All the King’s Houses

All the king’s houses and all the king’s men were very elaborately decorated and were meant to show the power of the monarchy to the poor citizens. That’s how the nursery rhyme goes, right?

Over the weekend, we spent a day at Fontainebleau, a castle built sometime in the 12 century. The original part of the castle still stands, but it was expanded when Francis I reigned. It was used by the French monarchs until 1848 when its doors closed to become a museum that expands over 800 years of French history.

As I visited Fontainbleau, I could not help but compare it to the gold gilding and painted ceilings of Versailles. Versailles was built to show the power of Louis XIV during the time of absolute monarchs. Since Fontainebleau was built long before Louis XIV’s reign, it demonstrated the difference between the role of the monarchy at the time of their construction. The wood-carved walls and frescos of the Francis I’s hall in Fontainebleau were an important part of showing off power and wealth to invited guests, while anyone could walk through Versailles (if they were dressed well enough) and tell that this dude Louis had some mad cash.

I also found the experience of Fontainebleau much more enjoyable compared to the Versailles visit. Fontainbleau seems like a gem that is less visited because of its distance from Paris. Because of this, there were fewer people in the rooms to bump into you and shove you just so they could get a picture of an object label that they will never look at again (no tea, no shade). The tour guide that we had at Fontainebleau made the tour enjoyable and connected the 800 years of history to each other instead of just telling us facts about the palace. This made the information presented to us stick.

I did not get a chance to visit the gardens of Fontainebleau as I did with the Versailles gardens. We took a short train ride through them, but at Versailles, I spent hours admiring and recreating the sculptures and admiring the mazes. The next time I visit Fontainebleau, I would love to spend time strolling through the different gardens that the palace has to offer.

At the end of the day, these two palaces are great opportunities for understanding the history of the French monarchy and getting a sense of the daily life of a royal.