|
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…
 |
