Château de Fontainebleau: A Must-See Castle Near Paris, France

Just south of Paris and about an hour and a half’s drive from Charles de Gaulle airport is the magnificent Château de Fontainebleau. The medieval part of the castle dates back to the 12th century but only the dungeon still exists. From 1528, under the reign of King François I, the castle saw many transformations with new additions and modifications taking place over the centuries. A Renaissance marvel, the Château de Fontainebleau is definitely a must-see palace in France.

We visited for a day on our way to the Loire Valley, but Fontainebleau can easily be done as a day trip from Paris. For an extended stay, be sure to add the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte to your agenda or combine it with a visit to Versailles or to the Loire Valley like we did.

If coming from Paris, forget the car. Take the train from la Gare de Lyon to the Fontainebleau-Avon station which drops you off near the Grand Canal. Walk along the water on the way to the castle and admire the view as you approach.

The Château Fontainebleau was one of the favorite residences of the French kings across eight centuries. Each one made changes and added his own mark to this enormous and famous palace. From François I you’ll still see the famous F on the smokestack next to the main entrance, to Louis XIII and Napoleon I, you can find treasures such as furniture, tapestries and artworks decorating the rooms.

We highly recommend the various guided tours that take you into rooms that are normally closed to the public. You don’t see these if doing a self-guided tour. The narrators and guides were excellent (we took ours in French). They gave us an appreciation of the history of the various rooms in a way that we simply would not have gotten on our own.

The Pope’s Apartments

The tour starts with a collection of plates depicting the numerous lavish events that have taken place at the palace. It continues with a visit of the Pope’s Apartments where Pope Pius VII stayed on two occasions, once as a guest and another time as Napoleon’s prisoner. These sumptuous apartments were also used by other important guests.

The Royal Apartments

The Royal Apartments are lavishly decorated and grandiose. This is where you’ll find the King and the Queen’s apartments. The ballroom, chapel, and the galleries of Diane and of the Stags (Galerie des Cerfs) were some of our favorite rooms. We loved the hallways. Check out this one. Just imagine!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Small Apartments

Only available by guided tour these were the private apartments of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Empresses Josephine and Marie-Louise. We also saw the room where Napoleon signed the Act of Abdication.

A look behind the scenes where the nobility would go to shelter from the rigorous formalities of day-to-day royal life upstairs.

The Imperial Theatre

Only available by guided tour. An amazing renovation project embedding a 420-seat Royal Theatre into what simply looks like a normal part of the building from the outside. The room is impressive, and it’s even more impressive knowing that it had to be fit into the existing building.

The Gardens of Fontainebleau

The domain of the Fontainebleau Palace spans over 130 hectares. Aside from the various courtyards, the grounds are divided into three major gardens and a park. The smallest but very pretty Jardin de Diane (Garden of Diana) was once the private garden of the Queen. Now it gives direct access to the town of Fontainebleau from the palace.

Of course, no Royal Palace can be without a formal garden. The Grand Parterre was added between 1660 and 1664 and designed by André Le Nôtre and Louis Le Vau in the typical formal French garden style with fountains and flower beds. During the summer months there are 45,000 plants but when we visited at end of April the flowers had not been planted yet.  It was still beautiful, but we can only imagine the garden in full bloom in the summer.

On the edge of the Grand Parterre there is the Basin des Cascades which leads to the expansive park of the Domain of the Fontainebleau Palace. The Grand Canal was commissioned by King Henri IV.

The English Garden is located at the other end of the estate and from there you can get a great view of the castle. If you like, it’s also possible to rent a small boat to explore the Carp Pond. We even saw some aquatic birds nesting as well as swans and ducks.

Where to stay in Fontainebleau

There is no substitute for location, location, location. Find a local hotel close to the château from where you can just walk to enjoy your tours. We stayed at the Aigle Noire Hotel, which itself dates back to the 1500s! It was wonderful with a lavish breakfast spread and service and amenities like we’ve not seen from the US chains for a long time. We would definitely recommend it. We also saw many other small boutique hotels along the roads surrounding the castle.

Where to eat

A large selection of restaurants is available alongside the hotels. Some are afternoon spots only, while most dinner spots open at 7 pm. There were many terraces to enjoy your meal along with a view.

Good to know

If you do drive, there is limited parking at the city parking spots. Our hotel validated the parking for €10 a night. The parking spots are tiny though. Literally just enough room to open the doors and squeeze in. So glad we got the ultra-compact!!

Overall

We very much enjoyed the Château de Fontainebleau. We spent the whole day there and took all three of the offered guided tours to make the most of our visit. The cost with the tours was €30 (compared to the 12 € it takes to just enter the castle anyway) it was definitely worth it.

Very much like the Palace of Versailles and slightly further but without a doubt a must-do for anyone going beyond Paris and wanting to explore France.