One final Chateau

Sunday 22^nd June

Today was our last touring day in France. Tomorrow we clean the car and return it before heading to our airport hotel for the last night in France.   

We visited the Chateau de Fontainebleau which has been home to French royalty over time from as early as 1137. It has had several modifications in this time – each King felt he needed to do something to put his signature on it. A part of the chateau is a dedicated museum to Napoleon 1^st and his family whilst another section is a Chinese museum containing objets d’art collected by the Empress Eugenie. Again we see the immense display of wealth by the royals in France. It seemed to be a smaller version of Versailles with the extensive gardens although these were much simpler than Versailles. The ball room and the galleries of portraits and paintings were really spectacular and the period furniture in the rooms was lovely.  

 

A few different views of the Chateau. 

Just one of the portraits of  Napoleon on display throughout the palace.

The upper level of the Trinity Chapel.

The ground floor level of the Trinity Chapel.

The portrait gallery containing portraits of all the Napoleon family.

One room I was quite taken with was the boudoir of Marie Antoinette where they have recently had re-made the silk brocade that decorates the room. They were able to reproduce the colours from the period and it was really quite stunning. In other rooms we again saw fabulous tapestries and our audioguide frequently mentioned that the designs had been done in the 1600s by Gobelin, who still produce tapestries.

Just one of the enormous tapestries hanging in the palace,

An example of the silk brocade in the boudoir of Marie Antoinette.
It was everywhere - the walls, the bed coverings, the bed canopy,
 the chairs, cushions. Really lovely.

Dog of the day no 1 - in the hunting room.

Some of the decoration on the roof of the palace.

These were dog of the day no 2.
A fountain - close up below.

We spent a couple of hours there and then headed for our accommodation – via a laundromat which was found quite easily for a change. The laundry is now done for the last time before we get home we hope, and now all we have to do is squeeze everything in to the cases we have. Wish us luck!!