Fontainebleau
Prior to the arrival of the majority of the students, Dr. McGeever, Alexis, Sam & I went out to Fontainebleau as we knew there wouldn’t be time to include it in the Study Abroad Program’s very backed agenda. It was a bit rainy and overcast and I wasn’t sure how to work the train system’s ticketing procedures. I knew that our metro cards for Paris wouldn’t work, but thought we could a) buy the tickets on the train or b) get them from an outlet when we arrived. I was wrong on both counts. Luckily, a guard opened the gate for me & I found a real person at a ticket counter rather than having to deal with the ticket machines that seemed to eat my euros without giving me my tickets. The ticket lady was quite helpful, and we managed to get what we needed both for the arrival and return to Paris; she also provided directions to the bus that was to take us the next section of the journey to the palace/chateau.
Even though it was a Saturday, the Chateau was almost empty, which was delightful for us as we could spend the time we wanted looking through the every elaborate rooms and Francis I’s allegorical murals. By the time we got to the garden, it had started to drizzle again, but that just gave the site a sort of magical appearance.
As with Versailles, Fontainebleau was built on the foundations of previous buildings. King Francis I took the foundations from a 12th C structure and had them rebuilt and enlarged in 1528; his section of the site is now realistically the oldest real rooms as the early section only has partial walls remaining. Then in the 17th and18th Cs royal rulers continued to build new sections onto Francis I’s buildings. In the 19th, Napoleon moved in and, as was his habit, tried to outdo the royalty with pomp and circumstance. His throne room was far more elaborate than the kings’ had been. He also entirely redid the garden, and it is his vision that one can walk through today. Napoleon III was the last of the royalty to live there, but as times change, so things stay the same, instead of royalty, the “first presidents of the 3rd Republic” moved in. (Visit the Chateau pamphlet)
The Chateau gave its name to an entire mannerist school of painting ‘The Fontainebleau School,’ that was comprised primarily of Italian rather than French painters. The leading figures working for Francis I on his Chateau and it’s decorations included Benvenuto Cellini, Francesco Primaticcio and Rosso Fiorentino. Francis I also brought Leonardo da Vinci to his court where, according to legend, he died with Francis cradling the great artist and scientist’s head in his lap.
As part of the Study Abroad Program, we took the group to Versailles, and the four of us who had been to Fontainebleau all agreed that this latter was a much better experience, even though the gardens in Versailles and the Petit Trianon are amazing. But as Fontainebleau is less ostentatious and more for the royal family rather than the royal state, it simply has a better atmosphere. (& as we’d had to wait for over two hours in line in the pouring rain for the tickets to get into Versailles, most of the group weren’t all that overjoyed with the palace anyway.)
