There’s a place in Brazil where clichés come true. Perched on a hill above a fishing village is a white house with blue window frames, overlooking a small bay. Fishing boats bob in the foreground; in the distance, the shore swings round into a long stretch of deserted beach, framed by miles of untouched rainforest and twisting mangrove swamps. As unspoilt paradises go, the village of Picinguaba is hardly an original.

As if to prove that this is Hollywood film set territory, enter Emmanuel Rengade, a handsome, high-flying and disenchanted Frenchman working for Enron.  Stumbling on Picinguaba, at the age of 31, he decided this was his chance for a better, more emotionally rich life. Cashing in his chips just before Enron went down in 2001, he bought the picture-postcard property sitting on the coast, four hours between Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo. Over the next three years he transformed it into a small hotel.