The Transilien Line R from Paris Gare de Lyon to Fontainebleau-Avon takes approximately 40 minutes. Trains run roughly every 30 minutes; the fare is around €8.70 single (Zone 1 to 5 ticket). From Fontainebleau-Avon station, the Line A bus runs to the château gates in approximately 10 minutes. The approach from the bus stop to the palace entrance is flat.
The Paris Marathon runs in early April. Fontainebleau in April is entering its spring programme: the palace gardens are accessible year-round (free entry), and the forest that surrounds the town, the Forêt de Fontainebleau, is in its earliest leaf. April is before the Easter crowds that fill the forest trails in late April; the palace is accessible and not overwhelmed.
The Château and Gardens
Château de Fontainebleau served as a royal residence from the 12th century to the 19th, eight centuries of French monarchs using it as their principal hunting palace, the forest surrounding the town being the largest royal hunting domain in France. Francis I rebuilt the medieval structure in the 1530s, creating the first major French Renaissance palace and importing Italian artists, including Rosso Fiorentino and Francesco Primaticcio, to decorate it. Napoleon used it extensively; it was here that he signed his first abdication in 1814.
The palace interior (entry approximately €14 for the state apartments) is flat throughout each floor; the Grand Staircase between levels involves stairs. The apartments cover five centuries of royal furnishing. The Galerie François I, the Salle du Bal, and the successive royal bedchambers represent one of the more compressed royal interior chronologies in France.
The English Garden (Jardin Anglais) adjacent to the palace north wing is flat and level, a formal park in the English landscape style with straight paths beside the large ornamental carp pond. The carp pond (Étang des Carpes) is a rectangular lake from the 16th century, still containing the descendants of the original royal carp. Flat paths run along both sides.
The Parterre, the formal French garden south of the palace, is also level: wide gravel paths between geometric beds. In April the beds are in early spring planting; the box hedges that define the parterre structure are the permanent feature. Entry to the gardens is free year-round.
The Forest
The Forêt de Fontainebleau, 25,000 hectares of oak, hornbeam, and Scots pine on sandy soil, begins immediately at the palace edge and extends for miles in every direction. The forest is known among rock climbers for its boulder fields (blocs), which have been used for training since the 19th century. The trails through the forest are sandy and largely flat, cut through the trees in long straight lines from the 17th-century royal hunting era.
For post-marathon walking: the signposted Blue Trail circuits running from the palace edge through the northern forest sections are flat, well-marked, and offer the specific quality of a large French royal forest in April, the first leaves on the oaks, the bluebells (jacinthes des bois) on the forest floor, the open sandy paths. Pick up a trail map from the Fontainebleau tourist office on the Rue Royale.
Where to Eat
L'Axelle near the palace gates serves French bistro cooking with Île-de-France produce. In April, the menu typically runs to spring lamb (agneau de printemps), asparagus if the season has opened, and the first local strawberries, though these are rarely reliable before late April in this part of France. Order what the kitchen recommends from the daily board rather than what the printed menu promises for the season.
Le Fontainebleau, the local dessert speciality, is a cold preparation of whipped cream mixed with fresh cream cheese: light, slightly acidic. It is served in several Fontainebleau restaurants and is specifically available year-round. It is the correct ending to a French lunch when the legs need fuel and the stomach needs something that is not heavy.
Getting Back
Transilien R services from Fontainebleau-Avon to Paris Gare de Lyon run roughly every 30 minutes throughout the afternoon and evening. Forty minutes back to the centre of Paris.