What if your overnight shelter were also a work of art? In the hills of Haute-Provence, that question has a practical answer. Writer Claudia Casper, in a piece for The Guardian Travel, describes a four-day stretch of the Refuges d'Art trail — a 150km, 10-day route based around Digne-les-Bains, where the artist Andy Goldsworthy transformed restored shepherd huts, farmhouses and a chapel into free, reservable, off-grid sleeping shelters, each housing a site-specific sculpture.
There are seven refuges on the full route, and Casper's group hiked roughly 45km over four days to reach three of them: La Forest, Le Vieil Esclangon and La Ferme Belon. Highlights include towering 2-3 metre stone sentinels built without mortar, a concave grey-stone chamber at La Forest lit only by a porthole to the sky, and a serpentine dried-mud river snaking up a wall at Le Vieil Esclangon. At La Ferme Belon, interlocking stone arches coil through the basement like a dragon — though the group cut that stay short thanks to a bat colony overhead and decamped to a B&B with pizza and rosé.
This is not a pampered trek. Hikers carry their own gear (around 9kg), keys are collected from the Maison Alexandra David-Neél museum in Digne-les-Bains, and dinners are freeze-dried meals eaten by candlelight. The terrain alternates gentle gravel tracks with proper climbs, so a reasonable fitness base helps — Casper trained by gradually loading her backpack before the trip. Rewards: geological formations shaped over millennia, wildflower meadows, complete mountain silence, and the strange pleasure of waking up inside an artwork. Goldsworthy himself put it simply: to sleep in a sculpture is a wonderful idea.
For travellers, this is a rare blend of contemporary art and slow mountain walking, and the free shelters make it unusually affordable once you're in France. It suits hikers comfortable with basic conditions — think sleeping platforms, no electricity, and the occasional mouse. Book the refuges ahead, pack a solid sleeping mat (a quiet one, if you value friendships), and budget time afterwards to soak in Digne-les-Bains' hot springs, a fitting end to sore legs.
