Robin des Moulins hosts off-site seminars, management meetings, training days, study days and wellness retreats for groups of up to 45, with 5 bedrooms that sleep 15. The venue is a former watermill in Bornel, in the Oise, about 37 kilometers north of Paris, in a 2-hectare park crossed by three streams. The whole mill is booked by one group at a time.
Seminars and company events
The mill is rented for one or several days, for seminars, board meetings, general assemblies, client meetings, creative workshops and yoga or wellness retreats. Exclusive use keeps discussions confidential and the group undisturbed. Fiber wifi, a projector, flipcharts, a printer, stationery and drinks are provided.
Two formulas are offered. In the self-run formula, a group takes the keys for a weekend retreat. In the tailored formula, the team organizes catering, activities and team building. Activities on site include pétanque, badminton, team sports, running, forest walks and gardening, as well as climate workshops such as the Fresque du climat or 2tonnes. Local partners can run plant-based cooking, sophrology, upcycling workshops or farm visits.
Robin des Moulins is a social and solidarity economy company. A booking supports the restoration of the mill and a network of local producers, which can feed into a company's CSR reporting.
Rooms and capacities
The working rooms spread over three floors and 400 square meters. All have daylight and views of greenery, and in some rooms you can hear the streams.
On the second floor, La Canopée is the largest room: 70 square meters under the roof, up to 45 seated in conference layout, or 15 to 20 in a U-shape. It also works for small-group workshops, yoga or theater. Le Perchoir, next door, is a small room for calls and emails between sessions.
On the first floor, La Bibliothèque is the former library of the mill, lined with books and suited to strategy discussions. The Sherwood room takes 6 for a small meeting. Le Grain à moudre is an open space with a large worktable and a sofa.
On the ground floor are the shared rooms: a large equipped kitchen, a dining room for long tables with a pellet stove and an upright piano, and the Salle de la roue, the old machine room that still holds the gear that drove the millstones, now a lounge with a fireplace. Outside, a large terrace has a covered barbecue.
Accommodation
Five bedrooms sleep up to 15 people, mostly in single beds: one room with 5 single beds, one with 4, a twin, a double and a single. There are three bathrooms or shower rooms, and extra beds can be added for organizers. For single rooms, the team points to a hotel in a former mother-of-pearl factory in Méru, 7 minutes by car, and to other lodgings in the village within a 5-minute walk.
Catering
The equipped kitchen and the barbecue allow a group to cook for itself. In the tailored formula, the team books caterers among the local partners it works with.
History and setting
The watermill dates from 1806 and was historically attached to the Château de Fosseuse. It ground flour, and also sugar, until the early 20th century, then became a house and its wheel stopped. A family left Paris to restore it and open it to groups. The owners are studying how to restart the wheel to produce electricity. The mill opens to the public during the European Heritage Days.
Getting there
Esches station is a 15-minute walk along a forest path, about 45 minutes from Paris Gare du Nord by direct TER on the Paris-Beauvais line. By road, count 45 minutes from Porte de Clichy via the A16, with private parking in front of the mill. The mill lies between Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Beauvais airports.
