Chateau de Fontainebleau – Napoleon’s favorite Castle
Think the French royals only ever lived at the Palace of Versailles? Think again. This is the Chateau de Fontlau, a gorgeous palace with more than eight centuries of French history, way fewer crowds, and just a short train ride away from Paris. Fontlau is the place that one very famous guy named Napoleon Bonapart called the true home of kings and he would know. Like the ultra famous palace of Versailles which is about 40 miles away, the royal chat the Fontlau started as a hunting lodge back in the 1100s. As far back as the 12th century, the kings of France came down to Fontmbbleau with their giant entouragees of ministers, counselors, mistresses, servants, and hangers on all there to hunt wild boar and deer in the surrounding forest. Over the centuries, it evolved from a hunting lodge to a royal residence inhabited by every French monarch from King Louis VI all the way to Emperor Napoleon III. There is still a large forest here, by the way, and it is still stunningly beautiful, but you would be hardressed to find any deer around. Because so many rulers left their mark here, the Chateau is a quirky mix of architectural styles. Gothic, Renaissance, Barack, you name it, this place got a bit of it here and there. In a way, it is a walk through French history in one elegant hallway at a time. And have I mentioned there are over 1500 rooms. There are two French monarchs who are most associated with Pontemplau and who are highlighted around the chateau. The first is Ponis Pier aka Francis I who was king of France between 1515 and 1547. This is the guy who is most famous for paying Leonardo da Vinci to move to France from Italy with a little known piece of work called the Mona Lisa packed away in his luggage. Da Vinci was quite old when he moved to France and he stayed in the L Valley. But Francis I was very much inspired by his work. As Francis renovated Fontlau from a royal hunting lodge into a grand chatau, he decorated it in the Italian Renaissance style, all the while making sure it was fit for a king. He constructed what is known as the Frana Premier Gallery or France’s first gallery, a grand hall that would later inspire the hall of mirrors at Versailles. And to furnish the place, he collected various pieces of arts and sculptures from artists like Da Vinci and Raphael that he scattered all over Fontlau. Francis was so pleased with his renovation of Fontlau. You can see he carved his initials F into the moldings everywhere, all over the chateau. Francis died in 1547 and when his son Henry II inherited the chateau, Henry too proudly graffitied the place with H’s everywhere. But at least he had the good taste not to take down his father’s initials. So as you walk through the castle, you can see all the dueling initials of F and H everywhere. After Francis and Henry, later French monarchs continued to put their mark on Fontmbl. Many of the exterior improvements you see around Fontempl today are due to Henry IVth, known as Good King Henry. Here was a guy who only became king in 1589 because he happened to have married into the French royal family, and all of his wife’s brothers had died. Henry IVth was a pragmatic fellow. He was a Protestant, but he famously converted to Catholicism to retain the throne with the famous words, “Paris was worth a mass.” Henry needed to prove that he was fit to follow in the footsteps of previous French kings and so Fontlau was the place to do it. He had also survived an assassination attempt by his mother-in-law in Paris the day after his wedding known as the St. Bartholomew’s massacre. So perhaps getting away from Paris was high on his to-do list as well. At Fontempl Henry renovated the oval courtyard in the center of the chateau by building two new pavilions called TBel in Luxembourg. Between66001 and606 he remade all the facads around the courtyard including that of the chappelle that was in the middle to harmonize the architecture. He also expanded the chateau constructing several buildings to house the kitchen and the residences for all those people following around as part of the royal court. And if you were not into hunting this was a hunting lodge after all, he added a large judipum or indoor tennis court which is the largest such court existing in the world. But just a few years later after Henry’s reign had ended, his grandson the Sun King Louie the 14th or Luigi Catau began construction at a newer fancier chateau in 1623. This was to be the chat de Versailles. Fontlau was now starting to lose its luster. Fontlau was about 45 mi away from Paris while the new chatau at Versailles was only 15 mi away from Paris, making it a much easier distance to travel to by horseback and carriage. All the royals did continue to stay at Fontmbau off and on, but it was just another castle amongst their gazillion royal homes. In the late 18th century, Queen Maranet, yes, that Maranonet famously called Fontlau, the house in the countryside. But then came the revolution. The year was 1789 when shopping royal heads and ransacking fancy palaces were the official sports of the day. The chat font survived better than most since it was so far away from Paris. But much of its original furniture was lost and the place was looking a bit abysmal after the revolutionaries had their way. Enter Napoleon Bonapart. When he came to the throne in 1804, the chateau was in rough shape. As emperor, he decided that he needed a new home to match his new status. the palace of Versailles which only 15 years earlier was associated with the Spenthrift Maranet and her husband King Louie V 16th was not going to do. In addition, Marianuanet and Louis’s daughter known as Madame Royale had survived the revolution. So any appearance of the old regime could potentially push her to the throne. Napoleon decided he needed the legitimacy of the French royalty, but not those French royals. He wanted the glamour of Francis I and good King Henry IV. And so he settled on Fontmbbleau. A newly restored chat to Fontmbbleau was a much better prospect to become his new imperial home. A much better look than the palace of Versailles. Napoleon had the entire chatau refurbished and added a throne room for himself. The only throne from his era that is still on display. Fontlau was now a working castle. Dignitaries visited, accords were written here, and scandalously it even became a prison, albeit a rather luxurious one for Pope Pius IIIth. Pope Pius had had the gall to become upset with Napoleon’s conquering ways and so excommunicated him. Napoleon promptly shipped the pope from Rome to Fontlau and had him locked up at the chateau. But all of this wouldn’t last. Napoleon was defeated in 1814 and it was at Fontemblau where he signed his first abdication. The pope was allowed to return home and Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba. It is on the horseshoe staircase in front of the chat the fontlau where Napoleon gave his famous farewell speech to the French. Yes, history literally occurred on those steps. France is no longer a monarchy. So these days Fontlau has been fully turned over to the tourists. For more information on how to get to Fontmbla, there’s a link in the description to my website for more details about visiting the chateau from Paris. If you enjoyed this video, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the bell for more stories from France and beyond. Thanks for watching. Aento.
Move over Versailles — Château de Fontainebleau is where the real royal action happened. From medieval kings to Napoleon himself, this palace has seen crowns, coups, and egos galore
🎥 In this episode, we dive into:
The 800-year saga of French royalty at Fontainebleau
Napoleon’s dramatic farewell (spoiler: it’s emotional)
This isn’t just a castle — it’s a living history book of France.
👉 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the bell for more deep dives into Europe’s most fascinating sites.
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