9am, we had had breakfast and were on our way, passed the mouth of the canal we should have been moored down last night. As you can see its another cracking day and would get over 30° C this afternoon.
Now we are on the bigger locks as can be seen by the second row of photographs. Some of them the top gate actually rolls up from the bed of the lock and are often accompanied with what looks like long traffic barriers, that come down before the gate starts to close, as boats coming down the river can’t see a closed gate.
| Rotating Top Gate | Road Barriers down as lock empties |
As it was now the weekend the rowers were out in force, racing up the river, it was easier negotiating our way passed these than it was the sailing dinghies we encounter a little further upstream. It was quite a short run to Melun and after lunch our coach was waiting to take us to Château of Fontainebleau for the afternoon. In the grounds they have a nice 3D model of the whole place.
This is what the Château looks like in real life with its splendid Horseshoe staircase main entrance.
The Château has over 1,500 rooms, it features Renaissance masterpieces commissioned by Francis I, the lavishly decorated interiors of Marie Antoinette, the state apartment of Napoleon I and there is more information than I could ever write on line at https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Fontainebleau here so I will just put up the photos we took with a brief description.
All the walls and ceilings were beautifully decorated, it must have taken millions of man hours just for the decorating let alone building such a place. What a great difference to how they lived and the peasants who they took the money from.
In the Trinity chapel they had made a carpet that is an exact replica of the tiled floor it covers. This is to protect the ancient tiles from thousands of visitors feet.
Not only is the Château quite spectacular so are the 130 Hectares of grounds and gardens which including a large Carp pond that covers quite a large area
This wing, know as the Minsters Wing and not attached to the rest of the buildings was built until 1530 and is now the administrative offices for the Château. Between the end of the Wing and the main building stands the Jeu de paume, one of the few remaining historic tennis courts.
Back at the boat diner was a BBQ taken out on the deck, not a BBQ like I would have at home but a 3 course one with waitress service and of course lots of wine.
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