Villa Gaia.

These works complement the collection of the Musée Gassendi, which also holds Andy Goldsworthy’s clay wall and a display case by Mat Dion. The CAIRN art centre regularly shows contemporary artists from all backgrounds.

In the Villa Gaia library we have gathered substantial documentation on these artists. We treasure the memory of Andy Goldsworthy’s stays with us: he even honoured us with a piece in the park while Thomas Riedelsheimer was filming his latest film about him, Leaning into the wind.

We are members of the association L’Art en chemin, which promotes art in open nature in the region and offers logistical support to make visits easier. For quality guidance, we can put you in touch with French- and English-speaking guides. A transfer service for people and luggage is also available.

In the footsteps of Alexandra David-Néel

Alexandra David-Néel spent the last years of her life in Digne-les-Bains. Her home, Samten Dzong, now houses a foundation and museum that help you get to know “the woman with wind in her soles”.

In our library we have gathered books on Alexandra David-Néel, and also on Tibet, orientalism and travel writers. Looking at our “Himalaya for Lilliputians”, you may see what drew her to the Alpes de Haute-Provence. A hike is in order.

With luck, you may stay in one of the rooms of the house we dedicated to her. And why not round it off with a culinary experience built around the flavours of India?

Lavender in bloom and in celebration

It is hard to predict when the lavender will flower, but the sight and the scent are such that a visit is a must between mid-June and mid-July. Ask us for our suggested routes by car or by bike around Digne.

Workshops hosted at Villa Gaia

For this kind of workshop, please contact us.

Full-presence meditation and sensory gymnastics

“Meeting yourself”

This workshop is led by Martine Guidet, a practitioner of perceptive pedagogy.

In daily life we are constantly in demand, which brings tiredness and stress, and taking time for yourself is sometimes hard. With simple tools, Full Presence meditation ® and movement done in a slow, relaxed way, Sensory Gymnastics ®, Martine Guidet helps you find a new balance between body and mind, set down tiredness and stress, and gain fluidity and vitality. Awakening new perceptions leads to more presence to yourself, to others and to the world. Taking the time for movement, the time for the body, to recover well-being and quality of life: a deep and savoury inner experience.

Kashmiri yoga

This workshop is led by Marie-Claire Reigner who, after a career as a dancer, trained in somatic education techniques, which she has taught for thirty years. She holds state diplomas in gymnastic expression and in the Ehrenfried, F. M. Alexander and Feldenkrais methods. In 1994 she was moved by the Kashmiri yoga taught by Éric Baret and has never stopped exploring this art of listening and breath, the ultimate reflections of silence. In 2000, at Éric Baret’s request, she began to pass on this art of listening. For about ten years she has assisted him at his seminars.

Nathalie Delay takes part in the workshop for meditation, and Éric Baret for the discussions.

Holistic gymnastics and psychophony

This workshop is led by Michèle Ménage, a physiotherapist qualified in 1975 and trained by Françoise Mézières in 1980. To deepen her understanding of how the human body works as a whole, she studied Structural Integration, or Rolfing, in the United States. She became a certified Rolfer in 1986 and an advanced Rolfer in 1995. Since 1997 she has been certified in Holistic Gymnastics®, or the Ehrenfried method. She sees patients individually and in groups.

The method was founded by Dr Lily Ehrenfried in 1933. It is concrete and subtle physical work that aims at harmony through movement, using the intelligence of body and mind. Based on sensory awakening and awareness, it invites students, starting from simple movements, to discover their natural mobility and to free themselves from the educational and mechanical constraints that often cause stiffness, compression and pain. Holistic Gymnastics® has a therapeutic, preventive and educational dimension.

Sylvie Bourrel, trained in psychophony by Marie-Louise Aucher, takes part in some workshops.

Lyrical singing

Workshop led by Émilie Desmond and Brigitte Peyré.

Information and bookings

Tell us what you are looking for and we will reply with the dates available.

Information and bookings 04 92 31 21 60