Ferme d'Orsonville hosts seminars and study days for up to 75 people in plenary, company lunches, cocktails and team building, and weekend weddings for up to 100 guests seated or 150 at a cocktail. The farm was built in 1882 in the Brie style and stands on a 220-hectare estate of fields and woods at Villiers-en-Bière, in the Gâtinais regional nature park, on the edge of the Fontainebleau state forest. It is about 45 minutes from Paris and 10 minutes from Barbizon.
Seminars and company events
Three rooms serve business groups. The Grenier room, a 120-square-meter meeting room, takes 15 in a U-shape or 35 in plenary and has a video projector, a home cinema system and a flipchart, with a billiard table and table football for breaks. The Palefrenier room, 105 square meters, takes 50 in classroom or 75 in plenary, opens onto the garden and has a warming kitchen for caterers. It can be opened onto the Ferme room for lunches, cocktails or team-building sessions. For a small study day, the guest house offers a coworking table for 6, lounge sofas, a television with HDMI and a catering table, for 6 to 8 people. Catering, welcome coffee, meal trays and team building are provided through the events company DoEvents and a specialist partner. Wi-Fi is free across the estate.
Weddings and receptions
Weddings, birthdays, christenings and family parties are booked for a full weekend only, not for a single day. The package includes half a day to set up, the event day and the following day for a relaxed departure. In good weather, drinks are served on the lawns and the ceremony can take place outdoors; in bad weather, the Palefrenier room serves as the fallback. DoEvents offers a turnkey package with furniture and rustic decoration, with a civil-style ceremony package as an option. The enclosed garden is included in the hire.
Rooms and capacities
The Ferme room has exposed beams and takes up to 100 for a meal or 150 for a cocktail. The Palefrenier room (105 square meters) takes 50 to 80 people, and the Grenier room (120 square meters) up to 35. The two reception rooms, one in the former stable and one in the former cowshed, have men's, women's and accessible restrooms and a warming kitchen with professional equipment for caterers. The reception rooms and the guest house are accessible to guests with reduced mobility. Private parking is available.
Accommodation
Five guest rooms, rated 3 épis, sleep up to 15 people. They include a double, two triples and two family suites of 41 and 56 square meters. The guest house, rated 4 épis and holding the Tourisme et Handicap label, covers 190 square meters, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, an open kitchen and a spa with a hot tub, for up to eight guests. Breakfast is served to guest-room bookings.
Catering
The estate does not run a kitchen for events. Meals come through DoEvents or your caterer, who uses the warming kitchens in the reception rooms.
History and setting
Orsonville is first recorded in January 1255, when it was sold to the newly founded Abbey of Le Lys, whose nuns managed it for almost 400 years. In 1882 the Le Blanc de Châteauvillard family rebuilt the farm seen today, at a cost that ruined them; it was seized in 1884 and bought by Thérèse and Frédéric Humbert. The estate still grows cereals and harvests organic birch sap.
Getting there
The farm is in Villiers-en-Bière, Seine-et-Marne, less than 50 kilometers from Paris, with quick access from the A6 motorway. The site gives no public transport details, so plan cars or a coach for a group.
