Visiting
Chateau Fontainebleau, France/Carlos Pueblo
One night, a
Taiwanese female tourist recommended Chateau Fontainebleau
for me to
visit and explained the palace has been famous for its gardens and
was a palace
for the emperors mistresses. I took a subway train to Lyon Station
and
transferred to a railway to Fontainebleau-Avon Station about 34 miles
southeast of
Paris. The palace was established in 1137 as a fortress of the king
and later
became a hunting place and palace for mistresses. It was also an
administrative
palace for some kings and emperors during times.
Again, I
took a direct bus from the train station to the front gate of the palace.
On the map,
it is stated as Fontainebleau-Avon and I assume there are two small
cities
adjacent to each other. It’s been a capital; therefore, the cities appear very
nice like
Versailles. I entered a side gate through a park later know is Diane Garden.
Diane was then
a mistress of King Henry IV. The flowers bushes closed to the palace
building attracted
me very much; however, I could not name them except later in
another
garden a gardener told me one of them deutzia, a kind of snow like flower
in Chinese
description in the dictionary. There is a statue of Diane in a small pond
with spring
fountain and her 4 handsome dogs accompanying her. I walked along the
edge of the
garden and noticed that I was late for roses or peonies. Outside of the
building
wall, there is a bronze plate shown the garden’s name and brief introduction.
This bronze
plate is facing the big palace square with the famous horse shoe stairs to
the main
palace facing the main gate and outside is the city’s Place of General De
Gaulle.
There were
visitors started to come in include two groups of school children line up to
visit one
side of the palace. The main portion was not open until later. I continued to
walk into a
larger Jardin Anglais, English Garden. There are small brooks, grass ground,
lakes,
bridge, and many beautiful flowering bushes. I asked a gardeners group of
three,
one of them
wrote two names of flowers for me, Rhododindon and Deutzia, I believed
in English, Rhododendron
and Deutzia for both. I recognized Rhododendron immediately
because of running
into the season on my trip to Seattle and Alaska. I believe that azalea
is a
sub-species of rhododendron which seems combined several azalea flowers
together
into a
bunch. There are several kinds of colors, red, pink, and yellow rhododendron in
the garden. There
is a pavilion on the lake with white swans and row boats for the interested
visitors. On
the other side, there is a huge Palace Park and la grande prairie, a grand
praire.
I noticed
when I studied the search which interested me very much. Louis XIV utilized
this
Palace as
well as Chateau Versailles, his grandfather, Louis XIII was born here. Both
Napoleons
loved here, the first signed his abdication here while the third received Siam
Group with
presents here. He also joined the British forces invaded Peking and robbed the
Summer Palace.
He kept both Siam and Chinese staff inside the Palace Chinese Museum.
He, the
third, lost the French-Prussian War and was a prisoner of war at the end.
