Fontainebleau & Barbizon Private Tour from Paris

After a 1 hour 15 minute drive with your private knowledgeable English-speaking driver, you will arrive to Fontainebleau. Because of so many royalties and sovereigns who lived there (including a Pope), Napoleon Ist named it "La Maison des Siècles / The House of Ages, the true home of Kings".

Fontainebleau was the sovereign’s residence for eight centuries starting from the 12th century. Capétiens, Valois, Bourbons, Bonaparte, and Orléans lived within these walls. From Francis I (the castle was his favorite residence) to Napoleon III, each sovereign left a unique mark in the structure and on its grounds.

Enjoy the treasures preserved at Fontainebleau Castle. The castle is rich in 800 years of history, has nearly 30,000 works of art from the 16th to the 19th century, presented in situ, kept in storage or exhibited in other museum institutions as part of deposits. Visit Napoleon's apartments on the first floor, where you can see a lock of his hair. Admire the decor of the François I Gallery, one of the most beautiful galleries in France. View the Trinity Chapel, the King's bedroom, and Throne Room, the only remaining Throne Room in France retaining its original furniture. Let yourself be amazed during this walk through the collections.

The park and its gardens, created during the reign of Henry IV, foreshadowed the Grand Canal of Versailles to be created sixty years later. Enjoy some free time to wander through the Chateau's gardens. Discover the English Garden, formerly the Pine Garden, and visit the mirror-like Carp Pond.

You will be able to walk through the forest, which was a magnificent hunting ground at ancient times, and to stop at the typical village of Barbizon, which inspired landscape painters such as Corot and Millet.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Barbizon was a tiny hamlet of lumberjacks and quarrymen, on the edge of the vast forest of Fontainebleau. Young painters began to come to stay there, attracted by painting from nature in the forest. These revolutionary artists decided to paint outside, and no longer locked up in a studio!

This is the Barbizon School! If you desire you can visit different house studios from the painters! The village has kept its charming appeal with houses made of stone and ivy, and the gardens full of roses. It definitely remains the “village of Painters”.