Ouatapan, perched in the mountains, surrounded by a wonderful forest, is as mysterious as its name!
What sounds like “water” actually refers to it: It originated from the local patois and means “wet grassy meadow”, which describes the place perfectly.
There are three chalets, none of them used permanently, but everything is still being looked after. No electricity, no warm water, but a cold stream and one of the locals even installed his own “shower” – a garden hose getting water higher up the mountain from the stream and spitting it out again on demand.
The only permanent inhabitants of Ouatapan are a couple of sheep, sometimes a few cows when the time has come for them to stay in the mountain pastures. While one of the chalets serves as a barn for the sheep in winter, the other two are actually habitable, and sometimes people stay, using the isolation and simplicity of the place as a way to recharge and reconnect with themselves. A retreat for the overworked, the fat-rat-racers, the corporate partisans, basically everyone could do with a little bit more Ouatapan in their lives.