Benoit Milan and Soula Boscoupsios, founders of La Maison Fives

The common thread

Before La Maison Fives came the travels. A collective journey across Europe to Greece, an exhibition in Santiago, Chile, the Atacama Desert and South America. Then two months in California, a year in Montréal and several years in Brussels, including one living on a sailboat. Later came Normandy, a property to transform and three months travelling as a family through Canada and the United States…

Benoit Milan and Soula Boscoupsios have built their story around a desire to discover, create and share experiences. He came from visual arts and contemporary art before becoming a digital entrepreneur. She was an architect and then a ceramicist. Over the years, their couple also became a team able to design a place, renovate it and develop a business there.

Today they bring these experiences together at La Maison Fives, in Lille’s Fives Cail district : five rooms for travellers, a ceramics studio and a planned coffee counter.

01 / Shared story

Mons: where two creative journeys meet

Benoit and Soula met around 2000 in Mons, Belgium. They were about twenty and studying in the same city.

Originally from northern France, Benoit studied art at secondary school at Saint-Luc in Tournai. He continued for five years at the École supérieure des arts plastiques et visuels in Mons, at the Carré des Arts, in Jean-François Octave’s studio.

Soula, Belgian-Greek and born in Charleroi, studied architecture at I.S.A.I.M. in Mons. She qualified there as an architectural draughtsperson, then graduated in architecture in 2005.

In this student city, the schools mingled at parties and friendships grew into projects. Around Benoit and his friend Frantz Gault, the collective Un Paxilus dans la litière took shape. Organising exhibitions, bringing artists together and finding places to show their work became an activity in its own right.

For Benoit, it was his first experience of creating collective projects: an idea needs a team, resources and an audience.

02 / Shared story

2003: crossing Europe as a collective

In 2003, Benoit, Soula and their friends travelled across Europe to produce reports about the enlargement of the European Union.

Their route took them through Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, with stops in Sarajevo and Belgrade, before reaching Greece. They also visited the village where Soula’s family comes from.

The journey combined photography, video, sound and writing. Reports were sent back as they travelled and broadcast by Canal Sambre and L’Observateur. The team learned to work on the move, meet local people and tell the stories of places through those who live there.

This experience foreshadowed a way of travelling they would keep: taking their time, looking beyond sightseeing and building connections with the places they visited.

Explore the archives and reports from the 2003 European journey.

03 / Shared story

Brussels: the first professional years

Brussels features in several years of their story. After Benoit shared a home in Koekelberg, the couple lived in a loft in Anderlecht, in a city bringing together artistic creation, architecture and international encounters.

With Un Paxilus dans la litière, Benoit had a studio for a year at Recyclart. Exhibitions followed one another, sometimes every fortnight. The collective produced, invited and experimented.

He then worked in contemporary art galleries, including Taché-Lévy, which became Twig Gallery. Preparing exhibitions, assisting artists, installing works and taking part in art fairs became his daily life.

Soula began her professional career at Atelier Espace Architectural Somers in Brussels, then worked from 2006 to 2008 with Jean-Marc Romain in Charleroi. She contributed to housing, office, renovation and outdoor landscaping projects, from design documentation to construction supervision.

Both learned to turn an intention into something real: an exhibition for Benoit, a building or interior for Soula.

04 / Shared story

Paximobile: from the collective to Santiago, Chile

The Paximobile project took Un Paxilus dans la litière to Maubeuge, Eupen and then Santiago, Chile.

After a stop in Eupen in 2005, the exhibition was presented in 2006 at the Galería Concreta at the Matucana 100 cultural centre in Santiago. It brought together twenty Chilean artists and twenty European artists. Frantz Gault and Benoit Milan curated it for the collective. Frantz was then in Chile on an internship with the United Nations.

For this small collective from France, the event marked a change of scale: posters and clips in Santiago’s metro, an opening attended by a large audience and an ambassador… The exhibition brought them unprecedented visibility.

Benoit stayed for about a month to work with the artists and help install the exhibition, with works and equipment shipped by cargo from Belgium whose return also had to be organised.

Soula joined him for fifteen days in northern Chile, particularly the Atacama Desert. Benoit then crossed the Andes by bus with European participants in the exhibition to spend about ten days in Buenos Aires, before returning alone to Santiago to dismantle it.

Paximobile combined creation, curating, international logistics and travel. The exhibition still appears in the biographies of Chilean artists such as Leonardo Portus and Jorge Opazo, whose records are held by Chile’s National Museum of Fine Arts.

05 / Shared story

Art galleries: behind the scenes and new horizons

For several years, Benoit worked in contemporary art in Brussels and abroad. He accompanied galleries to fairs such as Art Brussels and Art Basel, assisted artists and installed works in collectors’ homes.

He notably assisted the American artist Tracey Snelling. At fairs he also encountered internationally renowned artists, including Takashi Murakami, with whom he spoke briefly. During installations he met assistants and teams from other galleries and discovered their methods and the workings of this world.

Installations took him to houses in Uccle, villas in Notting Hill and apartments on avenue Montaigne in Paris.

He also discovered attitudes to money far removed from those he knew. In Basel, some collectors could spend €70,000 on several purchases during a fair. In the galleries where he worked, he saw works by Anish Kapoor sold on the secondary market for €700,000.

These experiences widened his sense of the paths life could take. Benoit grew up in a family rooted in salaried work: his mother, initially a cashier, returned to study at thirty to become a primary school teacher and then a headteacher; his father spent his career as a manager at Vallourec. His mother’s journey gave him an early example of a career change. Galleries and travel then showed him other ways to work, start businesses and build a life.

06 / Shared story

2008: California and the desire to start an online business

In September and October 2008, Benoit and Soula spent two months in California. After about two weeks travelling, they stayed for around six weeks in Oakland, in the loft Tracey Snelling lent them during a residency in London.

Tracey’s friends welcomed them and introduced them to local life, while Oakland became their base for exploring San Francisco and its bay, Berkeley, Stanford and Silicon Valley.

In Palo Alto and Mountain View, Benoit met French entrepreneurs. After the collective and art projects, these conversations made the idea of starting an online business more tangible.

The stay mattered as much for what they discovered as for how they experienced it: staying long enough to form habits, meet people and temporarily feel at home.

07 / Shared story

Montréal: architecture for Soula, learning to sell for Benoit

After California, they moved to Montréal for about a year.

Soula worked at the architecture practice of Gilles Vergnolle. She was responsible in particular for the Zone store project through tender submission and worked on restoring the façades of the Batshaw Youth Centre. She also helped prepare specifications and tender documents.

After about two weeks, Benoit found a communications job at Téléfax Communication, which became Alézi, working alongside Marcel Perazzelli.

With Marcel, his brother Valentin Milan and Frantz Gault, he helped set up a communications agency. It closed after about a year, but left a lasting mark on his career.

Coming from the art world, Benoit had already considered website projects without really learning to sell. Marcel introduced him to prospecting, calling clients and the need to advocate for his own offer.

One phrase stayed with him: « Get the check. » An idea and a product need customers willing to buy them to become a sustainable business.

Living in Montréal also let them return regularly to New York, a city Benoit first discovered on a major solo trip in 2001. They explored New York State, visited natural parks and rented cabins. Big cities and nature already played complementary roles in their way of travelling.

08 / Shared story

Back to Brussels: a family, a sailboat and new businesses

Back in Belgium, Soula briefly joined the practice of Frédéric Haesevoets from November 2009 to February 2010, then worked with Laurent Quenon for Liegeoisgroup Invest from 2010 to 2013.

She notably took responsibility for converting an office building into a care home for the Noble Age group, in a full commission from design to completion.

Their first daughter, Maïa, was born in Brussels in 2010.

During their Brussels years, they also realised a cherished project: buying a sailboat and living aboard for a year with their baby. Benoit had spent part of his childhood and summers sailing with his parents along the French coast. Soula discovered this love of sailing with him.

They sailed in the Netherlands among other places, then sold the boat without making the long voyage they had envisaged, happy to have shared this different way of living as a family.

It was also during this period that their first digital businesses took shape.

09 / Shared story

Cirkwi: from artistic creation to digital tourism

The Cirkwi project began in July 2010. The company was officially founded in January 2011 by Benoit Milan, Valentin Milan and Frantz Gault.

The business develops tools for exploring places: routes, walks, hikes and tourism content.

Valentin, Benoit’s brother, is a passionate developer who enjoys researching, inventing and building the technical solutions that give ideas shape. His creativity complements Benoit’s, rooted in visual arts and collective projects. Together with Frantz, they brought together the skills needed to launch and develop Cirkwi.

Benoit led the company during its first growth phase and was president of the SAS until 2020. He worked on products, their presentation and business development. He gradually handed over, notably to Sylvain Caucheteux, before leaving his operational roles in 2023.

He remains a Cirkwi shareholder.

In 2026, the company is led by Manon Lorang, who joined in 2011 as its first employee outside the founding team. She succeeded Sylvain Caucheteux, who left in 2023.

Cirkwi continues to grow with a team, a profitable business and products used each year by millions of users and many tourist offices.

Iceland and CES: travelling to tell the company’s story

Travel still had a place in this professional adventure.

In November 2019, Benoit travelled around Iceland with Frantz Gault and Jean-Yves Delfosse on a road trip for Cirkwi’s communications. They filmed and told the stories of their stops, returning to the spirit of the collective’s first projects: setting off together, producing on location and sharing discoveries.

Watch the Iceland travel video series.

In January 2020, Benoit travelled with Sylvain Caucheteux to CES in Las Vegas. They documented the show, innovations and encounters.

The trip ended with an improvised getaway to Pioche, Nevada, a village chosen on a map. After Las Vegas and the technologies at CES, they discovered another America.

Watch the first footage from CES 2020.

10 / Shared story

Néo-Nomade: another entrepreneurial adventure

Alongside Cirkwi, Benoit and Valentin took part in the LBMG / Néo-Nomade venture, together with Frantz Gault, Nathanaël Mathieu and Baptiste Broughton, among others.

A co-founder and shareholder from the beginning, Benoit helped launch it before concentrating his professional activity on Cirkwi, while Frantz became more involved in the daily development of LBMG and Néo-Nomade.

In 2023, Néo-Nomade was acquired by Worklib. This success rests on the work of its leaders and teams, in which Benoit participated as a co-founder and minority shareholder.

The sale allowed Benoit and Soula to step back, change pace and choose the projects to which they would devote their time.

11 / Shared story

From northern France to Normandy: Soula’s architecture career

After Brussels, Soula continued her work in northern France.

In 2013, she carried out a full home extension project within the Toerana Habitat cooperative. She also worked at Sites Architecture in Arras on design studies and planning applications for schools, medical facilities and private clients.

The couple then moved to Normandy, initially around Putanges-Pont-Écrepin and Argentan.

From 2014, Soula worked independently in Normandy on renovations, extensions and full accessibility documentation for shops and premises open to the public, a significant part of her work at that time.

From 2017 to 2022, she also worked for Clemillet International supervising façade refurbishment works for co-owned apartment buildings, particularly on the Normandy coast. She then developed her independent practice, first as a micro-entrepreneur and then through a SASU, advising on homes and renovation projects.

Her work covers every stage of a project: designing, drawing, preparing documents, organising and supervising construction. Her additional training includes sustainable building, energy performance and timber and earth construction.

Their second daughter, Lorette, was born in Saint-Lô in 2016.

12 / Shared story

La Maison Folia: nine years transforming a place

In 2016, Benoit and Soula bought a property to renovate in Hauteville-sur-Mer in the Manche, near Agon-Coutainville and the Sienne estuary.

Less than ten minutes from the beach, it brought together several buildings on one and a half hectares, a river and an open view without neighbouring properties overlooking it. From the outset, they wanted to welcome travellers there.

The property would become La Maison Folia.

For nine years, alongside their professional activities, they transformed the buildings and grounds: more than fifty trees planted in the former pasture, an old bakery restored and new openings created.

They fitted out four bedrooms and four bathrooms, a large kitchen, a lounge and an expansive south-facing terrace. They created parking by the entrance, installed a reed-bed wastewater system, renovated the barn and progressed with converting another building.

They made the plans and decisions together. Soula brought her experience of architecture and construction; Benoit his artistic perspective, approach to how spaces are used and entrepreneurial skills. Both took a hands-on part in the work.

La Maison Folia became a place of hospitality as well as a transformation project. There they learned to combine design, hosting, communication and running a tourism business.

The property was sold in 2025. After renovation costs, expenses and years of work, the sale released capital that allowed them to fund the next stage of their journey.

13 / Shared story

2023: changing pace and finding time again

The sale of Néo-Nomade in 2023 opened a transition period.

Benoit completed his operational withdrawal from Cirkwi. Soula began turning towards ceramics while continuing her last architecture activities until 2024.

For six months, Benoit also joined a sea rescue team and took training courses. He did not complete the entire programme, but remembers the experience as a collective commitment in an environment he has known since childhood.

Above all, the couple regained time to travel, from Marrakech to Greece, where family ties bring them back regularly, before setting off with their daughters on a long trip to North America.

Three months in North America with Maïa and Lorette

From November 2023 to January 2024, the family spent three months in Canada and the United States.

After about twenty days in Montréal and as many in New York, where they spent Christmas, they drove down the East Coast: Pennsylvania’s Amish country, Washington, North Carolina and Florida, with about twenty days in Miami.

Back in Québec, they spent more than a week in a secluded lakeside cabin in a national park.

During the trip, Maïa and Lorette studied remotely. The stay let them pass on a way of discovering the world: taking time to live somewhere, walk, run and explore, alternating big cities with much more remote places.

Their filmed runs in New York, Montréal and Miami preserve a street-level record of the journey.

Discover the running videos, including New York and Montréal.

14 / Shared story

Why Lille and Fives Cail?

After nine years near the sea in Normandy, Benoit and Soula wanted to be closer to family and return to city life. Visiting friends, they rediscovered Lille and appreciated its energy, greening and cycling culture: a more active daily life, less dependent on the car, close to Belgium and major European connections. Leisure and business travellers also offered the prospect of hosting guests all year round.

At Fives Cail, the former industrial halls already house the Brasserie Fives Cail, a food court, a design school and the international hotel school. A large park, a swimming pool announced for 2027 and the future Méert workshops, including a space open to the public, continue this transformation. Discover the redevelopment of Fives Cail. · The Méert project presented by the City of Lille.

Artist studios, galleries and the mix of long-standing residents, newcomers, students and creators remind them of Miami’s Design District and especially Brooklyn, where they have often stayed. This industrial heritage combined with a lively working-class and creative community, a few metro stops from the centre, appeals to them. Moving there in 2025 means joining the beginnings of a district still little known to visitors.

The return also begins a new chapter for their daughters: Maïa studies photography at Saint-Luc in Tournai, hoping to work in cinema and then continue studying in Paris.

15 / Shared story

La Maison Fives: a project built together

In 2025, they bought a property of about 230 m² on a street corner in Fives Cail and carried out much of the renovation themselves. They created five rooms with five bathrooms for travellers, while the adjoining building preserves their privacy with three family bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. The two former garages, with street-facing shopfronts, house the ceramics studio and future coffee counter.

As at La Maison Folia, plans, materials and interiors are decided together. Soula brings her experience of volumes, circulation and construction; Benoit his artistic culture and command of communication, the web and search visibility. They seek places that make an impression on arrival and remain comfortable every day. Their shared work has also developed through discussions, tensions and learning to listen more closely to each other’s perspective.

From modest backgrounds — a Greek immigrant family for Soula, a northern French family rooted in work for Benoit — they have built their projects without inheritance, through attempts cut short, decisive encounters and collective successes. Funds reinvested from earlier ventures finance the purchase outright, with borrowing for part of the renovation, and let them devote themselves to La Maison Fives.

In September 2026, Le Figaro Voyage selected La Maison Fives among ten hotels to stay in during Lille’s Braderie, despite the property being new and having run no press campaign. Feedback from the first guests and visitor numbers reinforce their confidence in the project. Read Le Figaro’s selection.

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Ceramics, the counter and what comes next

Soula continues exploring forms, materials and everyday objects at the La Maison Fives studio. Plans include a coffee and tea counter with ceramics for sale in 2027, followed by an offering centred on spanakopita in 2028, connected to her heritage and their regular stays in Greece. In 2026, fitting out the space and arranging its opening to the public are underway to make it a neighbourhood meeting place.

Over a horizon of about four years, they want to build a team and gradually entrust it with part of the day-to-day running. Their family floor could become independent accommodation with a kitchen, alongside the five rooms, in a small hotel project whose configuration remains to be defined.

They want to keep La Maison Fives while regaining the freedom to stay elsewhere and create other projects: continuing the hospitality adventure with colleagues playing an increasing role.