Chateau de Fontainebleau
Trip Start
Apr 30, 2004
1
32
34
Trip End
May 09, 2004
Loading Map
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
Fontainebleau,
France
Sunday, May 9, 2004
The palace is, as they say, formidable! The State Rooms are magnificent, and we only viewing a tiny portion of the building
01. Palace of Fontainebleau
. The chateau was built from 1528 onwards, the work being carried out in several stages that lasted until the 18th century. The Gallery of François I, with its frescoes framed in stucco by Rosso, painted of between 1522 and 1540, is the first great decorated gallery built in France. The chapel and throne rooms, as well as the library, ballroom and queens chambers are breathtaking. One enquires where all the money came from to build these behemoths. This is just one of hundreds of palaces throughout France. Remember the Louvre, the biggest of all, and then Versailles, which we won't be visiting this time. It just boggles the mind! The beautiful gardens are squelchy, so we leave Chateau Fontainebleau in the rain and depart to our last hotel. On the way we want to stop at a supermarket for our last purchases of cheese, wine, pate and all those good things that the French make better than anyone else. Prior to arriving at Fontainebleau, we had stopped at an Intermarche near a farming town, but had been turned out at 12:00, as the place closed for lunch! We were looking for a Carrefour, a modern French palace, one of the most famous and largest of French Hypermarkets. We think there may be one at Melun, just a few miles from Fontainebleau.
In Melun, we intersect a number of confusing roundabouts with signs to towns that don't seem to be on my map
02. Les Parapluis de Fontainebleau
. Up to now we have used the Michelin Atlas Routier successfully, with only one small hiccup exiting St-Tropez. We eventually notice a sign to Carrefour, and follow the rather complicated route through suburban streets. It seems we are traversing a housing project, and Miryam anxiously senses that the populace is getting darker and darker by the minute. We finally emerge into the Carrefour parking lot and it seems like we have left France and arrived in Algeria. We expect to see Osama bin Laden with his shopping cart and harem at any moment. Keeping an eye out for terrorists and such, we enter at our peril. The hypermarket is a bit run down, by no means similar to the spick and span superstores we have seen in England, Mexico and Brazil. This looks like just another supermarket, albeit pretty big. Anyway, we stock up on all our necessities, even finding a CD with typical French music, which included "Champs Elysée" that had been sung for us in Le Puy. At least we can't complain about the prices! http://www.carrefour.com/english/homepage/index.jsp.
