France Tourist Attractions - Fontainebleau Castle and Forest

THE GARDENS AND THE ORNAMENTAL LAKES

Like the buildings, the gardens of Fontainebleau have undergone numerous changes at the mercy of fashion, political will, lack of maintenance or anarchic plant development.

Diane’s Garden or the Queen’s Garden :
Until Louis Philippe, a space completely closed in by an orangery built by Henri IV in brick and stone, like the remaining building which hosts the Deer Gallery on the ground floor and the Diane Gallery on the first.

In the centre of the garden, one can discover Diane’s Fountain (1602), topped by the statue of the goddess of hunting and surrounded by four bronze dogs come from the Louvre where they had previously been installed.

English Garden :
Formerly the Pine Garden, this garden was redesigned in the English style in the 19th century and its broad lines were developed under Napoleon 1st, with an artificial river running through it. Towards the back of it, an ornamental lake marks the site of the legendary “Fontaine-Belle-Eau”.

The Carp Pond :
This was once a swamp, which François 1st had transformed into a decorative lake, thus launching the “mirror of water” fashion much favoured by the French before being imitated all over Europe…

As in all European royal domains, the lake is populated by carps reserved for the sovereign’s table.

The Grand Grounds or the Grounds of the Tiber :
Conceived by Le Nôtre, this is a French style garden which has unfortunately lost its boxtree décor.

The landscape opens onto two perspectives:

- One towards the forest where a widening of the terrace receives the ornamental lake of the Tiber

- The other, towards the canal, above the ornamental lake with the waterfalls.

- Beyond and below lies the grand park which extends into the forest.

The Grand Park and the Grand Canal :
A surface of 84 hectares, with linear paths, star-shaped crossroads and a large canal approximately 1200m long, built under Henri IV.

The Real Tennis Room :
Considered the oldest of the three other remaining such rooms in France, its origin goes back to the 14th century in the reign of François 1st.

This sport, the ancestor of tennis, then became “the game of kings, the king of games”.

There are many currently used French expressions which have their origins in Real Tennis: “qui va à la chasse perd sa place” (he who goes hunting loses his place), “tomber à pic” (to happen in the nick of time), “épater la galerie” (to impress the gallery)…

These days, the Real Tennis room regularly welcomes tournaments and enables enthusiasts of this sport to play there all year long.

Activities in the château

Horse-drawn carriage drives with commentary :
Departure from “Porte Dorée” (Golden Gate) – Mr Pignon
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Every day: from 10.30am to 1pm and from 2.30pm to 5pm or 6pm (following Château times).
All day long on weekends.
Further information: Les Attelages de la Forêt de Fontainebleau
66 rue Gambetta, 77210 Avon / Tel : 01 64 22 92 61 – 06 61 50 09 20.
Price: € 4.00

Boat rowing on the Carp Pond :
On the Château’s Carp Pond
From 1st May to end of October. Subject to weather conditions, every day except Tuesdays from 2pm to 6pm or 7pm following the château’s closing times.
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Price :
- ½ hour : € 9
- 1 hour : € 15

Real Tennis :
Initiation and demonstration of Real Tennis in one of the 3 remaining such rooms in active usage in France (balls and racquets provided for the initiation).
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Monday to Sunday from 8am to 10pm
Further information: Salle du Jeu de Paume du Palais National. Tel.:01 64 22 47 67

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Practical Information for Fontainebleau

Office de Tourisme de Fontainebleau

4, rue Royale - 77300 Fontainebleau -
Tel: 01 60 74 99 99
Fax: 01 60 74 80 22
e-mail : info@fontainebleau-tourisme.com
For further information :
www.musee-chateau-fontainebleau.fr

Tourism Office
Tel.: 01 60 74 99 99

Reception of the Château
Tel.: 01 60 71 50 60

VISITING HOURS AND LOGISTICS

Opening days and times :
Open daily except Tuesdays
Closed on 1st January, 1st May and 25 December
Open from 9.30 am to 5pm (6pm from June to September)
Last admission 45 minutes before closure
 

The State Apartments are accessible to disabled persons in wheelchairs; specific tours for blind persons or persons with impaired vision.

General visit :

State Apartments (Renaissance rooms, State Apartments of the sovereigns and the Emperor’s Inner Apartment, the Chinese Museum).

Audioguides can be made available for the visit. The Museum of Napoleon 1st and the small apartments are open on selected days, as a guided tour conducted by a Museum agent.

Prices : (approx)

- State Apartments (Renaissance rooms, State Apartments of the sovereigns and the Inner Apartment of the Emperor):

- Full price : € 5,50
- Reduced price : € 4
- Free for persons under 18 years of age

- Small Apartments, Museum of Napoleon 1st and circuit on the theme “Fontainebleau under the second Empire”:
- Full price : € 3 (per circuit)
- Reduced price : € 2,3 (per circuit)
- Free for persons under 18 years of age

- Audio guides :
€4.60 1½ hours, you are free to go and explore the courtyards and gardens of the Château.

The façades, the courtyards, the portraits, the grounds and the fountains all recount the brilliant court life of the 34 sovereigns who for 8 centuries made their hunting residence into one of the most beautiful Palaces in France.

Another circuit allows you to discover a walk through the streets and squares, where modest houses, noble mansions and public buildings recount the exceptional destiny of the royal borough.

- Full price : € 4,60

Visits are offered in French, English, German, Italian and Japanese.
Information and rental:

Visit of the State Apartments :
Unguided, duration 1 hour 30 minutes

Tours may sometimes be available at 2.30pm from July to September (please request information for specific dates)
Conference visits on various themes for groups and for individuals.

Visit of the Small Apartments :
Guided tour, duration 1 hour 15 minutes, in French
Dependent on service availability
Groups limited to 20 people

Visit of the Museum of Napoleon 1st :
Guided tour, duration 1 hour 15 minutes, in French
Dependent on service availability
Groups limited to 20 people

Visit on the theme “Fontainebleau under the Second Empire" :
Guided tour, duration 1 hour 15 minutes, in French
Groups limited to 20 people

Visit the domain Gardens :
Different themes for groups, and for individuals
Further information can be obtained by calling
01 60 71 70 75

The courtyards and the gardens are open daily from May to September from 9am to 7pm / in March, April and October from 9am to 6pm / from November to February from 9am to 5pm.

Credits for part of this article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Fontainebleau".

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France Tourist Attractions

 The Fontainebleau forest (lovingly referred to as “bleau”) protected by France's Office National des Forêts comprises
25 000 hectares of forest surrounding the city of Fontainbleau and its accompanying villages.

Going back to the 12th century it was already a former royal hunting park often visited by walkers and horse riders

About 50 km south east of Paris, it is one of the largest and most beautiful forests in France. Easily accessible via the A6 autoroute or a direct train from the Gare de Lyon (about 50 minutes).

Many varied activities appeal to myriads of different types of visitors from the stroller to the alpinist.

Climbing

Its “mini-Alps” hilly terrain and rugged landscape make it a wonderful area for rock climbers to train for the real thing.

There’s the Ecole de l’Escalade (Climbing School) which can help you come to grips with this exacting sport.

There are climbing circuits for all levels : (yellow, orange, blue, red and black – from easy to extremely difficult).

Hiking

For hikers it’s magic with kilometre after kilometre of walking possibilities.

Purchase a special hiker’s map (Institut Geographique National) so you can follow the paths without getting lost… or at least being able to find your way out of the labyrinth of trails.

Wildlife

This little paradise is a natural reserve for wildlife with hundreds of species of flora and fauna :

The oaks and black pine.

Bird watchers will be amazed by the variety : six species of woodpeckers including the Black Woodpecker Middle Spotted, but also the Grey-headed Woodpecker and many other species of birds : Short-toed Tree-creeper, Crested Tit, Firecrest, Woodlark, Cirl Bunting
 

Contacts

CENTRE D'INITIATION DE LA FORET DE FONTAINEBLEAU,

Centre de la Faisanderie,
near boulevard Constance.
Tel. 01 64 22 72 59,

- Free documentation

AMIS DE LA FORET DE FONTAINBLEAU,

26 rue de la Cloche,
77300 Fontainebleau
Tel. 01 64 23 46 45

- Documentation
- ideas for hikes and walks in the forest.

Domain and National Museums of the Fontainebleau Château

History

The Royal Château of Fontainebleau (in the Seine-et-Marne département), the largest of the French royal châteaux, introduced to France the Italian Mannerist style in interior decoration and in gardens, and transformed them in the translation.

The French Mannerist style of interior decoration of the 16th century is known as the "Fontainebleau style:" it combined sculpture, metalwork, painting, stucco and woodwork, and outdoors the patterned garden parterre.

The Fontainebleau style combined allegorical paintings in molded plasterwork where the framing was treated as if it were leather or paper, slashed and rolled into scrolls and combined with arabesques and grotesques.

Fontainbleau ideals of female beauty are Mannerist: a small neat head on a long neck, exaggeratedly long torso and limbs, small high breasts — almost a return to Late Gothic beauties.

The new works at Fontainebleau were recorded in refined and detailed engravings that circulated among connoisseurs and artists.

Through the engravings by the "Fontainebleau school" this new style was transmitted to other northern European centers, Antwerp especially, and Germany, and eventually London.

The château as it is today is the work of many monarchs, building on a structure of François I. The building is ranged round a series of courts.

The city of Fontainebleau has grown up around the remainder of the "Forest of Fontainebleau," a former royal hunting park.

The older château on this site was already used in the latter part of the 12th century by Louis VII, for whom Thomas à Becket consecrated the chapel. Fontainebleau was a favourite residence of Philip Augustus and Louis IX.

The creator of the present edifice was François I, under whom the architect Gilles le Breton erected most of the buildings of the Cour Ovale, including the Porte Dorée, its southern entrance.

The king also invited the architect Sebastiano Serlio to France, and Leonardo da Vinci.

The "Gallery of Francis I", with its frescoes framed in stucco by Rosso Fiorentino between 1522 and 1540, was the first great decorated gallery built in France. Broadly speaking, at Fontainebleau the Renaissance was introduced to France.

The Salle des Fêtes, in the reign of Henri II, was decorated by the Italian Mannerist painters, Francesco Primaticcio and Niccolo dell’ Abbate. Benvenuto Cellini's "Nymph of Fontainebleau," commissioned for the château, is at the Louvre.

Another campaign of extensive construction was undertaken by King Henri II and Catherine de' Medici, who commissioned architects Philibert Delorme and Jean Bullant.

To the Fontainebleau of François I and Henri II, King Henri IV added the Court that carries his name, the Cour des Princes, with the adjoining Galerie de Diane de Poitiers and the Galerie des Cerfs, used as a library.

A "second school of Fontainebleau" decorators, less ambitious and original than the first, evolved from these additional projects. Henri IV pierced the wooded park with a 1200m canal (which can be fished today) and ordered the planting of pines, elms and fruit trees.

Napoleon I's throne room. Three hundred years later the château had fallen into disrepair and during the French Revolution many of the original furnishings were stolen.

What remained were sold, in the long Revolutionary sales of the contents of all the Royal châteaux, intended as a way of raising money for the nation and insuring that the Bourbons could not return to their comforts.

Nevertheless, with a decade Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, began to transform the Château de Fontainebleau into a symbol of his grandeur, as an alternative to empty Versailles, with its Bourbon connotations.

At Fontainebleau Napoleon bade farewell to his Old Guard and went into exile in 1814. With modifications of the château's structure, including the cobblestone entrance wide enough for his carriage, Napoleon helped make the château the place that visitors see today.

Fontainebleau was the setting of the Second Empire court of his nephew Napoleon III.

Philip the Fair, Henry III and Louis XIII were all born in the palace, and the first of these kings died there.

Christina of Sweden lived there for years, following her abdication in 1654. In 1685 Fontainebleau saw the signing of the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked the Edict of Nantes (1598).

Royal guests of the Bourbon kings were housed at Fontainebleau: Peter the Great of Russia and Christian VII of Denmark, and so, under Napoleon was Pope Pius VII — in 1804 when he came to consecrate the emperor Napoleon, and in 1812—1814, when he was Napoleon's prisoner.

STATE APARTMENTS

Wealth and variety of interior décors of the royal apartments from François 1st to Napoleon III.

The Renaissance :
The décors of the François 1st Gallery, the bedroom of the Duchess of Etampes, the Ballroom… which made of Fontainebleau a centre of artistic influence in all of Europe.

François 1st, patron of the arts :
The patron king of Arts and Literature is evoked in the very setting where he welcomed Rosso, Primaticcio, Cellini, Budé…

Henri IV and the artists of his time :
Prolific builder, Henri IV considerably enlarged the château (court of the Offices, Deer gallery, aviary, canal, gardens… employing Dubois, Fréminet, Dubrueil, Jacquet…)

The Fontainebleau School and the art of the 16th century.
An in-depth study of the décors of the 16th century. How artists come from all over Europe imagined a new decorative system in Fontainebleau.

The evolution of the apartments of the sovereigns

- Napoleon in Fontainebleau :
The Emperor’s stays in Fontainebleau, daily life and government.

- Celebrations and entertainment :
Hunts, tournaments, celebrations and grand ceremonies, with an overview of Real Tennis.

- The royal hunts :
The sketches of Oudry, for a series of tapestries ordered by Louis XV; apartments of Hunts.

The history of the château :
Tour of the exteriors to reconstitute the history of the construction of the Palace, from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.

SMALL APARTMENTS

Suites of Empire furniture and daily life of the Emperor in the more intimate setting of the Small Apartments.

The François 1st gallery :
Returning from captivity in Italy, the king had developed a taste for the new artists of the Renaissance.

He asked Rosso et Primaticcio to come and create décors measuring up to his desire for a “New Rome”.

The result is one of the most beautiful galleries in France, exceptional for its frescos and its wood panelling which form the first décor “à la française”.

The ballroom :
Built under François 1st and completed under Henri II by Philibert Delorme, the Ballroom has recently been restored.

Originally planned as an open-air loggia, glass windows were rapidly installed to protect it from harsh weather.

One can admire the frescos full of movement of Primaticcio and his student Niccolo dell’Abate, as well as the splendid marquetry of the flooring designed under Louis Philippe, reproducing the coffered ceiling richly decorated in silver and gold…

TheTrinity Chapel :
Exceptional for its frescos painted under Henri IV by Martin Fréminet, one of Michelangelo’s little-known emulators, the chapel holds the memory of Louis XV’s wedding with Marie Leszczinska in 1725 and of Louis Napoleon’s baptism, future Napoleon III in 1810.

The Queen’s Grand Cabinet and the Queen’s Boudoir :
With a charming décor created for Marie-Antoinette, these two rooms mark the height of French taste’s glory in the 18th century, with the subtle alliance of neoclassical woodworks with Riesener’s mother of pearl furniture.

The Council Room :
Exceptional rockwork décor in pink and blue camaieu painted by Carl Van Loo and Jean Baptiste Pierre, with the ceiling by Boucher symbolising the Four Seasons. This room hosted the King’s councils, and later the Emperor’s.

The Throne Room :
Formerly the King’s bedroom from Henri IV to Louis XVI, this room was converted into the Throne room by Napoleon, who furnished it following the directives of the new imperial etiquette.

It is the only remaining Throne room in France retaining its original furniture.

Napoleon 1st’s Imperial Inner Apartment :
Napoleon resided in these private apartments, which have just been refitted following fifteen years of restoration.

One can discover the very beautiful bedroom of the Emperor and his display bed, his study where he worked during his nights of insomnia, his bathroom and the drawing-room which became famous since he signed his abdication there in 1814.

The Museum of Napoleon 1st :
Installed in the Louis XV wing of the Château, in the Princes’ ancient apartments, the museum presents objects and memorabilia evoking the life of the Emperor (anointment, military campaigns, birth of the King of Rome) and of his family: Madame Mère (Napoleon’s mother) and the brothers and sisters of the Emperor, Joseph, Louis, Jérôme, Elisa, Pauline and Caroline.

The Chinese Museum :
The Chinese collections gathered by the Empress Eugénie are exceptional by both their origins and their sheer quantity.

In 1863, Napoleon III’s wife had the ground floor of the large pavilion redesigned in order to host her personal collection of objects from the Far East.

The restoration undertaken in 1984 has highlighted to its advantage the Napoleon III décor of the rooms, designed as a museum, but also as a Second Empire salon with its red and green harmony…

...the courtyards, gardens and parks

(Diane's garden ) The courtyards and gardens are open every day from May to September from 9am to 7pm.
In March, April and October, from 9am to 6pm.
From November to February, from 9am to 5pm.

THE COURTYARDS

The Palace buildings are organised around five main courtyards, and the complexity of the plan reveals the various different work campaigns that were undertaken here. Indeed, each area has several names according to the different periods.

Arrival by the Court of the White Horse or Court of  Farewells :
The main façade, punctuated by high-roofed pavilions, dates in part back to the 16th century.

It was here, at the foot of the famous double horse-shoe staircase built in 1634 by Jean Androuet Du Cerceau, that Napoleon made his celebrated farewell to his guard before leaving for the Island of Elba.

Court of the Fountain :
The buildings bear witness of several periods of construction: the gallery of François 1st, the terrace of Henri IV, the apartment of Henri II, the elegant building of Primaticcio with its two right-banister staircases, facing the large pavilion of Gabriel built in 1750.

The large dogs of Fô mark the former entrance to Empress Eugénie’s Chinese rooms. Near the carp pond is a fountain which used to give very pure water, the usage of which was reserved for the king.

Rising in the middle of the carp-filled pond is a pavilion first built under Henri IV, then rebuilt by Louis XIV and restored by Napoleon 1st. Light meals were served there during royal outings.

The Oval Court :
The oldest courtyard in the Château lies in an area formerly occupied by the ancient 12th century fortified castle, of which only the dungeon remains.

Primitively oval, this courtyard was opened by Henri IV who had the large domed portal elevated in 1601 to allow him a monumental entrance.

The portal took on the name of Gate of the Baptistery, or Dauphine Gate, following the Baptism of Louis XIII which took place in the courtyard in 1601, the royal Court having fled Paris which was being ravaged by the plague.

Court of the Offices :
Said to be the court of Henri IV, in brick and rough-cast, built between 1606 and 1609 to shelter the offices and the kitchens by separating them from the main buildings to avoid fire risks..