The Forest of Fontainebleau is a strange and beautiful place, a woodland of oak, beech and pine growing on a bed of sandstone that has weathered into huge grey boulders, scattered across the hillsides like the playthings of giants. It covers some twenty-five thousand hectares south of Paris, and it was a royal hunting ground for centuries before it became a place of refuge for city dwellers, climbers and painters. UNESCO designated it a biosphere reserve in the late twentieth century, recognising its rare mix of habitats.
The sandstone is the thing. Over millions of years, wind and water have carved it into rounded blocks, ledges and overhangs, and in the forest these blocks have become the world's best-known bouldering ground, with climbers from every country working the problems marked with coloured arrows. The sand itself is pale and fine, and the heaths and gorges of Franchard have an almost desert feel in dry weather. The forest also has the Mare aux Fées, a pond named for the fairies said to bathe in it.
In the nineteenth century, painters of the Barbizon school, among them Rousseau and Millet, came to the village of Barbizon on the edge of the forest to paint nature directly, working outdoors and rejecting the studio tradition, and in doing so they helped pave the way for the Impressionists. The château of Fontainebleau, a vast palace beside the forest, was a favourite of François I and Napoleon, who said farewell to his Guard in its courtyard in 1814 before going into exile on Elba.
The riding here is a very mixed pleasure. The main roads through the forest are smooth and fast, with long avenues of tall trees and dappled light, but many smaller roads are narrow, patched and strewn with leaves and sand, and sudden bends hide in the shade. Speed limits are low and enforced, and some tracks are closed to motor vehicles. Weekends bring heavy traffic, with cyclists, climbers and walkers, so go on a weekday if you can. After rain the surface can be treacherous.
Fontainebleau, a town of nearly twenty thousand people, has fuel, restaurants and parking, and is the best place to stock up. The smell of the forest, resin and leaf mould, is intoxicating on a warm morning.