"I never saw my children," says Richard Kozik when I ask him why he threw in his career as an electronic engineer in Paris, writes Andrew Stone. "It was madness. Why was I working so hard if I couldn't even spend time with my own family? I needed a radical change." So rather than fine-tune his big-city life, he sold up and bought a disused wine co-operative in the foothills of the Savoie Alps, east of Lyons, and turned it into a B&B.
But not just any B&B. La Bicyclette Fleurie is one of a new breed of "eco-gîtes" opening up long-neglected parts of France to a new breed of traveller. Rebuilt using local wood and stone, heated by a combination of solar panels and a pellet-burning boiler, it's designed with a near-monastic sense of simplicity, and run with serious-minded commitment to the environment. Kozik bakes his own bread in a wood-fired oven and sources almost all his food from local suppliers.
Kozik's gîte is the perfect base for anyone looking to explore the deep valleys, rolling hills and historic villages of a part of the world that's not quite high enough to have a ski industry, and not quite vinous enough for gastronomic tourists - Kozik encourages his guests to bike, hike and kayak across it.
He's joined in this enthusiasm by Emmanuel Lopez, the owner of the new Les Suites du Lac on the banks of the Lac du Bourget, further east. Lopez is another refugee from city life and although his project is rather more luxurious, it's still a great springboard for those wanting to explore the region - especially the wilder upland scenery of the Massif des Bauges nearby. Stay in both, and you might just want to run away to Savoie, too.
Return rail travel from London to Lyons starts from £99 with Rail Europe (0844 848 4070, raileurope.co.uk). Next summer, one week's hire car from Carrentals.co.uk, in Lyons, starts at £184. At La Bicyclette Fleurie, doubles cost from £70 a night, B&B (00 33 474 900 655, la-bicyclette-fleurie.com). At Les Suites du Lac (00 33 479 635 918, lessuitesdulac.com), doubles cost from £85, B&B