Fountainbleu, France

July 1, 2001

On our drive from Mandelieu through Bourgogne to EuroDisney, and meeting our friends Pierre, Ann, and Alexandre, we stopped into Fountainbleu to visit the Renaissance château. Fountainbleu is just outside of Paris, a bit Southwest. It was a grand start to the day because we were able to park right in front of the château, and since it was Sunday, the parking was free. When we got up to the entrance for the tour, we found that it was free that day as well !! We must be living right.

Fountainbleu is probably the second most ornate château in France right after Versailles. It is a huge château with 1900 rooms, most of which you can't see. Just about every inch of the place is adorned with ornate woodwork, marble, gold gilded carvings, tapestries, and paintings. Much of the furniture is original from the Renaissance period, though much of it had to be retrieved because the palace was sacked and looted during the Revolution and all the furniture stolen.

The château was originally built in the early XII and XIII centuries, and was vastly renovated by the XV century King Francois. He had the Mona Lisa hanging in the château at the time. King Henri II, Catherine de Médicis and Henry IV all contributed to the renovation of the château. Fountainbleu was the place of one of Louis XIV, he of Versailles, more infamous acts. It was here that he revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had guaranteed religious freedom for France's Protestants for the previous 87 years. I guess the Catholics hated the Protestants, as well as just about everyone else, in France just like in Northern Ireland. Funny. Naturally, killing of large numbers of Protestants ensued. Those who escaped fled to America.

In one of the pictures below you will see a double staircase leading up to the entrance. It was from these staircases that Napoleon bid farewell to his loyal troops as he was leaving for his exile in Elba. The château was taken over by the Germans in WWII and used as a command post. It was later liberated by General Patton and became the Allied, and then NATO, headquarters until 1965. It's a cool place. Lots of history and stuff.

The château also had a Queens Chamber built for Marie Antoinette, though she never used it. It is here that more recent history occurred. It turns out that a little boy named Jeffrey was bored and came up to his dad and said "bagel", which meant that he was going to get tickled, since "bagel" is the magic tickle word. So when the dad tickled the little boy, as he had to do, the little boy spazzed and jumped over the electronic security beam, thereby setting off all of the alarms. Of course, as soon as the alarms went off, the little boy jumped back over, but by then the guards had arrived. The dad kept saying "Je suis desole" and "Je ne va pas le Bastille". It worked because the guards left and no one was taken to the Bastille.

The first picture is of Jeff in front of the château. This was before the infamous scene in the Queens Chamber. The second picture is of the boys, probably watching an ice cream truck go by, or something. But in this picture you can see the dual staircase in the background.

Here the Hares family bids farewell to the loyal troops before leaving for exile in Elba. Oh wait, that was Napoleon. This is just us on the double staircase, probably near where Napoleon did his thing.

These two pictures show the ornate ceiling, wall, floor, cornice, you name it. The first picture is from the chapel, the second from another room filled with wood carvings on the walls and ceilings. The ostentatiousness was quite awe inspiring. Where the wealth came from is anyone's guess, but the poor peasant's probably boor the brunt of it.

Last Updated July 15, 2001 19:08 CET