"Parisians are not so unlike Londoners and New Yorkers. Come Friday, they, too, hightail it to the country for 48 hours of blissfully slower living. Their options for where to spend the weekend have been mostly restricted to ancestral manors and castles that require serious mileage to reach—as well as a dress code at dinner. Last summer’s opening of rustic Le Barn changed all that. This former horse-riding academy turned nature camp for grown-ups, 34 miles southwest of Paris, is an extension of the very cool boutique-hotel scene sweeping the city’s north-central arrondissements; one that marries urban taste and country retreat. So much so that the Isabel Marant–wearing crowd drinking at the Hoxton in the Marais on a Wednesday is the same one soaking in Le Barn’s outdoor Nordic baths the following Saturday. Design Studio Be-poles, which was responsible for the louche interiors of Le Pigalle hotel, did a fine job of keeping the countryside in focus here, placing plants throughout and blending raw materials such as corkboard in the rooms, which were used to store grain in the 1950s. Though it’s what’s on the outside that counts: hikes through the surrounding Rambouillet forest, outdoor film screenings, and yoga under the trees. As Paris moves in a direction that feels increasingly hipster, Le Barn is the type of place where those breathing new life into the city go to recharge. FLASH POINT There is no set checkout time on Sundays; don’t rush through a brunch of local charcuterie and cheeses, organic fruit jams, and oven-fresh baguettes and croissants. +33 1-86-38 -00-00; lebarnhotel.com. Doubles from about $165." - CNT Editors
