This low-frills, family-run eco-inn in the French Pyrénées melds tasteful comfort and green-mindedness with storybook environs. The Orri is an old stone and wood farmhouse that was renovated into ten bright, warm-hued guestrooms with simple furnishings and plush bedding. Its library and other cozy sitting areas are as inviting as the huge fireside dining table around which guests gather family-style to eat meals, lovingly prepared with local and organic

This low-frills, family-run eco-inn in the French Pyrénées melds tasteful comfort and green-mindedness with storybook environs. The Orri is an old stone and wood farmhouse that was renovated into ten bright, warm-hued guestrooms with simple furnishings and plush bedding. Its library and other cozy sitting areas are as inviting as the huge fireside dining table around which guests gather family-style to eat meals, lovingly prepared with local and organic ingredients.

Planès is a quaint village with a famous 11th-century Romanesque church and a small cheese-making farm run by a local shepherd. Its location along the Trans-Pyrénées Hiking Trail, which runs from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, make L'Orri an ideal stepping-off point for all kinds of walks among an alpine landscape that includes pine-lined ponds, lush flower-filled valleys, dramatic rock formations, and distant, snowcapped peaks. Hikers, cyclists, rock climbers, horseback riders (and skiers and snowshoers in the winter) sometimes return to the lodge with stories of wildlife encounters. Mountain goats, wild boar, isards (the Pyrénées goat-deer), marmots, and foxes all share this valley.

It's fitting that teachers and mountaineers bent on promoting awareness and reflecting an environmental consciousness converted the Orri into a cutting-edge steward of the land. The majority of the lodge's energy is either generated on-site or derived from renewable resources. Hot water and heating are mostly solar thermal, and electricity comes from a solar photovoltaic system.