The Magical Forests of Fontainebleau: Paris’s Natural Escape

 

It is the places that relax you the moment you enter them and to me, the Forest of Fontainebleau is one of them. An hour out of Paris, it is the same as passing to another world, a more peaceful, gentler world where trees appear to breathe with you. I would not have imagined it would have had such a sudden change but the moment I got there, it was like the forest gave me a relief and maybe relieved the burden on my shoulders.

I came to Fontainebleau in the morning, still bearing a part of the traffic with me of the city. Other plans had the forest. It was chilly and smelled rather of pine and damps. Even the light was different, as it went through some of the old trees, high and old, and so diffused that the entire woodland was light.

The trail continued to act as I went deeper. One minute I was against high oaks, which fell above, and the next I fell into a sunny opening that looked like where one would most want to draw a long breath. I even wondered at some stage whether I had somehow stumbled into a painting.

 

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The rocks spread across the passages appeared to be introduced purposefully as sculptures made by nature. I went up one of them not very gracefully and chuckled to myself when I was out of breath enough to get to the top.

 

Having wandered some, I came to a fallen shelf of tree trunk, and sat down. It was not intended, I simply experienced the necessity to take a break. A flowing breeze followed and the aroma of moss and something sweet of which I could not tell was in the air.

 

I didn’t want to leave. Fontainebleau makes you drag your feet, put your feet on the floor, without your consent, or charge, as it were. It is a place that will be remembered long after you are back in the city.