Finding accommodation in Fontainebleau is not difficult but you should start early.

After I got into INSEAD MBA, the first thing that crossed my mind was accommodation.

How to find accommodation in Fontainebleau?

Fontainebleau is a beautiful and small town 40-minutes away from Paris. It was connected via direct train and had two highways that could take you to Paris.

Despite its closeness to Paris, the capital could only be a weekend gateway. We had to stay in Fontainebleau to attend all activities and classes.

So finding accommodation in Fontainebleau was one of the first things I did —

Accommodation in Fontainebleau – The options

In Fontainebleau, there are a few types of housings and accommodations. There were houses with multiple rooms (customized for students), dorm-like facilities called Marcel Lods or just regular houses.

Many house owners are aware of the fact that students will come and go every six months. They knew they could charge higher than an annual rate and that was the ongoing phenomenon there.

The number of available rooms was not that high either.

All of that contributed to high rent. Rent for a room ranged from ~600 to 2000 euros per month!

Marcel Lods

One of the cheaper and (probably) most comfortable options was Marcel Lods.

It’s a large building with small studios/rooms that people could rent. The building was just a 5-minute walk from the school too. There was a Carrefour (groceries) just beside the building. It also had a good Thai restaurant on its ground floor.

Overall, it was a great option!

Unfortunately, they don’t respond to online requests in time. They take over a month to respond to one of your requests. Then you may have another question and you’d have to wait another month.

My guess is many students go in person, after they start school, to book for future months.

If you can get a room, great! But it’s ok if you don’t. There are many other options.

Houses with multiple rooms

Some MBA houses have a lot of rooms (One has 16 rooms) to accommodate groups of students.

Those houses are fun as they become party houses eventually. It’s also good to have so many classmates in the same place so you can have a good chat in the evening.

In the city, there were a few popular options named Club 16, Villa Foch, etc.

The closer they were to the city center, the more expensive the rooms were.

Being close to the city center has its advantages. My favorite eatery, Manhattans, was just in the center. There were a good number of restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and grocery stores in that area too.

There’s a small movie theater too where I watched Dr. Strange with a fellow Marvel fan on a winter evening.

As a bonus, the Chateau De Fontainebleau is also in the city center.

But the rooms were expensive. You may not want to spend so much on rooms.

Houses further from the city center

As I was looking online, I realized that depending on distance, I may need a bicycle or a car.

So, initially, I was avoiding locations that’d require having a car.

Then I found a beautiful house with 8 rooms that were dedicated to MBA students. The house was called Heartwood and it was in Arbonne La Foret.

Arbonne was a village that was 15 minutes drive from INSEAD. 15 minutes if you drive at 90 km per hour. You’d need to drive through the road between the forest and get to Arbonne.

It was an inconvenience but I just loved the house and the location. I didn’t want to give up the opportunity to live in a french house in a quiet location.

Luckily, my landlord, Christophe offered me a car along with the room. The car was a used Smart car that cost me an additional 200 euros per month! In total, I was paying 850 euros per month.

I took the deal and I am glad I did. Some of my best memories included driving around Fontainebleau, and having the freedom to go anywhere to shop or just drive.

To summarize – Accommodation in Fontainebleau

Fontainebleau is such a beautiful place.

The INSEAD campus is also better than the Singapore one (In my opinion).

If you stay there, you should explore places that are further from the city to enjoy the experience more. You can always drive to a friends’ house to join a party.

But if you don’t want to drive or bike to school, you should find locations around the city center.

Either way, when you get there, remember to explore the areas to make the most of your time in that amazing place.

This article was first published on Medium.