Plan your visit
Barbizon is one of France’s prettiest villages — perfect for a slow stroll and a long lunch. Locate it on the map, book a room nearby in a click, or add it to your travel list to build your itinerary.
About Barbizon
On the edge of the great forest of Fontainebleau, south of Paris, the village of Barbizon holds a special place in the history of art, for it was here, in the mid-19th century, that a group of landscape painters — Millet, Théodore Rousseau, Corot and others — settled to paint directly from nature, forming the celebrated Barbizon School that paved the way for Impressionism. Today the single long main street of this charming village preserves the studios and houses of these artists, now museums, alongside galleries, inns and craft shops, all wrapped in the leafy calm that first drew the painters. The forest, with its rocks, heaths and ancient oaks, still offers the landscapes they loved. Artistic, peaceful and steeped in creative history, Barbizon is a delightful village and a place of pilgrimage for lovers of 19th-century painting.