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Two hundred years a monastery,now a guesthouse

Come switch off

The stone façade of the guesthouse seen across its terrace, with canvas sling chairs in the foreground and pine-covered mountains rising behind

SaQi is a restored monastery guesthouse in the mountains of Lebanon. Two hundred years old, it sits among pine and garden, with a spring that still runs and a table long enough for everyone.

Come switch off

A whitewashed room with a low pallet bed and a floral quilt, a wooden ladder against the wall, and dense bundles of dried flowers hanging from the ceiling beams

idea 01Wake up inside the old stone.

A carved stone basin set against the bare stone wall of the Ermite room, beneath a dark round mirror

A whitewashed alcove in the Thyme room, with yellow mimosa in a glass jar, folded towels in a woven basket, and green and clear bottle bases set into the wall

A wooden bunk bed built against the bare stone wall of the Peony room, with a striped rug on the floor

Morning light through a linen curtain in the Ermite room, falling on a glass carafe and a wooden table

The stone guesthouse seen across the lawn through olive trees, with a hammock slung in the foreground

A breakfast table laid with fried eggs, tomato and cucumber salad, bread and blue ceramic bowls

idea 02Eat what the garden gave this morning.

A long outdoor table dressed in blue-striped cloth and set with earthenware, beside a wall of stacked terracotta jars

Two jars of homemade preserves labelled by hand, tomato sauce and vine leaves, standing on a stone wall

Hands shelling fresh peas onto a blue cloth spread over a wooden table in the sun

The Ermite room, with a kilim rug across the floor and French doors standing open onto the garden

Purple irises flowering in front of the guesthouse stone wall, with an olive tree overhead

A black-and-white photograph of two women, one young and one older, each carrying a huge armful of flowering branches under a rustic wooden shelter, tall grass in the foreground

The tree-lined drive up to the guesthouse, lined with potted plants and a red wooden door in the stone wall

The terrace table laid for dinner beneath hanging terracotta jugs, a blue striped cloth, roses at each place setting

idea 03Sit down at one very long table.

Bundles of wheat and dried herbs hanging to dry from a wrought-iron chandelier under the terrace roof, potted plants below

A single bed in the Peony room beneath a tall arched niche in the white plaster wall, with a sheepskin thrown across it

A vine-covered stone building at the end of a dry-stone garden path, its arched window catching the light

Pine-covered hillsides at dusk, the ridgeline dark against a pale sky

idea 04Walk straight into the pines.

A large rosemary bush in full pale blue flower in the garden

Roses and wildflowers growing thickly beneath an old tree in the garden

A woven tray of mezze — labneh, salad, olives, radishes and flatbread — laid out on a painted table