Fontainebleau

The cour d'honneur

We are in France on a short break specifically to see Fontainebleau and Barbizon. The first thing we have learned is that we did't know how to pronounce it: not fon-tan-bleu, but fon-tan-blow. The story has it that the name derives from a contraction of the fontaine de belle-eau in the grounds. The Palace was rebuilt by Francois I who came to the throne in 1515 and represents the arrival of the Renaissance in France. Later construction was the work of Henri II and Henri IV. Much later, Napoleon made his mark on the interior, and famously bid his adieus before going off to exile in Elba.

I found this lovely walk around the gardens and the park on the website of the Fontainebleau Office de Tourisme. We started the circuit facing the chateau in the Cour d'honneur and turned right through an archway towards the Jardin Anglais. You approach this through a smaller arch, through which can be glimpsed a statue.


The garden is a green area surrounded by trees and shrubs. Not what we would think of as an English garden, although certainly the kind of thing you might find in the park of a country house.

From here we passed the fontaine de belle-eau and saw some beautiful autumn colours on the trees.


Emerging from a long formal avenue you suddenly come on the Etang des Carpes, with what we supposed must be the model for MPs' duck houses in its centre. It is apparently known simply as La Pavilion.



At the right side of the lake is the Avenue de Maintenon, named after Madame de Maintenon, the mistress and later wife of Louis XIV, with the Porte Doree at its end.



A bit further on, through some woods, you come on a marvelous vista of the whole chateau from front to back, with elaborate water features in the foreground and beyond them the Grand Parterre. The circular lake is known as La Romulus.


Completing a loop around this area, you come to a long, wide artificial canal which ultimately drains into the Seine.



You walk up the right hand side of the canal under tress, swing round to the left at the top and follow the outer edge of the park in an anti-clockwise direction. The route zigs zags back towards the chateau and is memorable for several splendid tree-lined avenues.




You return to the Grand Parterre with its formally structured, but very pretty, planting.



You pass the Porte Doree, go through into the Cour Ovale and pass through the Cour d'Honneur to complete the walk in the Jardin de Diana, with its ornamental peacocks.

Distance: about 5 miles.

Rating: four stars.