Spring 2024

Fontainebleau then Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre - 08 May 2024

08.05 - Château de Fontainebleau then Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre - VE Day

So - we did go out out last night - for yet another pizza! We weren’t sure it would even be open. We were asked if we had a booking! Was a very busy place. Personally I didn’t rate my pizza. Ingredients tasted great - just a bit too burnt underneath for my liking! In my humble opinion, think the oven temperature needs to be lower (maybe not possible in a wood oven?) and cooked slightly longer, as the centre was very soggy. However, Tintin enjoyed his and we shared 1/2 a pichet of Rosé too - €36.

Once again, was sad to see a few motorhomes arrive later at night at the Aire - and nowhere for them to park.

On the basis I can’t get my husband to Versailles, today we visited Château de Fontainebleau. I seem to remember visiting Versailles, probably about five decades ago (!) - Gary, I’ll have to see what you remember…

Tintin drove the 30 minutes there - we parked up for free under a street lined with trees - surface was worse than cobbles - even more bumpy - Dave probably complaining!

We’d looked online, and it said opening times may vary due to VE Day - if it was closed, we would have just wandered around the gardens. We didn’t think it was very busy - it was!

They encourage everyone to pay using machines, you can pay cash if you want to queue up. Was €28. It’s the slippery slope to less human interaction - a bit sad really.

Anyway, we knew it must be busy when there was a sign saying no audio guides available - too many guided tours!

There is so much history available about this place - I’d looked up on Wikipedia beforehand - if you want more information - it’s quite good!

First up the Napoleon Museum. Napoleon needed an heir to secure a future for the French throne, and was unable to conceive with Josephine - however she already had two children! He then married the Emperor of Austria’s daughter, Marie-Louise and had a son the following year.

Then onto the Pope’s apartment, named after Pius VII who stayed there in 1804 and again in 1812.

The palace has hosted 36 kings and emperors since 1137 until Napoleon III in 1870.

We then walked through various rooms, galleries and apartments. I took lots of photos, which I’m sure Tintin will just put in a few of to get the general gist - very ostentatious, busy and quite dark (possibly being protected from the sun!). It did make me think we don’t do enough with our ceilings nowadays 😊

The horseshoe shaped steps look unique - however, think they’ve had lots of restoration done!

Had a wander around the Diane Garden. Had a childish snigger at the weeing dogs!

The carp in the pond were huge - nice to watch for a while. We used to keep koi carp, and had a ghost koi similar to one we saw today - maybe not quite so big 😉

Walked around the English garden, then towards the 1,200m canal - designed under Henry IV.

I think it’s a shame that places like the Romulus fountain are too far for the naked eye (or iPhone!) to capture any detail - good job Tintin had his camera.

We spent over 3 hours looking around - Tintin wondered about putting the drone up, but after checking - decided it would be a bit risky.

We then drove for another 2-1/2 hours. Tintin drove first - it’s amazing how you can be on open not busy roads, then all of a sudden - on the very busy outskirts of Paris - for what seemed like an age. We did question why there were such traffic jams leaving Paris - Tintin has since read that Friday is a holiday too - hence a 5 day holiday to maybe travel elsewhere for Parisians.