Seine-et-Marne, France

La Folie Barbizon

Price per night from$204.61

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR176.48), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

La Folie Barbizon Photos

Style

Creative take-oeuvre

Setting

Artist-adored Barbizon

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Trees and flowers glowing neon; mythical beasts; fairies and knights: at hotel and artist residence, La Folie Barbizon, 20-plus creatives (from painters to ceramicists) have been called on to do some serious world-building. Each room has been crafted into an immersive installation, inspired by the Pre-Impressionist legacy of the hotel’s scenic village home. Hone your own artistic skills with expert-led classes, and magic up stories of your own in the immensely pretty playground of nearby Fontainebleau Forest.

Smith Extra

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Free half-day bike rental

Facilities

Photos La Folie Barbizon facilities

Need to know

Rooms

21, including eight suites.

Check–Out

Noon; check-in, 3pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates are room-only, but you can buy buffet breakfast from €24 each.

Also

The hotel’s communal spaces (and public restroom) are accessible, and there are two rooms (a Garden Suite and Executive Room) adapted for guests with mobility issues. Both have a raised toilet, handrails and a roll-in shower in the bathroom; and widened doorways.

Hotel closed

The hotel closes annually from January to March.

At the hotel

Terrace, garden with pétanque, theatre, artist’s studio, fireplace-warmed library lounge with board games, boutique, Aigle wellies, bikes to borrow, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: air-conditioning, TV, tea- and coffee-making kit, free bottled water, bathrobes and slippers (on request), and Typology bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Each room is an immersive art installation, containing magical surprises by the cast of painters, sculptors, ceramicists and designers who contributed to the hotel's look. The brief follows artistic director Sarah Valente’s The Tale of Barbizon, a mythical account of the village’s history, which has been interpreted widely: as bird paintings by Ugo Schildge in room 206, chivalric flags by French fashion brand Pangea in 107 and 108, frescoes of the cosmos by Andrey Zouari in the Duplex Suite, UV murals by Antoine Carbonne in 001… And Marion Collard has picked and painted statement furnishings (we especially like the TVs balanced on easels). Prepare to be surprised — but, if you have a colour preference, staff will be sensitive to your tastes.

Spa

Dished in a cocooning setting in the main building's basement, treatments here (massages and facials) go a step beyond ‘touching grass’, starting with a ritual inspired by the holistic, Navajo ‘Hozho’ tradition, where you’re misted with cedar scent, listen to rustling leaves and imagine yourself as a firmly rooted tree through guided meditation; and finish by drawing a card from the Forest Oracle deck, to help you set an intention. This free-spirited mindfulness continues with a programme of yoga and Pilates, meditation, forest-bathing sessions, and gong baths; and there’s a sauna and cold shower for hot-cold wake-up calls.

Packing tips

Bring all your artistic tools. If your sketchpad fills up fast, you can buy a new one in the boutique (housed in the library), alongside watercolours and exclusive objets.

Also

The hotel has been expertly curated to appeal to awaken the senses, so — of course — there’s a custom scent, too: Alexandre Makhloufi’s earthy blend of moss, cypress, patchouli, cedar and eucalyptus.

Pet‐friendly

La Folie Barbizon welcomes dogs for a nightly charge of €25 for each pet, but you'll need to bring Fido's kit and food from home. See more pet-friendly hotels in Seine-et-Marne.

Children

Little Smiths are very welcome. The hotel’s decor is playful and based on a myth-weaving tale about Barbizon by the hotel’s artistic director; and creative activities will fire up little imaginations.

Best for

Tots, juniors and tweens with a penchant for paints, coloured pencils and getting messy with clay will love La Folie Barbizon.

Recommended rooms

An extra bed can be added to the Junior Suite and all suites, but the Duplex Suite, which sleeps up to six, is specially designed for families, with its cosy lounge, bunk-beds and galactic frescoes.

Activities

Classes with the current artist in residence can be tailored to little ones, and staff can arrange treasure hunts, ceramics or gardening workshops, bike rides and the chance to help with the harvest, in season. Kids will love exploring the forest, but if the weather isn’t permitting, there are board games in the library.

Meals

Children are welcome in the weekend-only restaurant, which has a dedicated menu of dishes suitable for younger palates. 

No need to pack

Crafting materials are abundant here.

Sustainability efforts

La Folie Barbizon has a vivid green streak — artistic director, Sarah Valente, is the founder of the Greenline Foundation, an organisation and endowment fund that supports global replanting and rewilding projects through art events and sales; the hotel supports its work and in return the organisation is sometimes a connecting point for collaborations with artists. This environmental conscientiousness is reflected in the hotel decor, not just its organic shapes and hues, but in Loumi le Floc’h’s stained-glass, made using aubergine peelings; Hugo Drubay’s plant-dyed paintings; or Papier Boulette’s recycled-paper frescoes. As an extension of the foundation, the hotel will host The Guild of Arts and Forests, a round table for creatives to discuss pressing green issues. Plus, menus are locavore, and the plants in the garden have been specially selected for their biodiversity and to attract pollinators.

Food and Drink

Photos La Folie Barbizon food and drink

Top Table

The blush-hued velvet sofa by the fireplace in the dining room is the cosiest, and there are tables out the front and back if you want to go alfresco.

Dress Code

This is no time for beige — with all the colour and creativity surrounding you, your outfit can be as fantastical as you like.

Hotel restaurant

In the weekend-only restaurant, chef Éric Fava’s food flows with the seasons and highlights the harvests; the resulting dishes are wholesome and French-leaning, with a twinge of nostalgia: say, mimolette-stuffed croquettes or braised beef with thyme-smoked pommes purée, followed by roasted figs on shortbread, topped with pine-infused cream. Throughout the week a selection of light tapas plates (cheeses, charcuterie) is served. The dining room is as imaginatively dressed as the rest of the hotel, with painted foliage climbing over its walls.

Hotel bar

At the bar (part of the dining room), masterpieces are composed of spirits, with cocktail combos taking a narrative cue from the surroundings, say the floral Rosemary Barbizon (with lavender, prosecco, rosemary and lime); or L'Éclat de Folie (with Saint-Germain, gin and ginger). There’s a long list of wines and spirits too, and printmaker Éloïse Van Der Heyden has crafted leafy curtains for the space, atmospherically lit by Marine Breynaert’s mediaeval-style torches.

Last orders

The restaurant is open from Friday evening for dinner till Sunday lunch.

Location

Photos La Folie Barbizon location
Address
La Folie Barbizon
5 Grande Rue
Barbizon
77630
France

Set a day-tripping distance from Paris, La Folie Barbizon sits in namesake commune Barbizon, a pretty, artist-luring enclave at the edge of the Fontainebleau Forest.

Planes

Paris-Orly Airport is the closest, a 90-minute drive from the hotel; touching down at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle adds up to 30 minutes to the journey. Hotel staff can arrange transfers on request from €75 each way.

Trains

From Paris’s Gare de Lyon, the train to Bois-le-Roi takes just 30 minutes; from there, Barbizon is a 15-minute taxi ride.

Automobiles

A car will come in handy in this pastoral patch, if you want to explore the villages and cruise through scenic vistas. There’s free public parking by the forest, just a few metres from the hotel, and on nearby streets.

Other

Those with the stamina for a four-hour trip could cycle from Paris to Barbizon, a popular route for expert riders.

Worth getting out of bed for

https://www.restaurant-fuumi.com/enLike Giverny, Barbizon’s fame outstrips its petit size due to its artistic allure. It’s considered the cradle of Pre-Impressionism, beloved by 19th-century painters such as Gustave Courbet, Théodore Rousseau and Jean-François Millet. As La Folie Barbizon attests, creatives are still drawn to the village’s natural beauty. Take an admiring look at their legacy at the Barbizon School Museum, the inn where painters once stayed, filled with works from that era. The Millet Museum also has every inch of wall covered, and the painters’ circuit cuts through forests and fields that inspired the group (you may spy Jean Tinguely’s more modern Le Cyclop sculpture). You can nurture your own talent at the hotel, where monthly changing resident artists hold workshops for all abilities; and find inspiration by just wandering the halls, seeking out pieces by the 20-plus artists who helped design the hotel, from dinky pink bats to vast, mythical frescoes.

Spirit sating also comes from tarot readings, live concerts, and horseback or bike rides (borrow from the hotel's fleet) through Fontainebleau Forest, just at the end of the road. More intrepid sorts can try rock- or tree-climbing, too. 

Local restaurants

Le Relais Barbizon is an upscale, white-tablecloth establishment, serving all the finer things in life: lobster many ways, Gillardeau oysters, fillet steak and, for dessert, crêpes Suzette or Grand Marnier soufflé — so date nights are best taken here. It has a dedicated, super-fresh sushi menu, too. Or, for Michelin-starred Japanese fare, drive 15 minutes through the forest to Fuumi in Fontainebleau, where you’ll find refined takes on donburi, ramen and okonomiyaki. There’s an extremely reasonable bento-style lunch available every day except Saturday, too. 

Local cafés

L’Esquisse has a charming café serving cheese and charcuterie platters, warming soups, salads, quiches and pâtisseries. It’s also home to Sketch Museum, which has several notable 19th-century works.  

Local bars

Barbizon isn’t known for its nightlife, but local bistro Le Gaulois has an epic-length wine list, repping a wide range of terroirs, plus authentic, rustic fare (snails, calf’s head, pig’s trotter). 

Reviews

Photos La Folie Barbizon reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this painted lady on the outskirts of Paris and unpacked their sketchpads and tins of Caran d'Ache pencils, a full account of their express-yourself break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside La Folie Barbizon in Seine-et-Marne…

French, country-house hideaway La Folie Barbizon has reached the apotheosis of hotel art. Here, suites become galaxies, mythical creatures feel at home, forest murals take on a bioluminescent glow and eggplant slices arranged into stained-glass windows give light an ethereal quality. Part of the Chapitre Six group, the hotel is the project of nightlife legend and hotelier Lionel Bensemoun.

More than 20 artists cast this creative alchemy, turning each room into its own world. Cultural osmosis comes on strong, too: you’ll appreciate the environmental ambitions of the hotel’s Greenline Foundation (saving nature through art); be inspired to get hands-on (whether you buy a sketchbook from the boutique or get schooled in the resident artist’s craft); and soak up the legacy of the Pre-Impressionists who were drawn to Barbizon and the Fontainebleau Forest’s natural splendour. There are plenty of opportunities to get active amid the canvas-ready scenery, too. 

Book now

Price per night from $187.82

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