Stephanie in the City of Lights: Fontainebleau

Bonjour!
So I guess I've made this into a weekend of castles, with Versailles yesterday and Fontainebleau today! This second chateau was a bit spontaneous, as an American friend here invited me just last night. Once again, we took the train to get there, only we had to take a bus from the train station as well, but it was still a very easy trip; altogether, it only took an hour to get from Gare de Lyon in Paris to Fontainebleau. It is a pretty big castle, and I think we saw most of it--certainly all of it that was open to the public. And we decided to do the audioguide, since it was only 1€, so I actually learned a little something today! Although since Fontainebleau was inhabited and in use from the 1100s to the 1800s, there was a lot of information, and I'm not sure how much of it I retained! But the big names there were, of course, Francois I, Henri IV, and Napoléon I--especially Napoléon I--with honorable mentions to Louis XIII, XIV, and XVI as well. Fontainebleau also has some lovely grounds, and since we finally had some nice weather today, we took advantage and explored them a bit as well. The town of Fontainebleau also seemed very cute, although we didn't explore it too much. It was a lot of fun to visit a place I haven't been before! And it was nice to get out of the city and enjoy some nature. The castle was nice, too, but I have to say, I think the décor in the chateau was a bit over the top, a bit too much. There was so much going on in so many of the rooms, and it was all so sumptuous! It may have been a case of too much of a good thing--too much gold, too many tapestries, too many chandeliers! But it was a lot of fun to see such a rich place, although I don't think I'd like to live there.