How to check if a folder exists?

I am playing a bit with the new Java 7 IO features. Actually I am trying to retrieve all the XML files in a folder. However this throws an exception when the folder does not exist. How can I check if the folder exists using the new IO?

public UpdateHandler(String release) {
    log.info("searching for configuration files in folder " + release);
    Path releaseFolder = Paths.get(release);
    try(DirectoryStream<Path> stream = Files.newDirectoryStream(releaseFolder, "*.xml")){
    
        for (Path entry: stream){
            log.info("working on file " + entry.getFileName());
        }
    }
    catch (IOException e){
        log.error("error while retrieving update configuration files " + e.getMessage());
    }
}