Fontainebleau

Soon after my train arrived in Fontainbleau Avon, I went to the bus stop for line A to check out the bus for the town center and the chateau. As I stook looking at the bus map, AGAIN some French person comes up to me and asks if I'm from there and if I knew how to get to the Chateau. I must be wearing some subliminal sign saying: Please ask me for directions. Why would you ask someone who's looking at a map for directions? as if they lived there?

I began my tour with visiting the Grand Appartements, which were nice but not very exciting. Well, the highlight was perhaps seeing the bathroom of Napoleon I. Not that I fetishize Napoleon to that extent but more because it's really rare to see such things in a castle visit. It think it was my first time. Novel.

I also paid for a guided visit of Napoleon I's private rooms. The best part of the day was when we were led to these chambers not by the normal way - though the antechamber since it was inaccessible due to roof leakage - but instead though a little passageway behind those little doors in castles. I've always wanted to venture behind those doors - the little secret passages the kings took to see their mistresses or assassins took to lay in wait for their moment of death.

The gardens of Fontainebleau were very beautiful. There was a wedding in progress when I arrived. Seemed quite a great place for it, with all the manicured gardens.

All in all, it was a good trip. I think Versailles is still the better castle and the better garden, but Fontainebleau is less crowded and offers a special glimpses into the life of Napoleon and Josephine.

Fontainebleau was a cute little town. I didn't get a picture of this but interestingly they trim the trees that line their streets to be square on top, as in a little square of leaves and branches atop a normal trunk.