Fountainebleau and Vaux le Vicomte

Being ever the organized traveler, we had already decided we wanted to tour the fabulous chateaux of Fountainebleau and Vaux le Vicomte. Words and pictures cannot describe how beautiful, opulent, and grand these chateaux are, so I will not even try. Interestingly enough, Fountainebleau was the hunting lodge for many French kings, including Francois I, Henri IV, and Napolean,



while Vaux le Vicomte was a chateau common in the time of the French Bourgeoisie.



Because travel to these locations, located outside of Paris, involved trains, train schedules, buses, taxis, etc. , we consulted Fodor's travel book, our hotel concierge, and the WWW. After a few misses enroute to Fountainebleau (the internet site provided us with bus lines that do not take one to Fountainebleau, taxis do not appear to even exist in Fountainebleau, a notable sidetour of the less than finer sites of the city was provided via the local bus lines), we eventually arrived at the chateau. The return trip back to the train station was a little less challenging although we kept stopping at local tourist offices for assistance...of which every 2 out 3 were not open. Yes, everything shuts down in France in August.



Part Deux of this daytrip then included a train stop in Melun, home of Vaux le Vicomte. Again, Fodor's and our internet notes failed us, because none of the buses appeared to have this tourist site on their route. The tourist "chateau bus" also appeared to only run on the weekends...never fear...taxi to the rescue, which we were able to find "one". Although travel tips suggested that this was only a 2 km walk, we would still have been walking through the wheat fields of Melun to find this place. It was worth it, however, including a rather laborious audio guide that provided me with more historical context about French owners, the plot and intrique during 1600's in France, and of course, the chateau, than I could ever have wanted to know.