At Fontainebleau, We Heard The French Kings Murmured...
It was still late summer when we departed.
We traveled 60 kilometers northeast of Paris and through a thick forest. An ancient palace towered in front of us. This was the Château de Fontainebleau, the royal palace that held the dream and glory of 36 of French kings and emperors. Sitting deep inside of the Galerie François I, we talked to Mr. Alexis de Kermel, the head of the department of Media and Development in Fontainebleau.
Alexis de Kermel graduated from the University of Rennes with a major in Tourism and Cultural Heritage.Currently, Mr. Alexis de Kermel enjoys the tranquility of living and working in Château de Fontainebleau.
Time flies through the palace, leaving behind traces of history to discover. As we talked, our voices echoed in the galleries and danced between the ancient relief sculptures, the chandeliers and the paintings on the walls. Chinese poet Zhu Ziqing translated the name of this royal palace’s name poetically. The translation means “scarlet maple in haze” in Chinese, which accurately articulated our visual experience. In the morning of early autumn, the scenery was picturesque.
Fontainebleau has witnessed a time of glory when aristocrats and foreign ambassadors assembled in King Francois I’s banquet hall. Fontainebleau has also seen the bustling excitement of when the oldest son of Louis Philips married the German princess. Here, Napoleon ambitiously took the throne and the power. Here, Napoleon stepped down from the throne after his atrocious defeat in Waterloo, leaving France in despair.
This ancient palace, established in the 12th century, is the best place to explore the golden age of the French Renaissance. Italian craftsmen deftly incorporated Baroque art into its interior design and French artists developed Classicism in the paintings. Even that forest outside of the palace received the most beautiful love letter from the poet Xu Zhimo, which reads “The next day when we returned to Paris from the forest outside of Fontainebleau, I felt as if I just had the weirdest, secretive and colorful dream.
“This is the source of inspiration,” said Mr. Alex de Kermel : “Once in a while, we need to slow down and communicate with nature and history. Fontainebleau is the perfect place to for you to take a deep breath.”
We strolled around and listened.
The subtle buzz when the wings of the swans brushed the surface of lake became clear to our ears. The breeze whispered against the roof and sang to us, the song of history. Now the glory and the grief of the imperial families have all become the past, the vivid memory for the ones to come. Yet the 800 years of culture has been deeply engraved into the art in this palace, waiting for you to explore.
photograph © Licorne Unique. All rights reserved.
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