From the centre of Fontainebleau, campus is a 10-minute walk. From Avon station, 45. What that changes every day, measured street by street.
It is the first question almost every incoming student asks: is it better to live in Fontainebleau or in Avon? The two towns touch, the station is called Fontainebleau-Avon, and on a map everything looks close. On the ground, the difference is counted in minutes, and you pay it every morning.
We measured the trips to campus with the same method we use for every home listed on HelloFonty: the real route, along the streets rather than as the crow flies, at 5 km/h on foot and 15 km/h by bike.
The INSEAD campus is on the west side of Fontainebleau, at the edge of the forest, along boulevard de Constance. The town centre, in front of the château, is 850 metres away: a 10-minute walk, 3 minutes by bike. The station is on the other side, in the town of Avon.
• Fontainebleau centre, place du Général-de-Gaulle: 10 min on foot, 3 min by bike
• Fontainebleau-Avon station: 45 min on foot (3.8 km), 16 min by bike
• Avon centre: 47 min on foot (3.9 km), 15 min by bike
In other words, from Avon you do not walk to class. You take a bike, the bus or a car, every day, including after a party or in the November rain.
The station. Paris Gare de Lyon is about 40 minutes away by train, and living a few minutes from the station matters if you leave most weekends, if the person you live with works in Paris, or if you are travelling back and forth for interviews.
Campus, the town centre, its bars and its restaurants are all within walking distance of each other. You walk home after a party, you drop by a classmate's without planning a trip, and you can go home between two classes.
The 22 homes listed on HelloFonty today are all in Fontainebleau. Here are their real times to campus:
• Rue Magitot: 5 min on foot, 2 min by bike
• Rue Alexis-Durand: 8 min on foot
• Rue de France: 10 min on foot
• Rue Saint-Merry: 13 min on foot
• Rue des Sablons, ruelle Frège: 14 min on foot, 5 min by bike
• Rue du Coq-Gris, rue de la Paroisse: 15 min on foot
• Rue du Château, rue Grande, rue des Pins: 17 min on foot
• Rue d'Avon, which is in Fontainebleau despite its name: 21 min on foot
• Rue Aristide-Briand: 23 min on foot, 8 min by bike
These figures are recalculated for every new listing, and each listing page shows its own.
• You want to walk to class and live at the pace of your intake: Fontainebleau, ideally within a quarter of an hour of campus.
• You go to Paris several times a week: look near the station, and get a bike for campus.
• Either way, a bike changes everything: from any of these points, campus is less than 20 minutes away.
Check the distance with the exact address, not the name of the town: two streets in Fontainebleau can be 5 and 23 minutes from campus. On HelloFonty, every listing shows its measured walking time to campus, and the page INSEAD student housing in Fontainebleau compares them all.
Also worth reading: Best Bars in Fontainebleau for Students, Four cafés to work from in Fontainebleau.
Our homes in Fontainebleau: INSEAD • Appartement agréable pour 2 • Centre-ville, INSEAD • Studio cosy et moderne • Centre Fontainebleau.