chateau de fontainebleau

chateau de fontainebleau

• 29 Jul 2016

On Bastille Day I decided to visit the Château de Fontainebleau about an hours journey from my apartment. Naturally the train I intended to catch didn't exist that day leaving me with 55 minutes to fill. I wandered around the station trying to decide what to do next. Scuttle the plan to travel to Fontainebleau and visit the Bastille markets instead or try and do both. In the end I decided to catch the next available train from the Gare de Lyon.



Here's the château in all it's magnificence but this isn't the view that greeted me at first. The bus from the station at Avon-Fontainebleau kind of dropped us all off in the middle of nowhere rather than at the front entrance so I wandered towards the château through the Gardens of Diana.



Once inside I toured the very aptly named Grand Apartments.



This is the beautiful Chapel of the Trinity.




The Gallery of Diana.



The apartment of the Queen Mother's and the Gallery of Francis I.



Some details I discovered in the gallery.



I think this room was the Grand Salon attached to the Queens Mother's bedroom. I've always been partial to a chandelier and this one was spectacular.



The beautiful ceiling of the St Saturnin Chapel. At this stage, dazzled by the opulence I made my way into the courtyard.



The magnificent stairway.



There was time for a quick tour of the gardens.



The tea rooms at the château.



and finally the lakeside pavilion before I walked back to the station for the journey home.



These are my final photos from France. I'm still sorting through the 500 or so images I shot in Iceland but next week, tax return willing,  I hope to share some of those images with you. The images from Iceland are so different from the ones I shot in Paris.

See you all again next week,

Jillian