"Robin des Moulins started from a dream, with my partner, to restore an old mill, not only to live in, but also to create a place that is useful for the locals and the planet,” explains Aurélie Leclercq. “The idea is, like Robin Hood, to be a generous place with a local redistribution of wealth".
The main activity of the place is hosting seminars in the countryside, just 45 minutes from Paris, easily accessible by train, already allowing for one of the lowest possible carbon footprints for getting there.
Companies come here seeking a refreshing, calm environment, like being at home, to reconnect over a day or more. But alongside PowerPoints and meetings, Robin des Moulins hopes to give everyone the opportunity to reflect on their impact, their trajectory, and try to make it more meaningful, more beneficial to life and the planet.
Companies are offered various training sessions on carbon and climate, as well as on biodiversity.
When there are no groups or seminars, the mill is open for free to anyone who is curious. “Either Parisians who need nature, or local entrepreneurs who lack spaces to break the solitude in our very rural territory, and then to all residents who wish to come.”
With the idea of creating encounters, trying to inspire on ecological topics, but without being confrontational. For example, through a repair café, an obviously ecological proposal that also calls for ingenuity to save, repair rather than throw away and buy new. Workshops led by volunteer repairers, thus engaging local goodwill with the ongoing idea of weaving connections.
“So that’s really what we want to do here,” insists Aurélie Leclercq, “to offer a living space for the benefit of the community.”
