Fontainebleau

A royal hunting lodge and chapel were built here by Louis VII in the middle of the 12th century, in a hamlet beside a spring in the forest — the "Fontaine Belle-Eau" from which, by one account, the town takes its name. Louis IX called the place "his wilderness" and built a country house and a hospital; Philip the Fair was born here in 1268 and died here in 1314. In all thirty-four sovereigns, from Louis VI to Napoleon III, spent time at Fontainebleau.

Francis I transformed the house into a palace from about 1528, bringing Italian artists such as Rosso Fiorentino and Primaticcio to decorate it, and the court entertained here the new ideas of the Renaissance. Every monarch from Francis I to Louis XV left changes. Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau here in 1685, revoking the toleration of Protestants, and the 1762 treaty concerning Louisiana was concluded here. Napoleon held Pope Pius VII at the château from 1812 to 1814, and on 20 April 1814, shortly before his first abdication, bade farewell to his Old Guard in the courtyard now called the Cour des Adieux.

Until the 19th century Fontainebleau was a village and a suburb of Avon; the railway station in Avon has served it since the middle of that century. It hosted the Franco-Vietnamese conference of 1946 and, from NATO's beginnings until 1967, the Allied command for Central Europe. The palace became a national museum in 1927 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.

Fontainebleau's culture has always been bound up with the forest. In the 19th century the painters of the Barbizon School, among them Théodore Rousseau and Jean-François Millet, worked on its edges and campaigned against the planting of pines; in 1853 old woods and rocky areas were withdrawn from timber cutting, and in 1861 this "artistic reserve" was enlarged. Writers followed: Flaubert sent the hero of Sentimental Education to the palace and forest, and Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley lives near the town.

The forest's sandstone boulders have been climbed since the 19th century and now form the biggest bouldering area in the world, giving their name to the Font grading system; at weekends the car parks fill with climbers carrying foam pads. The town is also known for horse racing and riding, and the palace has one of only two active real-tennis courts in France, where the 2008 world championship was played.

The INSEAD business school brings students from around the world, giving the bars and restaurants of the Rue Grande an international mix unusual for a town of its size. The people of Fontainebleau are known as Bellifontains.

About 15,600 people lived in the commune in 2023, and the urban area formed with Avon and three smaller communes had about 36,700 in 2018. The commune covers the largest land area in Île-de-France, larger than Paris itself, because it takes in much of the forest. It is a sub-prefecture of Seine-et-Marne, linked to the Gare de Lyon in Paris by Transilien trains.

The palace draws around 300,000 visitors a year and the forest more than 13 million, and besides tourism the town has the sub-prefecture's offices, a court, a hospital campus and INSEAD's European campus. Life in town revolves around the Rue Grande, the market and the schools, while the forest, managed and protected by the national forestry office, is used daily by walkers, runners, riders and climbers.

In July 2026, during a strong heatwave, a fire broke out in the forest. The forest covers about 250 square kilometres, and its trails and rocks begin at the edge of the town's streets.

Fontainebleau has given its name to a cheese: le fontainebleau, a fresh speciality whose recipe was never registered and varies from shop to shop. It may be made purely from crème fraîche or from fresh cow's-milk cheese folded with whipped cream, and it comes as a creamy cheese topped with a light white mousse about ten centimetres across, held in place by muslin. Made only with cream, it keeps for just two days.

The surrounding plains of Seine-et-Marne are cheese country too: Brie de Melun and Brie de Meaux, both protected cheeses, come from the department, and Melun lies just north of the forest. The barley sugar of nearby Moret-sur-Loing has been made since the 17th century.

In town, the market is busiest on Sunday mornings, and the Rue Grande has brasseries in the classic style alongside restaurants serving food from Japan, Mexico and elsewhere, with bars and pubs used by INSEAD students. A picnic in the forest, with bread, cheese and fruit bought in town, is a favourite way to spend a fine day.