Fonteinbleau Castle

Today was the final tour of the year for our walking group and it was an all day tour with lunch too.  We visited the Chateau of Fonteinbleau which is almost as large and important as the Chateau at Versailles.  Kings and Emperors have lived there since the 1200s.  There were a lot of interesting rooms with elaborately decorated ceilings and walls.  Rooms used by Napoleon and Josephine were carefully restored.  There was a fabulously decorated hall and ballroom from the time of Henry the 2nd or was it Francis the first?????  The bed in the picture was made for Marie Antoinette but she never used it, so later it became the Empress Josephine's bed!

Then we had lunch in a nearby little village which used to be the place to be for artists in the 1800s.  Picture of a piece of furniture decorated by local artists who ran out of canvas.....