Fontainebleau/Hide N' Seek

How did we choose our best day in France? Like this:

Jon's message:

YO

Let's pick a place to go tomorrow. Here are three options:

Fontainebleu. This place has a chateau and nice woods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontainebleau

Chantilly. Home of whipped cream... also has a chateau.http://wikitravel.org/en/Chantilly

Provins. A "cute" medieval town. http://www.provins.net/

I believe that the first two places are accessible by RER, and Provins is a 10 euro train ride each way.

Someone please pick a place and time and we'll do it.

Rachel's response:

i vote chantilly

...

Obviously, we didn't listen to Rachel, and we decided to go to Fontainebleau, home of one of the most famous chateaus in France. A week after going to Tours and Chenonceau, we weren't sure what could top our last chateau visit, but this one turned out to be a great place just outside Paris.

The most enticing part about going to Fontainebleau is pretty simple: it's easy. If you have a Navigo (an unlimited metro pass), you can pay an extra 8 euros roundtrip to visit a city 40 minutes outside Paris. The chateau itself is right off a bus stop, and it's free for students. Our lone expenses for the day were lunch, a beer, and the one euro for an audio guide. Totally worth it.

Another interesting part of Fontainebleau — something we only discovered when we got there — is that unlike Chenonceau, there is a town built around the chateau, and its center lies right across from the castle's grounds.

Fontainebleau isn't as architecturally impressive as Chenonceau, but there's something about it that makes it more attractive. It is much bigger, is very well preserved, and best of all, there was almost nobody else there.

The chateau courtyard

Inside, the building was very well preserved, with furniture in its original positioning, and the same tapestries and paintings that Napoleon bought himself. French monarchs had been using this castle since the late 12th century, when Louis VII had a chapel consecrated on the site.

I hadn't been impressed by anything this much since my first week in Paris. The hallways in this building compared to those of the Louvre, and it was amazing to think that people actually lived in this sort of wealth. It made me feel grateful that our politicians generally don't centralize our country's wealth within a few dozen people.

My two favorite parts of the chateau were actually the hallways. I mean, when it's adorned with Renaissance paintings on each side, and the ceiling is lined with gold, it's pretty difficult not to be impressed. Louis XV had this hallway built so he could have a walkway to his private chamber and have a room to show off the guests.

Just on the other side of the room lies the library. Rebuilt by Napoleon, it looked like the best room in the house, but we weren't able to get a great view of it because it was closed to visitors. Regardless, it was a really beautifully symmetrical room with an arched ceiling and bookcases on either side.

I have well over 100 pictures of the Chateau, so I'll spare you (and me) the hours it could take to post and read about every room in the castle. But just know that it's really really big. And outside is even bigger.

Kinda artsy? Meh. I was just trying to show that aside from there being an enormous courtyard/lake/fountain/park/horse trail, there's also a forest in the background. We walked around this area, played like little children, and took way too many set-up and self-timer pictures (my new favorite hobby). Here's our best one from the day:

As for my favorite picture of the day, I had to go with this one. Meant to be on a postcard.

OK. 1:45 a.m. Big French test tomorrow. Didn't study that much. London in five days. Blogging off..