A name that is famous in the entire world, a magical name that evokes for some a forest, for others a chateau… a name which still shines from its royal history.
 
For Fontainebleau, though it no longer welcomes sovereigns as it did for so long, remains a place where life is pleasant, a place where the expression “quality of life” takes on its full meaning.
 
Very close to Paris, the Fontainebleau forest welcomes 13 million visitors each year. Despite this considerable number, hikers, rock-climbing or mountain-biking enthusiasts, horse riders, cyclists and Sunday walkers come here for its wild landscapes. Fontainebleau was the royal hunting residence before the first lights of the Renaissance shone here under François 1st, in the heart of the Palace which all sovereigns, right up to Napoleon III, cherished, decorated and embellished through the work of their best artists, painters, sculptors, architects, fountainers and gardeners.
 
At the heart of these landscapes a city was born where side by side lived the Royal Court, His Majesty’s suppliers, the cooks for His table, and the cavalry responsible for His security and hunts.

It was among these landscapes too that, last century, the great Parisian bourgeoisie came for country stays by the forest on the shores of the Seine and the Loing, whilst young painters settled into the neighbouring villages. They had left the capital and the studios of the official school to come and paint in the midst of nature, with their easels among trees and rocks, facing the plain of Briere’s landscapes. And in the evening, they would return to Barbizon at father Ganne’s, to Bourron Marlotte or Moret-sur-Loing.
The pictorial adventure of Barbizon and of the first impressionists such as Corot and Sisley were to open the road to a long line of artists, musicians and writers throughout the century, from Alfred de Musset to Cocteau, from Picasso to Cezanne or from Rosa Bonheur to Lalanne…
 
If there is a view which can evoke Fontainebleau’s uniqueness, it is the one you have early in the morning from the Chateau’s park when facing the ornamental lake of the Tiber. In front of you, a bronze statue moulded in the Renaissance… Further beyond, the contrast of the garden’s trimmed boxtrees with the untidy skirts of the forest. Finally, in the very background, passing horses, wanderers, training sportsmen… or ghosts of a royal hunt.

For practical information on the town (Town Hall website) :
www.fontainebleau.fr

For information on the parish of St Louis de Fontainebleau :
 www.eglisefontainebleau.fr.st