{"id":360539,"date":"2025-08-20T22:46:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T22:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/360539\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T22:46:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T22:46:23","slug":"carnet-de-voyage-living-next-to-frances-royal-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/360539\/","title":{"rendered":"Carnet de Voyage: Living Next to France\u2019s Royal Forest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travel notes from the real France. Carnet de Voyage is a weekly personal travel story in France sent in by readers. If you\u2019d like to write a story for Carnet de Voyage, head <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a> for details on how to submit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fontainebleau was the world\u2019s first forest protected not for what it produced, but for how it made people feel. I count myself lucky to be one of the many drawn in by that feeling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In July 2024, I moved to a small town, also called Fontainebleau, set inside the forest \u2013 a forest that\u2019s anything but small, stretching nearly twice the size of Paris. It quickly became part of my daily life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first time I wandered in, under my feet I found something I hadn\u2019t expected to find in the middle of France: sand. Fine, pale, and soft underfoot. The sand base to the forest\u2019s 1500km of trails. That alone was unusual; turns out it\u2019s valuable, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The sand base to the forest\u2019s 1500km of trail \u00a9 Jen Flanagan<\/p>\n

This sand is over 99% silica, among the purest naturally occurring sand in the world. It\u2019s used to make ultra-clear, low-iron glass. Or in other words, some of the best glass you can get. Architect I. M. Pei sourced Fontainebleau sand for the glass in the Louvre Pyramid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I spent more time exploring the forest\u2019s trails, I noticed something else unexpected: enormous rocks, dotted with shallow craters, their surfaces worn smooth, and almost soft feeling, if that\u2019s possible for a rock. Later I learned they are sandstone, formed when this region was underwater during the Ice Age. Over time, the rock eroded into the massive, rounded shapes scattered across the forest like ancient sculptures. One is even shaped like an elephant, aptly called \u201cl\u2019\u00c9l\u00e9phant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, these rocks make Fontainebleau one of the world\u2019s top bouldering destinations, with over 30,000 climbing routes. It also explains the steady stream of folks in town with thick mats (bouldering pads) strapped to their backs like turtle shells.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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L\u2019El\u00e9phant rock \u00a9 Jen Flanagan<\/p>\n

The forest\u2019s unique logic doesn\u2019t stop there. Every few hundred meters, the trees open into wide, circular clearings, with straight paths radiating outward like spokes on a wheel. The symmetry is too perfect to be natural\u2026 and it isn\u2019t\u00a0<\/p>\n

These intersections were engineered for royal hunts. In early modern France, hunting was what golf is today: ritual, sport, and status. The forest was shaped to support it: long, straight paths for speed on horseback, undergrowth cleared so riders and their loyal hounds could see their prey. Even today, many trees still bear the marks of that design, with trunks left bare below a certain height.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the forest\u2019s edge stands the Ch\u00e2teau de Fontainebleau, which began as a royal hunting lodge and grew into one of France\u2019s most important palaces. Kings would ride directly into the woods from its gates. Many of the ch\u00e2teau\u2019s paintings and tapestries still depict scenes of la chasse (the hunt).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some parts of the forest were designated faisanderies, where faisans (pheasants) were bred to keep game plentiful. One section of the forest is still called La Faisanderie. All of it, quiet echoes of its royal past.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Google Map view of one of the many \u2018intersections <\/p>\n

Even now, those same paths shape how you move through the forest. One minute you\u2019re deep in what feels like wilderness, the next you\u2019re at a clearing with over 6 options to turn to next. It\u2019s a gift if, like me, you enjoy getting a little lost on long walks or trail runs. At the very least, it\u2019s a reminder that this place was once both playground and power display.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And yet, despite all the human shaping, the forest never lost its wildness. And artists noticed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the early 1800s, painters from what became known as the Barbizon School, named after a nearby village, began leaving Paris to work here (the forest lies about 55km south of the city). These painters rejected the rigid rules of academic painting, dominated Paris and the \u2018salons\u2019 at the time, and instead worked directly in nature, making nature the subject itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If that sounds familiar, it\u2019s because they anticipated the Impressionists \u2013 though the label came later. History, it seems, preferred the more impressionable name.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Edge of the Woods at Monts\u2011Girard, Fontainebleau Forest\u201d by Th\u00e9odore Rousseau (one of the Barbizon painters), 1852\u201354. One of several paintings of the forest in New York\u2019s Metropolitan Museum of Art \u00a9 Jen Flanagan<\/p>\n

\u00a0It was a radical idea at the time: that a forest could be worth saving simply because it moved people. But by 1830, these artists (along with early conservationists) successfully lobbied the French state to protect part of the forest from logging. So, Fontainebleau became not just the first protected forest in France, but the first in the world preserved for aesthetic reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1861, Napoleon III expanded the protections, setting aside more than 1,000 hectares as a R\u00e9serve Artistique, a zone where no trees could be cut. It marked the beginning of modern landscape conservation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, that spirit still lingers. What I\u2019ve come to enjoy most is the quiet way the forest brings people into its rhythm. Take Laurent, for example.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I first moved here, I came across his online listing for a guided bike ride through the forest. He had grown up in Fontainebleau, left for Paris, and returned to retire. The listing had been up for years, but I was the first person to reach out in a long time. He said he preferred it that way, offering something at a slower pace helped preserve what made it meaningful to him. Thanks to him, I found some of the best trails early on; routes I still use every week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The first biking excursion in the forest with Laurent\u2026 too scared to ride my bike under the boulders at the time! <\/p>\n

Over the past year, the forest has become part of my routine, not just for biking, but for hiking, trail running, and long afternoons on the golf course tucked inside. I\u2019ve passed others bouldering, horseback riding, even practicing archery. Once you enter, there\u2019s a rare luxury of anonymity that\u2019s hard to come by in the town of Fontainebleau, where running into someone you know is almost guaranteed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What I\u2019ve enjoyed least are the sangliers (wild boars) that roam the forest. Another favorite animal of the royal hunt. I\u2019ve been told they\u2019re more afraid of me than I am of them, but I\u2019ve never stuck around long enough to test the theory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re ever in Paris and looking for a quiet outing, I can\u2019t recommend the Fontainebleau forest enough. And definitely check out Laurent\u2019s Airbnb experience.<\/a>Proud to now be a semi-official model for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first biking excursion in the forest with Laurent\u2026 too scared to ride my bike under the boulders at the time!\u00a0<\/p>\n

How to Visit<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

From Paris, take the RER R line from Gare de Lyon to Fontainebleau\u2013Avon station (about 40 minutes). From there, a short walk will get you to one of the forest\u2019s many entrances. My favorite entry is behind the INSEAD campus on Route de l\u2019Ermitage (into the Faisanderie area).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Apps like AllTrails and Komoot are helpful for finding trails. Or you can do what I usually do: step in, and let yourself get lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read our other Carnet de Voyage entries <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jen is a regular contributor to FranceToday. Read her other articles here <\/a>and follow her travel adventures on her personal blog: open.substack.com\/pub\/jenflanagan<\/a><\/p>\n

Lead photo credit :<\/b> Ch\u00e2teau de Fontainebleau, as seen from one of the forest trails \u00a9 Jen Flanagan<\/p>\n

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