THE PALACE OF FONTAINEBLEAU

FONTAINEBLEAU PALACE

We decided to take a Saturday excursion to the Palace of  Fontainebleau  which is about 35 miles from the center of Paris and one of the largest French royal chateaux. The chateax is adjoined by a park with ponds, canals and tree covered paths (those kings thought of everything).  The lovely town of Fontainebleau is immediately adjacent to the chateaux and less touristy then Versaille.  The entire chateax and town is in the midst of a huge forest -  three times the size of Manhattan. 

TREE COVERED PATHS

I must confess that we were continually comparing this to our previous Saturday experience when we visited the Palace of Versailles with all the other tourists (there was a 3 hour wait to get into the palace). Amazingly, there were very few tourists at Fontainebleau - no lines and we had the chateaux apartment rooms to explore at our leisure. Overall, we preferred our Saturday in Fontainebleau to Versaille.

INSIDE THE PALACE

INSIDE THE PALACE

INSIDE THE PALACE

FONTAINEBLEAU PARK

CANAL IN PARK

PALACE OF FONTAINEBLEAU

MELUM

On the return to Paris we made a stop at Melun which we could do easily because we had the five zone daily pass.   The pass was cheaper than the round trip ticket to Fontainebleau and it was also good on the buses.