After being in the city for several days, we decided that we needed to head out and explore the country.  On our last day, we decided to make a day trip out to Chateau de Fontainebleau.

Day trip to Chateau de Fontainebleau

Have you ever heard of it?
No? Well, it is like Versailles, except… prettier! WHAT? Prettier than Versailles? Yes, it is a UNESCO world heritage site (Versailles is not).  What’s nice about it is that it has room after room of original furnishings AND it lacks crowds. The place was practically empty!

It’s only about 40 minutes away, but when you don’t speak French getting there can be a trick.  I’m going to try to make it easy for you!  My directions will be at the bottom of the post; the first part will be the pretty pictures!

Chateau de Fontainebleau had been the residence of French Monarchs from Louis VII all the way through Napoleon.

Gallery of Francis 1, made between 1533-1539!

I’m not going to do much talking… I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.  Everything here is original.

the Queen’s bedroom

The Gallery of Diana, lined with bookcases

chapel

kids singing in the chapel

Napoleon really did wear a hat like the ones he was painted wearing!

the Pope’s apartment

I just love the paintings on the paneling of this wall…

the council chamber

And we’ll finish our tour with a look at Napoleon’s Throne Room…

Beautiful tapestries…

 We met a “member” of the Royal Court in the Chateau as well… (they had several people dressed up in the rooms… it was kind of fun).

There are large gardens and grounds surrounding the castle, but it was a bit chilly that day so we didn’t walk all around.  But here’s what we’re all missing…

the carp pond, from wiki

pic from wiki

I really enjoyed all of the rooms in Fontainebleau.  If you’re looking for a Chateau experience and you’re debating between Versailles and Fontainebleau, I highly recommend Chateau de Fontainebleau (unless you do the bike tour of Versailles. I loved that).  There were hardly any crowds at this chateau and the town of Fontainebleau is super cute.  Plus, there are a lot more things to look at in Fontainebleau as the rooms are all highly decorated with original furnishings.

I included a city map of Fontainebleau.  The X’s represent the bus stop, the chateau, and the crepe place that we ate at.  There are lots of cute little restaurants and shops in the town, but I recommend trying the L’Hirondelle Creperie. It’s just a short walk from the Chateau.

map of Fontainebleau.

Directions to get to Fontainebleau
The train to Fontainebleau departs from Gare de Lyon in Paris.  From the Gare de Lyon, you will need to take the RER train headed for either Montargis Sens, Montereau, or Laroche-Migennes.  Your destination however is “Fontainebleau-Avon”.  Remember, the trains will not say Fontainebleau, they will only state which direction you are headed.  The trains leave about every 30-40 minutes from Gare de Lyon.

I thought the trickiest part was navigating through Gare de Lyon. We arrived by metro and had to take several flights of stairs to get to the RER station area.  We had no clue which machine to buy tickets from, so we simply went up to the staffed window.  The lady there didn’t speak very good English, but understood we wanted round-trip tickets to Fontainebleau and back.  The ticket she sold us was good for all-day use for the metro, buses, and RER.   I believe that card is called the Mobilis (day pass).

Now once you have your ticket, it’s time to find out which platform your train leaves from.  There are two train platforms, blue and yellow.  Your train can leave from either platform.  You need to go to the departures board and look.  Make sure you’re looking at the depart board (it says Depart).  You will usually find a bunch of people staring at a tv screen somewhere and that is likely the departures board.  Look for your train. Then, once the train track line is posted, immediately start heading to the line.  The place is confusing and they will often only post the line number 5-10 minutes before departure.

destination screen, I tried to make it easy for you!

To make sure you’re at the right track line, you will see the destination name on the screens on the train.

Once you get off at the station Fontainebleau-Avon, you simply walk outside and go to bus line #1. Ligne 1 is destined for Les Lilas.  Our RER ticket day pass worked as the bus ticket.  You will get off at the Chateau stop.  We didn’t know which stop was what, but when all the tourists got off at one stop, we simply hopped off and voila! We turned the corner and we were there! I’m sure you could just tell the bus driver “Chateau, si vous plait”.  It is about a 15 minute bus ride, or if you’re adventurous, a 45 minute walk.

How to get back:
Where the bus line 1 dropped you off for the chateau, simply cross the street and pick up the bus there (it’s next to the cute little town square that has flowers and a fountain in it).  The bus is still “ligne 1” and I think it says “gare” on it but I can’t remember.

the pretty town square in Fontainebleau where you pick up the bus back to the train station

Now, once at the train station, it’s pretty simple.  Take the train back to Paris. There are only two tracks at this station, so it’s not too hard to figure out! Take any train that states “Gare de Lyon” as its destination.

The official Chateau de Fontainebleau website also has information about how to get there.

AND that concludes my trip to Paris.  A little later I’ll write about my recommendations of where I shopped, what I ate, and where I stayed, but for now I’m going to blog about some recipes and seasonal things.  Also, I’m in the process of moving and these Paris posts take a long time to put together.

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Now I’m going to talk about my FAVORITE thing we did during our trip to Paris… the Versailles Bike Tour!!

Versailles Bike Tour Review

If you’ve ever been to Versailles, you will know that this place is BIG.  In fact, like 2000 acres big.  That means you aren’t going to see *everything*.  Your feet can only walk so far though.  For instance, it’s 0.6 miles from the train station to the palace entrance alone.

Versailles is the biggest palace in the world.  This picture is from wikipedia.

I’ve been to Versailles now three times.  One time we just did the main Chateau.  The next time we walked to the Grand and Petit Trianon.  Let me tell you, that was a LONG WALK.  We ended up buying a ticket for the stupid tram to take us back to the chateau because our feet hurt.

So I present to you my favorite option of all three: a bike tour of Versailles!
We booked ours through the Fat Tire Bike Tours company.  I cannot sing enough praise. (btw, I was not paid to write about this).  Here’s how it works: you book a ticket online.  Then you all meet at their office over by the Eiffel Tower.  Then you walk over to the train station. They supply you a train ticket.  You all take the train together.  After you get off the train, you walk a short distance to an office to pick up your bikes in the town of Versailles.

Now the fun begins!  You bike down cute little streets like this and head to a French market!

streets of Versailles

Why do you go to a market first?  Because on this tour you get to have a picnic on the Grand Canal!  How awesome is that?! We had so much fun at this French market… it really is a market for the locals.  They don’t speak English very well, and I don’t speak French very well, but we managed to get the food we wanted!  We had so much fun gathering our supplies!  I seriously had the best French cheese and I have no idea what it was called.  Too bad.

the French market

After picking up your supplies, it’s time to head to the gardens.  You get to bike along the manicured trees along Marie Antoinette’s sheep…

Marie Antoinette’s sheep

Here we are biking along this beautiful path.  It was the most beautiful day in Spring.  The bike company gives you one bike basket per couple. We felt so totally French with our baguette sitting in our bike!

husband and I enjoying our trip!

First off, you park your bikes at the Petit Trianon.  The Petit Trianon was built for the Sun King’s mistress, Madame du Pompadour (heard of her?)

picture from wikipedia

I just wanted to include this bedroom from the Petit Trianon… it is SO CUTE.  The bed cornice, the little chair, the fabric, the colors, the light green and grey paneling on the walls… despite being the mistress she had some good taste!

cute French bedroom

After touring the Petit Trianon, you walk over the Marie Antoinette’s Hameau.  She loved to pretend she was farmer, so she had this little fairytale village made so she could milk cows and collect hen’s eggs.  Except the cows were cleaned and the eggs had all the chicken poop removed from them!  Imagine being poor and hearing that she had this little make believe village of a farm… no wonder the French people cut off her head!

Hameau de Marie Antoinette

However, her fairytale village is really cute.

 It is in the middle of a restoration by Christian Dior fashion house.  This hamlet wasn’t opened when I first went years ago.

 That’s why I have so many pictures of it!

After leaving the Hameau, you bike down to the Grand Trianon.  King Louis got sick of his big chateau so he built a smaller one where only the men would hang out.

The columns are made from the rarest pink marble of the time.

 After leaving the Grand Trianon, we starting biking around the Grand Canal.  It was so much fun.  You could rent row boats if you wanted and boat around in the canal!

After biking around part of the canal, we came to our spot for our picnic.  Look at how beautiful our picnic spot was!  It was really a dream come true!  Everyone enjoyed baguettes and cheese (and wine for those who drink).  We had such a nice time relaxing at this spot, watching the boaters paddle on by.

As it was my birthday, we even picked up this raspberry tart for my birthday cake!  It just barely fit in the bicycle basket but we made it work.  Doesn’t look too bad despite being jostled around in the bike all morning!

 After some time, our picnic did eventually have to come to an end.  We continued our tour and eventually dropped our bikes off at the office.  We then walked over to the entrance of Versailles.  This golden gate is incredible…

Versailles golden gate

Just look at all of the gold on the palace! It’s incredible!

Everywhere you looked inside there was gold everywhere!  This is definitely a house for a king!

 The King’s private chapel…

 A tour of Versailles wouldn’t be complete without a view of the Hall of Mirrors.  You can see below how crowded the chateau is inside.  It’s just so crazy-packed.  I hated how packed it was. You could barely stand without someone running into you.

In fact it was so crazy packed, we didn’t get any pictures of the rooms as we were being pushed and shoved by the rude Chinese tour groups.
That’s why I had to include this picture that’s not mine of Marie Antoinette’s bedroom.  It was just so incredibly opulent.  And yes, they really did have that little golden fence there because people would literally be walking through the palace and watch the royals sleep and do their daily routine. So strange!

Marie Antoinette’s bedroom, pic from wikipedia.

We literally rushed through the palace because it was so hot and crowded.  We were happy to be outside once more…

Versailles is known for its fountains.  They weren’t running when we were there.  They will put on a fabulous show at certain times.

pic from wiki

The last thing we saw was the Orangerie.  My husband stated he wanted to get “garden inspiration”.  We loved the planter boxes!

Then we headed to the train and made our way back to Paris.

I tried to include a map of the day.  This was the route that we took that day.

our route map for the day.

Final thoughts: This was the highlight of our trip to Paris.  I HIGHLY recommend going on this bike tour.  It was so much fun.  We loved going to the market and picking out our food for our picturesque picnic on the Grand Canal.  We felt like the King and Queen of France eating our raspberry tart on the chateau grounds.  I really enjoyed going to the Hameau, which wasn’t very crowded because as you can see it’s a long walk from the chateau.  Ironically, the palace itself was my least favorite part of the trip.  It was way over-crowded.  I’m not sure the picnic would be as fun if it rained, but I was told they have ponchos.  The tour group also provides cutlery and glasses for your picnic.  There were about 20 people on the tour with us, which was manageable.  Our tour guide was knowledgable and friendly.  I really cannot sing enough praise about this whole experience.  I highly recommend you do it!

On our fourth day in Paris, we put on our walking shoes and headed to the Louvre.

The Louvre is one of the largest museums in the world.  It is also the most visited museum in the world.  And it is HUGE.  I have been there FIVE times and I still see new things every time I go.

The Louvre houses the Mona Lisa along with over 35,000 objects.  I can’t explain to you how big it is until you see it for yourself.  Which is why you need to read some tips about how to survive!

1. Get a Museum Pass
The museum pass website is here.  It shows all the locations where you can purchase it.  I recommend purchasing it BEFORE you go to the Louvre, so that way you can get into the shorter museum pass line.

2. Get there early
The Louvre opens every day at 9am.  The line will be the shortest then.  You want to try to beat the tour groups.  The museum pass line on this trip was by the pyramid; we tried to enter at the Carrousel du Louvre but the workers made us go to the pyramid.  In previous years, there used to be NO LINE underground in the Carrousel.  This time there was a long long line full of Chinese tourist groups.  Many years ago there used to be a quiet side entrance but it is now a group entrance (or at least it was the day we were there!).  I recommend trying to enter at the Carrousel du Louvre first before the pyramid.

get to the Louvre at opening. And try to avoid this pyramid entrance!

3. Do NOT go on Mondays  
Mondays are the busiest day.  The museum is closed on Tuesdays.  We went on a Wednesday.  Do NOT go on the first Sunday of each month because admission is free. You might save a few bucks going, but you will be so swarmed with people it will not be enjoyable.

Venus de Milo

4. Get a map  
The Louvre is BIG.  You will get lost. Even if you have a self-guided tour book, still grab a map.  It’s so easy to wander around looking at the beautiful objects around each corner.  You could waste a day looking at things you didn’t intend to see, which leads me to #5…

big empty gallery with no one in it! Amazing!

5. Come up with a game plan  
If you can, try to plan out what you want to see first and then come up with a game plan.  I recommend seeing the most touristy things first in the day – like the Mona Lisa. If you want to see the Mona Lisa, head straight to the Italian Paintings in the 13th-15th centuries section. We went straight to the Mona Lisa at opening and there were only 15-20 other people in the room.  Also head to the Winged Victory and Venus de Milo.  They are 3 biggest attractions in the museum.  We tried to follow Rick Steves’ 2 hour tour of the Louvre – which I kind of liked.  If you have a short attention span, I recommend that self-guided tour.

The Mona Lisa. Overrated yet you still have to see it!

6.  Don’t forget to look up!  
Remember, the Louvre used to be a palace and is where the Kings of France used to live.  The palace started construction in the 12th century.

7. Pack a bottle of water
The Louvre is huge and you will do a ton of walking (miles, literally!).  It is also hot.  Even when it’s cool outside there are just so many lights and people so it gets hot.  You will get thirsty and NO there’s not a drinking fountain around.  I also suggest a small non-messy snack too.  There is a food court in the Carrousel du Louvre that sells expensive food court items, which was okay when we were super desperate.  There is also an Angelina’s cafe in the Louvre with Angelina prices.

Laduree has a stand in the Carrousel du Louvre so you could have a macaron snack…

8. Watch for pickpockets  
Yes, a pick pocketer can buy tickets to the museum and steal stuff from you when you’re busy staring at the Mona Lisa! The horror! Yes, seriously. It’s a serious problem in Europe.  We actually saw someone get pick pocketed while he was taking a picture.  Watch out!

Ancient Egyptian antiquities was cool.

9. Understand you aren’t going to see everything
It’s just too big of a museum. Oh well, guess you’ll have to come back again. and again. and again. And pretty soon you’ve been 5 times and still haven’t seen everything.

my favorite painting

10. Dress appropriately
Bring comfy shoes.  Dress in layers.  Some areas of the museum are really warm because there are a lot of bright lights and a lot of people.  Bring a zippered bag to hold your things.

Hopefully these tips will help you on your big trip.  I’m including some other pictures I took while inside the Louvre…

a giant tulipiere! It was taller than me!!

You can visit Napoleon’s apartments.

 Love the scroll work on this gate…

Don’t forget to look outside, you might have a nice view…

I have written many posts about my travels to Paris.  Click here to see them all.

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On our third day in Paris we spent most of the day shopping and dining.

We started our day off with breakfast at Laduree.  We had breakfast in their tea room at their Champs Elysees location.  You can read the full blogpost about it here.

Laduree Paris

Laduree Paris treats After our filling breakfast, we went to the Louis Vuitton store headquarters.  We spent quite some time there staring at all of the pretty purses, shoes, and accessories.  I mean, after all, it IS 5 stories tall!

Peonies & Orange Blossoms buys a LV in Paris! Ooh la la!

I was SO excited to buy a LV in Paris that I had to have a picture!  I don’t normally share pictures of myself, but I couldn’t resist!  I wrote a blogpost about buying a LV in Paris and the fact that it IS cheaper to purchase there.  Definitely a total splurge but I will have it forever!

We then strolled along the boulevard and eventually climbed up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Oh, and my Dad told me this story when we were walking along the Champs Elysees.  He was there one day in August in the 90s and there were all of these people lined up and there was a finish line… for something.  So then all of the sudden this bicyclist comes rushing through and crosses the finish line first and… no one cheered.  He thought it was SO ODD, why was no one cheering? Then another crosses, then another.  Only to be met with silence. Then all of the sudden, everyone starts yelling and cheering at someone wearing a yellow jersey who was clearly not the first to cross the finish line.  And the yellow jersey was the winner!!  He thought to himself, what a typical French sport, where the one in front is not the winner.  Turns out he was watching the end of the Tour de France!!  This was before us Americans really knew about the Tour made famous by Lance Armstrong.  How funny!

 Don’t you just love the view from up here?? This was at the top of the Arc de Triomphe.  I love the beautiful Spring green of all of the trees.

 One of my favorite things to do is to stand on the top of the Arc de Triomphe and watch the cars go around in the giant traffic circle below.  It’s amazing that no one gets hit.  Every once in a while you can find the same car going in circles ’cause they can’t figure out which way they’re going!

Paris Metro

We then strolled along the tuileries garden.  We crossed over the Locks of Love bridge.  We didn’t add any lock.  Apparently the French just cut off all of the locks and won’t be allowing people to put locks on the bridge anymore due to the weight of the locks on the structure of the bridge.

We then went to the Tuileries.  The Tuileries garden was so pretty.  The tulips were still blooming, the trees were still blooming, and then the other trees had just put on their green leaves! My friend had gone 10 days before and the trees were just blooming and none of them had leaves!  Paris at the end of April is beautiful!

I just love how manicured the trees are… all perfectly cut into rectangles.

When people ask me, “What is your favorite thing to do in Paris?” My answer is not “visit the Eiffel” or do other touristy things, it is instead: Pick up a pastry at Angelina’s and walk over to the Tuileries and have a little picnic and eat it.  The gardens are so beautiful and it is so much fun to just people watch. It’s really about just enjoying life.  Isn’t that what vacation is about?

okay, not a pastry from Angelina’s but from Laduree. Angelina’s didn’t last long enough for a picture!

That concludes day 3 of our Trip to Paris!!

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On the second day of the Paris trip, we woke up at 3am. Yeah, whoops.  Jet-lag is not fun.  So naturally, we were up early and ready to go see the Eiffel Tower.

Paris Trip Day 2 Review

view of the Eiffel tower from the Place du Trocadero

Unfortunately we did not know that early in the morning the sun shines directly into the camera at this view of the Eiffel Tower.  The BEST place to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower is at the Place du Trocadero.  You can take Metro line 6 or 9 and get off at Trocadero.  Follow the signs from the metro to “Tour Eiffel”… and voila! It is approximately a 5 minute walk to this view.

Obviously this was the best place to take Eiffel Tower pictures, as we saw 2 bride and groom couples taking pictures here.  How romantic!

On this trip we did not go to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  There is a long line even when it opens early in the morning.  I have a phobia of heights and wasn’t too fond of going to the top again, and it wasn’t a must for my husband.  So we saved the extra Euros (ha, to use on my purse!)

The Eiffel Tower from below

From the Eiffel Tower, we headed to St. Germain.  We stopped at the Cluny Museum (now called the Museum of Middle Ages) which is a medieval museum in St. Germain.  We sat and enjoyed the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. The tapestries were made around 1500.

Lady and the Unicorn tapestries

They were SO beautiful.  What you can’t see in the pictures is actually how much they shimmer with the metallic thread that was used.  I highly recommend going to see them if you’re into textiles… the museum entrance fee is included in your museum pass.

There were some other tapestries too, like this one with sheep! Love it!

After that museum, we strolled and shopped along the streets of St. Germain de Pres.  We saw this pretty hand carved wooden door with angels and fruit.  How fancy!

The streets of St. Germain de Pres were so much fun to walk around on.  We saw pretty buildings and cafes, such as the Cafe de Flore below.  We did not eat here as it was $$$, however I’m sure it would be fun! Next time I go, I would probably want to stay in St. Germain de Pres. Or at the Ritz. ha!

We went to Pierre Herme, which I already blogged about.  Did I mention that I LOVED the rose ispahan croissant and that you need to try one? Oh I did? okay I’ll stop. for now.

macarons at Pierre Herme

Once we picked up our pastries, we walked to the nearest square which had this beautiful old fountain.  We sat here for about an hour or so and enjoyed our treats.

Oh, I HIGHLY recommend bringing plastic utensils in your bag so you can enjoy your treats in a park like this. Otherwise you’ll have one big mess on your hands!

We walked by famous stores, like the oldest chocolatier in paris, A La Mer de Famille!  We did not buy anything here as we were already full from Pierre Herme!  This chocolate store was super cute though!

 Other places in St. Germain de Pres area that we shopped at were… Herve Chapelier, Le Bon Marche, Faconnable, La Maison du Chocolat, Louis Vuitton, Pierre Herme.  We walked by Le Jacquard Francais but did not buy anything.

 For lunch, we bought sandwiches at Le Grand Epicurie which is next to Le Bon Marche.  We then sat in this cute park and had a picnic enjoying the flowers and watching the pigeons and people.

We decided to check out the Palais Garnier (the Paris Opera House).  Despite going to Paris five times, we had never set foot inside the opera!  We decided to check it out this time!  And WHOA.  It was beautiful. The great part is is that they use it still for productions today.  We thought about getting tickets to a show but did not.  How much fun would that be??

I felt like the Phantom was going to come out from behind a wall and start singing in this place… (If you did not know, the Phantom of the Opera was inspired by this opera house!)

After that, we crossed the street to go to Galleries Lafayette and Printemps.  Honestly, Galleries Lafayette was a hot mess. SO MANY PEOPLE.  While they did have some reasonably priced scarves, it was so crowded we were over-it and left. Printemps was much less crowded and we enjoyed something to drink in one of their cafes.  But after a long day of sightseeing, we were pooped.

We eventually made it back near our temporary home… walking down pretty streets like the one below…

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