Our day at Fontainebleau Palace


Advertisement
France's flag
Europe » France
August 26th 2016
Published: July 2nd 2017
Edit Blog Post

Geo: 48.4059, 2.70206

Today we had a lovely day at the beautiful Fontainebleau Palace. It was just over an hour drive from Versailles. The palace has over 1500 rooms on 130 acres of parkland and gardens. It is the only royal and imperial chateau to have been continuously inhabited for seven centuries.

Before starting our tour through the castle we stopped for our morning coffee in a little shop in the lovely town of Fontainebleau. Then it was off to the beautifully preserved 12th century castle. All members of the past French ruling dynasties have lived within these castle walls. Kings and queens, emperors and empresses have all made their own improvements to the palace. The estate quickly became a huge palace in which many momentous historical events have occurred.

As we walked through the palace gate we viewed the famous horseshoe-shaped staircase on the outside of the palace. Napoleon I lived in this palace for a decade and gave a famous speech on those steps. From there we proceeded inside to purchase our tickets and continue our tour. No long lineups like Versailles. If you are accompanied by children they rent costumes for them to wear while viewing the palace. It was a great idea as the children looked great.

The interior of the palace is well supplied with historical furnishings. It was nice strolling through the corridors and rooms imagining all the history that happened behind the walls there. It was an interesting glimpse into how past French royalty lived. Some of the rooms were ridiculous garish and hard to believe anyone could possible live in them! But all were unique and interesting to see.

After touring the palace and seeing its abundance of history we enjoyed a lovely walk through the large picturesque gardens.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit there and Pat and Sonya liked it better than Versailles. You definitely saw more rooms and it was less crowded.

From the castle we enjoyed a light lunch at a restaurant in Fontainebleau before heading back to our home near Versailles. We passed through some nice woodlands before entering the flat prairie areas that surround this area near Paris.


Additional photos below
Photos: 24, Displayed: 23


Advertisement



Tot: 0.211s; Tpl: 0.037s; cc: 5; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0681s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb