Lionel Bensemoun has always been in tune with his time. One could even say he’s always one step ahead. In 20 years, this ‘serial entrepreneur’ has opened more than twenty establishments as various as they are successful (bars, clubs, hotels, restaurants…), he has created music festivals and even founded a communication agency and a music label. Le Baron, the Hotel Amour, Calvi on the Rocks… It’s all him. Bensemoun did understand early on that Parisian thirty-year-olds were in desperate need of wide-open spaces, so he created a hostel in Barbizon, just 50 km away from the French capital. It’s a new kind of hostel: half hotel, half artist residency. The place is beautiful, cool, and equipped with second-hand or up-cycled furniture (some are even made on site). Clients and artists meet in this small town that is rooted in art history. With a vegetarian cuisine, yoga classes and ceramics workshops, La Folie Barbizon invites you to recharge your batteries in a natural setting near the Fontainebleau forest. And it’s only 45 minutes away from Paris!