Emerging from the shadow of Versailles: the Château de Fontainebleau
The only French château to have been occupied continuously for eight centuries by 34 kings and emperors with its 1,530 rooms that contain more furniture than any other castle in Europe lies just 70 km south of Paris: Fontainebleau.
But why, when this UNESCO World Heritage site surrounded by a forest that attracts some 11 million tourists a year, does Fontainebleau palace play second fiddle to Versailles, only managing to attract between 450,000 to 515,000 visitors compared to the 7.7 million who jam the salons of Versailles? Jean-François Hébert, president of the château since 2009, is perplexed. "A visit to Fontainebleau is much more agreeable. People find visiting Versailles exhausting. They are annoyed by the long wait to get in and then having to visit at a pace set by thousands of other visitors. We don't have that problem in Fontainebleau.”
His mission, to increase the number of visitors by 10% a year, was severely hindered by the terrorist attacks and awful weather in 2015 and 2016 resulting in a drop of visitors from the record 515,000 in 2014 to 470,000 then 466,000 respectively. Luckily the tendency in 2018 is upwards.
One of the problems, about which he can do nothing, is accessibility to the château because it lies at the opposite end of the eponymous city from the train station. Discussions between Hébert and the city authorities of Fontainebleau and Avon, the two towns that share the palace gardens, have resulted in more buses, one every half hour from the station to the palace, but the idea of a shuttle to the palace was not retained. Taxis at the train station are remarkable only by their absence! And, believe it or not there is no dedicated parking for the palace. So visitors who’ve come by car just park where they can in the forest or in the public car parks of the city.
“This château also lacks visibility," according to Hébert. The four courtyards, the park, the 1.1 km long canal, the biggest formal French garden in Europe and the informal English garden, together form a puzzle which is hard to grasp. "As every monarch added his own extension you can only really get an idea of the whole from a hot air balloon,” he smiles.
He and his team are also working at putting the spotlight on another so-called handicap of the château. Its history. Compared to Versailles which is indelibly linked to Louis XIV, Fontainebleau has ties with every monarch from Louis VII who built a fortress here in 1137, to Napoleon III, first President of the Republic, then Emperor, whose wife, Empress Eugénie, created the château’s Chinese museum in 1863 and the magnificent theatre, inaugurated in 1857 but walled up in 1870 after having been used perhaps half a dozen times. Thanks to a €10 million gift made in 2007 by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahya, president of the United Arab Emirates, the auditorium has been restored and re-opened to visitors and now the stage is being restored to enable visitors to admire the biggest collection of French theatre scenery from the 18th and 19th centuries. However shows will be few and far between because it is all very fragile.
Every monarch was able to relax here, except perhaps Napoleon I who first abdicated from the top of the famous horseshoe staircase thereby giving a name to the majestic entrance courtyard which has been known ever since as the “Cour des Adieux”.
Only an infinitesimal number of the château’s rooms are open to visitors. For example, apartment 49 created in the Second Empire for guests is very rarely opened. And then there are all those empty spaces. The buildings put up by Henry IV were restored 10 years ago… but projects to house in them the European Centre for Chamber Music, then the Museum of French History, led nowhere and this magnificent building which anchors the palace to the city remains desperately empty.
A call for ideas to know what to do with the Héronnières, the former stables later used as military barracks was launched a few months ago. About 15 ideas were submitted and a call for projects will be launched this autumn.
But despite the difficulties the Château lives on.
As has been the case every summer since 1921 there will be the Fontainebleau Schools of Music and Fine Arts festival with its concerts, master-classes, conferences and auditions. The eighth annual Art History Festival has just closed its doors and two major exhibitions are programmed for the next six months: “The Kings of the World" from 8 September-8 October and "King Louis Philippe in Fontainebleau" from 3 November to early February 2019.
For further information see: www.chateaudefontainebleau.fr
