A drive through the mountains and we are outside a traditional stone house in Ain Zhalta, Lebanon, surrounded by pine trees and cedars. We bump into a small branch, it’s a mulberry tree, ‘that’s where the story of La Maison des Sources started’ Alia, one of the owners, tells us.
We walk through the garden of the Bed & Breakfast, guests are lounging on the terrace shaded by the pink flowers of a Judas tree, with a view on a luscious pine forest and the majestic cedars of the Shouf reserve. In the vegetable garden jeweler Alia Mouzannar and her husband gallerist Fadi Mogabgab are growing eggplants, artichokes, asparagus… ‘I spot the foul (fava beans) growing’ she says. We climb up the stairs onto a gorgeous terrace overlooking the forest where a bar area is being set, to welcome hikers and cross-country skiers for a homemade sourdough bagel with a view of an orangey sunset. ‘Everything we eat is local.’ At dinner guests can find a fresh salad with tomatoes, zaatar and basil, zucchini fritters with shoumar (fennel), or quiche with local goat cheese called ambariss, Fadi's specialty. The cheese is traditionally made in spring ‘that’s the season when goats give birth, so they produce a delicious milk’ Alia explains. In the village and at La Maison des Sources everyone lends a hand; the reserve guide grazes his herd in the afternoon, same for the electrician who goes back to his ma3az (goats), traditions are kept intact. Abdo, who works in the team, discovered a passion for making manouche and asks us if we would like one. A few minutes later breakfast is waiting for us with the creamiest kishk manouche, sfarjal (quince), mulberry and prune jams, fresh oranges that we squeeze in just one push with a traditional juicer, goat cheese and mint on sourdough toasts homemade by Fadi, eggs cooked a la coque, and little daisies in glass vases; ‘you will find the flowers of the season on the table.’ On the sobia (traditional heater) in the kitchen,’ Fadi explains ‘you can warm up the room but also use it to cook a meal inside or on the top stove.’ In their nature haven, the couple hosts wellbeing retreats with yoga, quietness and healthy delicacies on the menu and sometimes invites chefs to cook with fresh products from the garden ‘we recently hosted Rouba Khalil who did a dreamy goat cheese ice cream with thyme, olive oil based.’
The couple and their children used to come every May to pluck the fruits from the Mulberry tree. The house nearby was abandoned and they dreamed of making something of it one day. On a summer evening, sitting with their friends, Camille and Damien Degueldre, a French couple fond of Lebanon and particularly this green region, they envisioned their Bed & Breakfast project. With architect Sherif Aoun, they renovated the house keeping its traditional features. Inside the lounge area with its stone arcades, a wooden bar reigns, conceived by architects Karim Chaya and Michele Maria as a reception/recreation area. We find paintings on wood that Alia made, a baby foot and all sorts of musical instruments, she tells us the night before guests jammed together spontaneously. The owners carefully decorated each room with mosaic floor tiles and stones lime plastered as per the tradition in Lebanese mountains, a material that breathes with the seasons. Peculiar charming details dot the space like a beige pink room that seems sculpted in the rock, whimsical wicker chandeliers, wooden beds, a cute cave-like mezzanine for children, and windows that open onto views of the mountains and singing birds. The walls of the vaulted hallway are covered in works from various artists such as Michel Pelloille or Marwan Sahmarani who resided in the adjacent ‘residence d’artistes’. We visit the atelier, sprinkled with sculptures and paintings of artists inspired by views of the village, centuries old cedars, surrounding historic palaces and vineyards. Fadi fell for an old etching printing press and passionately tells us about the process from engraving the drawing into metal, carefully dripping the ink, and printing with 2 tons of pressure applied per square centimeter. Alia crafts etchings depicting fruit trees, mimosas, colored with rose gold and silver foil, a flamboyant Beirut in May blooming with flowers and everything about the 'Lebanon that we love,’ and that the couple is passionately preserving.
www.lamaisondessources.com
@lamaisondessources
Photo credits: Walid Rashid
