After a long night in Montmartre the night before, a story I can tell in person, waking up to get on an hour and a half bus ride to Fontainebleu sounded tortuous (I know I'm the worst for complaining). However, once we arrived in this quaint little French town and saw this not-so-quaint castle I was so taken aback. First of all, this castle was where the French royalty came when they wanted to go on a hunting trip. All of this was created and it wasn't even somebody's main residence. That blew my mind. Imagine being like, oh maybe this weekend I will pack a suitcase and take my caravan to Fontainebleu. Unreal.
The outside of this castle is breathtaking. I actually managed to get some good pictures because we really lucked out and it was a perfect day but none of these do it justice. The sheer size of the castle and how it maintains that trademark French well-maintained and clean look made it look so fake.
We started the tour inside the castle which was not what I expected mostly because it was a museum and I expected jewels dripping and servants running around with tea trays like it was still in the same condition as when Napoleon vacationed there. This was dumb. The rooms were mostly maintained and the furniture and artwork displayed but of course not everything in the house was there. The chapel and library were so ornate and the bedrooms were outrageous. The artwork really cracked us up though. What I can't get over is that every painting was taken so seriously and I think these people actually posed like this for a while. Nobody would pose for this picture today unless as a joke. The kinds of people who seriously pose for this picture are the worst. The weird nipple lady fertility vase was also a good riot. I know that I'm just being immature and that it took a great deal of creativity and talent which makes it a legitimate work of art but I think a woman with 50 nipples is a pretty funny art piece.
After touring the inside of the house we walked around the gigantic property and got to see how beautiful the gardens were. Fontainebleu is huge and its hard to imagine until you are there and see a map and realize that the giant pool that you're staring at is 1/4 the size of the lake that you're walking towards. Little horse and buggies rode and around and locals ate picnics next to giant bodies of water. We saw a whole french family wearing cute straw hats and eating lunch out of a wicker picnic basket. The whole time I was at Fontainebleu all I could think was that somebody called this their hunting lodge at some point. That this was a casual second or third home that was probably rarely used. I also couldn't get over that I had never heard of Fontainebleu. Everybody talks about all of these other castles and maybe because this was my first ever castle I was easily impressed but I hope I never get so used to castles that I wouldn't consider this to be magnificent. I can't wait to see the other castles in France if this isn't even in their league. I think I could get used to living in a castle even if it was just a casual hunting lodge. Maybe after college if parents help me with the rent.
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