Fontainebleau

I've already expressed in my last post on Versailles how I feel about castle interiors. Just like at Versailles, there is a famous hall at Fontainebleau, called the Galerie François Premier, that we studied in my French 361 class. In one of the series of allegorical frescoes that line the gallery, there's the elephant "fleurdelisé," meaning marked by the royal French insignia of the fleur-de-lys. The elephant represents the King as wise and a steady protector of his people. Check it:


But that was all only moderately interesting. Best part? Traipsing and frolicking in the gardens. Also enormous, not of the same grandeur and immensity as Versailles. But perhaps even better for frolicking because it's wilder, less manicured. See?


I have grown to really love and appreciate what I'd like to call French "garden" culture. Even in the middle of Paris, one of the major international cities, the are parks and gardens all over! Look at a map of Paris, and you'll remark all the green, proportionally speaking. Paris is full of parks, and the parks are full of Parisians! I mean, there's Central Park in the middle of downtown New York. But as for quantity and quality of gardens, I'm going to have to say Paris wins. Obviously, many of the gardens once belonged only to the privileged--the Luxemburg gardens and the Tuileries were palace gardens.

But as my greatest acquisition in France has been to cultivate an ability to relax and take life at an easy pace. To flâner, as I've said before! And the gardens, everywhere, are so conducive to this.

Also, worth mentioning on the subject of Fontainebleau is the yummy ice cream we bought. Why has melon ice cream not made it in full force in the States? I fell for it in Germany last summer, and rediscovering it in the gardens of this old castle made the experience all the more pleasurable.