Must-SeeLoire Valley
Centre-Val de Loire
About 147 miles away
Hundreds of Renaissance chateaux, with Chambord and Chenonceau, among vineyards.
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Palace of Fontainebleau
A royal palace used by French kings for 800 years, in a great forest, quieter than Versailles and just as rich.
- Open
- Wednesday to Monday; closed Tuesdays
- Price
- Paid
- Time Needed
- Half a day
- Address
- 77300 FontainebleauDirections
- Getting There
- A train from Gare de Lyon to Fontainebleau-Avon, about 40 minutes, then a bus to the palace.
Why Go
Every ruler from the 12th century to Napoleon III lived here. Francis I filled it with Italian Renaissance art, and Napoleon signed his first abdication here in 1814, on the horseshoe staircase.
The forest around it is good for walks and rock climbing.
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The Normandy coast of the June 1944 landings, with Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery.
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About 193 miles away
A medieval abbey rising from a tidal bay on the Normandy coast.
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