SNCF from Gare du Lyon, www.fontainebleau-tourisme.com A small town with a huge royal château in the middle of a 40,000-acre forest, Fontainebleau makes an excellent day trip from Paris. The crowds are not as great as those at Versailles, and there are plenty of opportunities for picnicking and walking. The tourist office has maps of forest trails and there are well-signposted walks from the Carrefour de la Libération up to the Hauteurs de la Solle; and from the Carrefour de l’Obélisque to the Rocher des Demoiselles.

Wild boar and deer drew the first French kings to the Forêt de Fontain-bleau starting with Louis VII in the 12thC. During the 16thC, Fran√笵cois I set about converting the regal hunting lodge into a Renaissance palace, Château de Fontainebleau, where he could entertain his favourite, the Duchesse d’Etampes. The finest Italian craftsmen – Primaticcio, Rosso II Fiorentino, Cellini – laboured over the interior decorations, founding the School of Fontainebleau which was to dominate the French artistic scene of the period, and many great works of art, such as da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (now in the Louvre), found their first homes on the palace walls.

Louis XIV commissioned Le Nôtre to lay out the gardens with their canals, carp lake and peacocks; Napoleon refurbished in Empire style, and later abdicated in the Red Salon before making his farewells to his personal troops in the Cour des Adieux. In addition to the flamboyant Grands Appartements, there are guided tours of the Petits Appartements which include Empress Josephine’s private suite, and also a Napoleonic museum. Military history enthusiasts can also visit the Musée Napoléonien d’Art et d’Histoire, 88 rue Saint-Honoré (www.napoleon.org).