Pop-up cabins designed for stargazing

Pop-up hotel rooms and luxury camping are both concepts we’ve written about on numerous occasions, but it wasn’t until recently that we had seen a variation on the theme designed specifically for stargazing. Sure enough, French tourism company Bocages has created a pop-up cabin for four that features a transparent dome in the roof, a telescope and a sky observation kit. Carré d’étoiles are portable and reversible cube-shaped structures crafted with recyclable wood. Included in each parquet-floored cabin are a double cabin bed, a sofa bed for two, a kitchenette with refrigerator and hot plates, shower, toilet, wardrobe, electric heating, a bio-ethanol fireplace and cast-iron garden furniture for outside. In addition to modern conveniences like flat-screen TV and connections for MP3, phone and internet, Carré d’étoiles cabins also come equipped with bedding and towels, and extra services such as cleaning and breakfast can be added. Black-out blinds, meanwhile, facilitate use of the telescope and stargazing kit. Just launched this year, Carré d’étoiles have now been installed in several holiday spots in France. Pricing is EUR 25,000 per unit, according to a report on Forum Eco; structures are delivered fully equipped and ready to use, with an ROI ranging from at least 10 percent in the first year of operation to 30 percent or more in following years, Bocages says. One to set up under the starry skies in your neck of the woods…? (Related: Elqui Domos geodesic astro lodges — Farm camping in cottage-style tents.) Spotted by: Patrick Moizo