Trains from the Gare de Lyon in Paris arrive once or twice an hour at Fontainebleau-Avon on what is now called the Transilien R line. Currently (as of 2021) a full-price one-way point-to-point ticket from Paris to Fontainebleau-Avon costs € 8.85. This does not include the bus from the station to Read More …
A square in the center of Fontainebleau is named after Napoléon Bonaparte, who chose the Château of Fontainebleau as an Imperial Residence (one of several) during the First Empire (1804-1814). Napoléon was in Fontainebleau in 1814 when he was deposed, for the first time, and sent into exile on the Read More …
Fontainebleau’s municipal theatre is described on the city’s website as a “symbol of the cultural identity of Fontainebleau.” The theatre was built starting in 1905 in a “Louis XIII style that combines brick and stone,” and was inaugurated in 1912. It is not a part of the Château, but is Read More …
The original furniture disappeared from the palace of Fontainebleau during the French Revolution, so what we see now was acquired mainly during the nineteenth century, or from antique dealers in the twentieth. According to the Château’s website, the interior of the Château as we see it today looks “more or Read More …
My least favorite thing about Fontainebleau is that this is where Louis XIV promulgated his infamous Edict of Fontainebleau on October 22, 1685, ordering relentless and brutal persecution of the Protestant minority in France. He prefaced this edict with a few kind words for his grandfather, Henri IV, “King Henry Read More …
My favorite thing about Fontainebleau is the music it inspired at the beginning of the five-act versions of the opera Don Carlos (in French) or Don Carlo (in Italian), by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901). The Spanish prince Don Carlos, alone in the twilight in the wintry forest, sings: Fontainebleau! Immense, lonely Read More …
Since the French King Louis XIV was so obsessed with expanding and embellishing his palace at Versailles, you might have thought he spent all his time there. But no, he had several other Royal Palaces as well, and at least until 1682 he divided his time among them. In her Read More …