ISLAND LIFE

Les Petites Maisons

Sotta - France

Five stone cottages above Sotta, each with its own colour and its own terrace, built like a shepherd’s hut and furnished like nothing of the sort.

Adults Only

Countryside

Beach 20km

In Room Breakfast

Honesty Bar

Hike

THE SETTING

Les Petites Maisons is a small boutique guesthouse in the hills above Sotta, in Corsica’s deep south, roughly fifteen minutes from Porto-Vecchio and the beaches of Santa Giulia. The property sits in Raghino, a scattered hamlet surrounded by maquis, with the Cagna mountains on one side and the forested slopes of Ospédale on the other.

In 2018, Marie-Laure and Jean-Claude — already living in the property’s original stone house — built four independent cottages around it, styled after the traditional Corsican bergerie, using stone quarried nearby. A fifth cottage, more private and with its own pool, followed in 2024.

THE ROOMS

Five stone cottages, each about 30 square metres, built in the shape of a shepherd’s hut but finished inside with contemporary furniture — wood, metal, rope and wicker, a small lounge corner, a desk, and an open bathroom with a double sink and a rain shower. Every cottage has its own colour and mood: warm yellow in one, soft beige in another, a green so calm it barely registers. The fourth leans into Moroccan pattern and detail, with a freestanding tub beside a picture window that looks straight out at the maquis.

The newest cottage, added in 2024, is the most private of the five — its own small pool, a terracotta palette, and enough distance from the others that you could easily forget anyone else is on the property. All five open onto a wooden terrace strung with an upturned-basket pendant light, facing the garden and the mountains beyond.

THE FOOD

Breakfast arrives each morning in a woven basket, left outside your door or on your private terrace at whatever time you’ve asked for — no set hour, no shared dining room, just you, the view, and a spread built from fresh, local, organic produce. It’s a generous breakfast, not a dainty one: enough bread, fruit and spreads to make the morning stretch, especially with those mountains in front of you.

There’s no restaurant on site, but Marie-Laure and Jean-Claude keep a short, trusted list of nearby places, and it shows — these read like recommendations from people who’ve actually eaten at each one, not a printed list handed to every guest. Ask, and you’ll likely leave with more than one good dinner sorted for the rest of your stay.

THE STAY

The heated pool sits just below the cottages, ringed with sun loungers and framed by the same mountains you’ll have been looking at all day. Walking and cycling routes start directly from the property, ranging from an easy hour to a full day. The maquis around the hamlet is wild enough that wild boar occasionally wander through — harmless, and more curious about the vegetation than about guests.

It’s an adults-only stay, and a quiet one by design: five cottages spread far enough apart that privacy is the default, not something you have to ask for. The property doesn’t take bookings for parties or celebrations of any kind — this is a house for rest, not a venue.

AROUND LES PETITES MAISONS

Sotta is a small inland village, but the coast is close: Porto-Vecchio’s marina and old town are about fifteen minutes away, and two of Corsica’s most photographed beaches, Santa Giulia and Palombaggia, sit roughly the same distance in the other direction — both worth an early start in high season, before the sand fills in.

Inland, the forest and lake of Ospédale make a cooler counterpoint to the beach days: granite boulders, pine woods, and hiking trails that empty out fast once you’re a few minutes past the car park. Bonifacio, Corsica’s dramatic clifftop citadel town at the island’s southern tip, is about 30 minutes by car — worth a full afternoon for the old town’s narrow lanes alone, and a boat trip out to see the limestone cliffs from the water.

Figari airport is about fifteen to twenty minutes from the property, making this one of the more convenient bases in southern Corsica despite how remote it feels once you’re there.

THE OWNERS

Marie-Laure and Jean-Claude built Les Petites Maisons themselves, cottage by cottage, starting in 2018 — the kind of project that only makes sense if you already love the land you’re building on. They still live on the property, in the original stone house the five cottages were built around, and it shows in the details: restaurant recommendations that never miss, breakfast that arrives exactly when you want it, and the sense that nothing here has been handed off to a management company.

GOOD TO KNOW

Style — Intimate 5-cottage guesthouse, adults-only, in the hills above Sotta

Rooms — 5 independent stone cottages (~30 sqm), one with a private pool

Location — Raghino, Sotta, southern Corsica; ~15 min from Porto-Vecchio, Santa Giulia and Palombaggia beaches

Getting there — Figari–Sud Corse Airport (~15–20 min)

Extras — Heated pool, organic breakfast, walking and cycling routes from the property, views of the Cagna and Ospédale mountains

Rates — From €180 per night

Best for — Couples wanting a quiet, private base close to both the beaches and the hills of southern Corsica

THE ADDRESS