Digital detox: renting a house instead of a programme
By Robin — your host · 12 July 2026 · updated 10 October 2026 · 2 min read · Our method
A digital detox holds better in a rented house than in a supervised programme: nobody confiscates your phone, you put it away yourself. All you need is a place where boredom gets comfortable. Jura 835, in Foncine-le-Bas, is let whole to 6 to 8 people: a drawer for the phones, and the forest at the end of the meadow.
A house, not a programme
A hotel programme hands you a timetable: a session in the morning, herbal tea in the afternoon, silence at a set hour. The detox becomes one more obligation. Here there is no programme. You choose when to wake, what to cook, who talks and who stays quiet. Nobody asks you to switch off, which is exactly why it holds. The house takes your party and no other: the rule is agreed among yourselves.
One simple rule for phones
The first move fits in a drawer: phones inside, drawer shut. Agree on a short window, at the end of the day, to check messages, then everything goes back in the drawer. Choose one person who keeps a phone on for emergencies, and give that number to your family. In the first days, the hand still reaches for the pocket; the evening window reassures, and the habit fades without a fight. Bringing a small alarm clock also removes the excuse of the phone left on the bedside table.
Walking without a screen
The trails begin at the door. The Rapoutier circuit covers about 6.8 km, some 2 hr 15 min of walking; the voie du tram, an old railway line turned path, stretches over 11 km. Without a phone to take pictures, you look more. Take a paper map and write your return time on the table: the only useful screen is the one left at home for emergencies.
What is left
With the screen off, plenty remains. The Mont Noir forest begins at the edge of the village, and the Saine is reached by walking down the meadow. The fire takes in the stove; the long table carries the conversations that replace the feeds. Hands go back to older work: slicing bread, feeding the fire, shuffling cards. And at night the calm is complete, as silence at 835 metres describes.
The signal stays on
The fibre stays on through your detox, on a 1 Gbit/s line. It is there for a film night, the one call you cannot miss, the return ticket to check. The nuance is in the gesture: the signal is never missing, you are the one setting it aside. A detox you choose holds better than one imposed on you, and the drawer reopens when you decide.
Booking the house
Jura 835 is let whole, to a single party, with 3 bedrooms and a study. To plan the places and rhythms of a group, see sizing a retreat for eight. Write to us with your dates and group size: the reply comes directly from the host.