Within easy striking distance for a day trip from Paris, Fontainebleau is worth visiting several times! The incredible chateau - a conglomerate of design improvements as a series of kings made their mark of grandueur - is a day in itself. You have to be on your best behaviour to go inside - the attendants are surly and uncooperative at best - and you have to have a head for numbers to get around the various successions, but the anecdotadal accounts of various Loius at play are hilarious.

In fact there is a fair bit of humour in the design and architecture (as the Hunting Fountain above attests).

Really, for me though, the best part of the day was walking away from the chateau itself to the bottom of the formal gardens (which can give you a surprising distance). We had a classic baguette picnic and bouteille de vin and spent a large part of the afternoon looking back across the lakes to the house; pondering its enourmity and the trouble you could have finding your car keys.

If we had had more energy, we would have stuck to the plan to go for a longer yomp in the forests of Fontainebleau... but we didn't... so I can only repeat what I have heard said; that they're fantastique. I know there is a lot of organised activity that goes on there (rock climbing, horse riding etc) but also plenty of unspoilt woodland for getting slightly lost in.