Fountainebleu-- bless you!

   The chateau Fountainebleu is about a 30 minute train ride from Paris, and because the tickets to go there were super reasonable, some friends and I decided to go for a nice countryside outing. There is a massive woods surrounding the massive chateau and the two displays of grandeur from two very different artists was a refreshing change from the hustle and bustle of the big city.

    This chateau, like most, has passed through many hands: kings, emperors, and now finally the education system (part of it is a music/art school now).
   The chateau was like Napoleon Bonaparte's Versailles, he renovated it, and overall just tried to make it as fancy-pants as he could to show off his power.

   Luckily, even with Mr. Napoleon changing bits everywhere, the history of the old kings is still there and very few paintings/carvings were altered.

However, Napoleon did leave his slippers behind:

Bio-hazard crest

My initials! I'm obviously going to inherit this chateau.

Everything was so ornate! In fact, I think it may be more ornate than most of Versailles--good job Napoleon.

   Seriously, every little nook and cranny had a carving, tapestry, or mirror inhabiting it. 

    After we went through the chateau, we went to the gardens!

Beautiful.

    The weather was perfect! "Not too hot, not too cold-- all you need is a light jacket."

    My only complaint was that the leaves were not satisfyingly crunchy...they just kinda flopped, but that was because it had just rained.... So it was actually okay because the smell of wet leaves is almost as delicious as stepping on a really crunchy patch of leaves!

   Unfortunately, because of our leisurely wanders through the chateau and gardens we ran out of time to explore the woods...but the train drove through them for a bit, so we got a little peek. 

A "religieuse" pastry:
puff pastry+chocolate/cafe icing+chocolate creme interior=
bliss.

  What is that you may ask? What does that delightsome concoction of empty calories have to do with the story you were talking about earlier? Well, it's what happened next in my story! We came home on the train, I bade my friends a bonne  soirée, and on the way to the apartment I spied this in the bakery window and thought: what a better ending to a most perfect day? And so I got it for dinner--yum!