If you don’t have a car, it’s pretty expensive (although not impossible) to go and see the chateaux of the Loire valley from Paris.

But did you know that not far from our lovely capital there are some magnificent chateaux you can see, less than an hour away on public transport? We went to Gare de Lyon, hopped on a train, and 40 minutes later a different world awaited us…

A UNESCO world heritage site, dating back from the 12th century and added to/modified until the 19th century, the Palace of Fontainebleau is a pretty breathtaking place. The buildings is huge, the rooms high, the decoration luxurious. And it’s so close to Paris! It’s barely beliveable.

Check out the Wikipedia page about the place for loads more history, but the short version is that you’ll be visiting something with medieval, Renaissance and classical elements, set in a pretty park which is itself in a huge forest that ramblers adore.

In fact, if you take the train (as we did) on a Sunday morning during summer, you’ll be surprised by a mysterious unscheduled stop in the middle of the forest. There’s no station, it’s just known that this is the traditional starting place for ramblers to explore the heart of the forest.If you have a rented bike for the day, you can take it with you on the train for no extra charge (certain carriages marked with a bicycle symbol have spaces for them), and this is what we decided to do.

The journey from the station to the chateau takes 10 minutes by bike, but if you’re on foot, an agreeable 30-minute walk will also get you there without problem. As you cross the woods and gardens, you are already transported far from the bustle of Paris…Then the chateau comes into sight, little by little. The buildings are stately, noble, and surround by water features and gardens…The nearer you get, the more details you can see; paintings on walls, the architecture, statues…The visit is well planned, in the sense that it starts of with a slight disappointment – the Napoleon museum, which is in need of renovation and includes many exhibits that aren’t particularly interesting to look at (although of course, we didn’t read all the explanations). A few pieces do stand out of course…After this however, things take a turn for the better. As you entere the château proper, you soon realise why it is so extraordinary. Each room seems brighter, more opulent than the last. The carpets are vast, the fabrics lush, the paintings grandiose, the furniture finely crafted and decorated… Eat your heart out Versailles!It would be unreasonable to force you to wade through all our photos, especially as there are over 170 altogether! We just couldn’t stop ourselves. If you’d like to see them all, there’s a gallery at the end of this article.

We particularly liked the ceilings, as you can see from our little film (available in HD if you select 720p bottome right).

To finish off our visit, we went for a walk in the grounds of the palace before hiring a rowing boat and taking to the lake! Calme, oxygen… so relaxing.If you want to eat during your visit, don’t go the chateau tearoom (expensive, with little choice). Instead, walk two minutes to the town centre and choose from one of the many restaurants and their vast terraces.

We had an amazing day at Fontainebleau, a real change from Paris, and decidedly easy to get to. Here’s all the information you need to plan your visit.

How to get there: Trains leave from Gare de Lyon every 30 minutes (sometimes once an hour). A return trip costs about 15€.

The château: opens at 9.30am every day except Tuesdays, 1st January, 1st May and 25th December. We advise you t get there early if possible. Last ticket is 4.15pm (5.15pm between April and September).

Admission: pretty cheap! 10€ / 8€ for a non-guided visit (which is what we took). One hour before closing, the price is halved, so you can arrive late and run round the place!

Official site: www.musee-chateau-fontainebleau.fr

To see all our photos, click here for the fullscreen version, of flick through them below (click to the right to go forward, to the left to go back).

BONUS! The music video from Lana del Rey, filmed at Fontainebleau…