Le Barn
Hotel · Bonnelles
Le Moulin de Brétigny, 78830 Bonnelles, France
Highlights
Chic barn hotel with spa, dining, horse riding, and forest hikes.
Chic barn hotel with spa, dining, horse riding, and forest hikes.
"Set 45 minutes from Paris near Rambouillet, I found Le Barn to be a bucolic, Parisian-approved rural bolthole that feels like a tasteful farmhouse with renovated barns, cabin-like family rooms, and a watercolor mill amid grazing fields and Rambouillet Forest. The staff were remarkably affable—able to conjure practical solutions like early in-room suppers for tired children—and families enjoy pony rides, complimentary bike excursions, pottery, petanque, fishing, boating, and country breakfasts of crepes and orchard jams before gathering for home-baked cakes and hot chocolate by the lounge’s ceramic stove or on the wisteria terrace. " - Lauren Burvill
"The on-site restaurant foregrounds seasonal produce, much of it grown on the property, offering straightforward vegetable-forward dishes such as summer squash with fresh garden herbs that showcase the estate’s garden-to-plate ethos." - Rosecrans Baldwin Rosecrans Baldwin Rosecrans Baldwin is a Los Angeles Times best-selling author and essayist. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Slate, Salon, GQ, and The Morning News, among other publications. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines
"Le Barn, a pastoral escape outside Paris, is among the spaces brought to life by Clémentine Larroumet's narrative design."
"Set the scene.A drive through the woods south of Paris leads to what feels like a Gallic Soho farmhouse, set amid meadows, with grain stores, big-roofed barns and a 19th-century mill transformed into a hotel, where Clark the dog supervises children modeling with clay from the games closet, and piles of brunch-time charcuterie await in the conservatory. What’s the story behind it?It’s part of Marugal, a Paris-based mini-group that white-labels some of its properties for their respective owners, and is planning to take Le Barn concept global—affordable, well-designed family-friendly rooms set in compellingly natural landscapes, a short drive from the city. Shanghai may be next. What can we expect from our room?Parisian design studio Be-poles—other projects include NoMad hotels in New York and L.A.—has repurposed several Fifties barns into bedrooms with waxed canvas curtains, Shaker-style furniture and Frédéric Forest horse sketches tacked to cork walls. Some have shared balconies overlooking a fishing pond. Bathrooms are sleek in matte black and white Metro tiles; white linen-sheeted beds were comfortable but the overall impression is one of Moonrise Kingdom summer camp rather than country pile. The tech is non-invasive and works well. How about the food and drink?Rustic French with brunch tables heaped with local meats and cheeses, oven-toasty baguettes, and croissants alongside French salted butters and organic fruit jams. An outdoor grill fires up at weekends as well, to the delight of carnivores, but there are plenty of fresh salads too. Breakfast is included. Anything to say about the service?This is more about the experience than the service, though it runs efficiently and living quarters are kept spotless. Food arrived promptly, the bartenders made excellent café au lait and, in the spa, the Indian yoga teacher will knead away travel aches in silence. Who comes here?Parisians from the 6th, 7th, or 16th arrondissements, who seem to know each other already but not in a cliquey way. Breton stripes and espadrilles won’t seem out of place. Is there anything interesting nearby?Le Barn shares 500 acres in the Rambouillet forest with France’s famous holistic horsemanship school, La Cense—but it’s best to explore the surrounding woodland and small villages by bicycle. Set the coordinates for Rochefort-en-Yvelines, Rambouillet, or Chevreuse. Anything we missed?There is no check-in or check-out time, and very often you will see guests leaving with vegetables from the organic gardens or a jar of homemade tomato sauce. Try your hand at horse whispering, cooking lessons in the grass-roof kitchen, riding Friesian horses in the sky-lit modernist barn, or just a clunk-click game of pétanque. Is it worth it—and why?Yes. Guests feel comfortable enough to wear pajamas to breakfast, even to lunch. Nothing felt affected and the natural setting sparks that nostalgic glow of childhood summers." - Cynthia Rosenfeld
"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
