Le Tumble Inn

Born in London and raised in Philadelphia, Alfred "Alf" Grand knew Barbizon well: he ran the Hôtel de la Forêt there from 1909 to 1914. In the 1920s he turned an old stone barn just off the Grande Rue into an American bar he called the Tumble Inn: cocktails, mint juleps, Virginia ham, and jazz, a novelty in the village. It did so well that in 1931 he moved into larger premises nearby. Guests included the King of Sweden, the King and Queen of the Belgians, the Prince of Wales, Charlie Chaplin, Jean Cocteau and the whole of Parisian and American society.

During the Occupation, Alf Grand was threatened with arrest by the Germans several times, and his daughter Giselle sheltered American airmen forced down in occupied territory, for which she was later decorated by the US Army. Alf Grand died in 1948; his bar outlived him for a while as "Ex-Alf Grand's Bar".