A Visit to Château de Fontainebleau

The final day of our Tour de France starts in Orléans. This is the last day of exploring splendid countryside, sampling regional cuisine and getting ourselves lost through a myriad of rond-points. We can’t help but feel that we did not have enough time to see everything after miscalculating driving distances. There is but only one thing to do: start planning our next tour.

Well, it happens again. We get lost in the streets of Orleans, driving in the opposite direction to our destination. A few kilometres later, we return to the centre ville and take the direction of Pithiviers on the N152. We lost time and thought it best not to detour via Chartres, famous for its Gothic cathedral with deep blue stained glass windows. It was too long a detour since we have to reach Paris by late afternoon.

We reach Malesherbes where we get onto the D975. Signs indicate the proximity to the Château de Fontainebleau. With herds of tourist buses around, we decide to join them for a brief look.

Fontainebleau is approximately 55 kilometres from Paris. The chateau is the site where Napoleon signed his abdication. It consists presently of Musée Chinois, created for the Empress Eugénie in the Second Empire, Musée Napoleon le and Grands et Petits Apartements depicting life under the rules of Francois 1e to Napoleon III.

Naturally, there is no time to visit the interior of the chateau. We catch the end of what appears to be a change of the guard ceremony.

We stroll around the premises including the Cour du Cheval Blanc, a majestic courtyard with elegant gardens, dominated by the imposing horse-shoe shaped staircase.

As we’re about to leave, we see a bride and a groom with their entourage getting photographed on the premises of the chateau. Quite a fairy tale setting for a wedding!

Le Tour de France Gourmantic concludes tomorrow.

‘Le Tour de France Gourmantic’ series is the story of a young couple from Australia who took to the French roads on a whirlwind Tour of France back when the internet wasn’t at everyone’s fingertips, phones were still attached to sockets, GPS was an unfamiliar acronym, digital cameras were a pipe dream and the Euro hadn’t replaced French Francs. With just one fold-out map of France and boundless enthusiasm, they took their Renault 19 and went on a cultural and culinary discovery.