Just steps from the beach in the village of Lorient, Le Manoir de Lorient is a hidden treasure, a masterpiece of interior design and tropical landscaping. Ideal for families with children or a group of friends sharing the St. Barth experience together, this home offers places to gather and places to find quiet seclusion. Arriving guests often gasp at the unexpectedly grand vision before them when they first step into the property. Children will be especially astonished. Grassy lawns and a vast ipe deck surround the placid waters of an 8- by 20-meter pool. Turtle doves and tortoises wander the yard in search of fallen fruit from the mango tree. Seven different structures ring the meticulously tended yet natural-looking garden, offering five bedrooms and bathrooms in addition to plentiful common spaces. Exhibiting a design philosophy based on the crucial interaction between the textures of chosen materials, a muted color palette and carefully selected artworks, Le Manoir de Lorient is not just an island idyll, it is a design achievement. The main house of the property is an 18th-century French manoir shipped piece by piece from Normandy to St. Barth in the 1980's by the property's previous owners. When it went up for sale in 2006, Cristina Rodriguez, an accomplished designer from Barcelona, saw the enormous potential in the land's unique combination of convenience and seclusion. She decided to integrate the old manoire house into her vision, to respectfully update this treasure and transform it a loft-like main house for the kitchen, dining and living areas. Removing the upper floor and front wall of the house created an impressive sense of vertical dimension and revealed the classic beauty of the high, timbered ceiling. This space opens onto the garden and deck giving the kitchen, dining and living areas a real sense of integration with the outdoors, while the soft grey tones convey a sense of shaded retreat from the tropical sun. Each of the five bedrooms offers a different design or furnishing surprise. The ensuite baths offer Boffi fixtures and rain head showers or, in two cases, bathtubs designed by Piero Lissoni. The kitchen and dining area are mirrored on the outside of the manoire house by a huge outdoor barbecue and table. In the open pavilion beside the pool, decor of polished concrete, sucupira wood and sisal create an atmosphere of soothing relaxation. In ways both overt and subtle, conscious and subconscious, this home's deliberate and ingenious details of design never cease coaxing us into the right frame of mind for a perfect holiday.
