Touring Fontainebleau: Visiting
the “Family Home” Château of the French Royals and Napoleon by Savvy Mom Ruth
Paget
On
another one of our weekend jaunts around the French countryside, Laurent and I
drove out to the Château de Fontainebleau south of Paris.
We
drove through the famous Fontainebleau Forest listening to Jean-Michel Jarre
and Mylène Farmer music and songs on the radio.
The sunny weather with a crisp breeze made it a perfect day for
visiting.
The
forest around Fontainebleau teems with game and made it a favorite spot for
hunting with the French royalty. The
French Kings lavished art on the château here to embellish what they called “the
family home.”
The
family home for Francis the First featured art by the 16th century
Mannerist artists from Italy named Il Rosso and Primaticcio. These artists decorated the château at
Fontainebleau with mythological art and stucco sculpture of human figures
arching to the point of contortion almost.
The
most dramatic part of Fontainebleau is the two-armed “Staircase of Farewells.” A defeated Napoleon thanked his supporters on
this staircase and went off to imprisonment on the Island of Elba.
We
watched people feed the carp in the fish pond and enjoyed a walk in the garden.
Peacocks
wandered around the grounds; reincarnated monarchs perhaps?
We
went to an air-conditioned mall with bathrooms and ate at Flunch – they make
homemade traditional French meals everyday.
We went shopping at the anchor hypermarket, bought candy, bought herbal
shampoos at the pharmacy, and sandwiches for dinner.
Fontainebleau
is fun. I recommend it as an outing.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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