The Oliver Road Floods. A letter sent to Cyril Smith by the then Secretary Fred Lineham highlighting the flooding problems at Oliver and Auckland Road sites. He says It took some time, but it was most enjoyable as I had to research quite extensively.

 

This may appear a bit rambling in places, as I am trying to remember six years on, three years of research involving over a thousand maps and related papers. I used materials from Valance House, Passmore Edwards, Metropolitan Water Board, Essex County Records, Bazalgette's own papers, Inland Waterways Library and local Parish Records plus Vestry House and London Records.

 

To understand the drainage system at Oliver Road, you have to take in a very much wider area than just the site. On the site itself you have to consider three points:

1.The complex system of the original underground streams.

2.The work done by Bazalgette during the Great Stink.

3.The extra piping laid due to the building of the Leyton Sewerage Works, the remains of which are at the lower end of the site.

Now all of this is totally complicated by the fact that most of the work was never incorporated into our local ground maps. An example of how this happened is as follows. Two brothers, one a Leyton Council official, the other a Leytonstone Council official were nominated by their respective Parish Councils to ensure that the London Drain would pass through their Parish and not the others as you got many Brownie Points by having the prestigious London Drain running under your high street. Both brothers kept their plans about their person at al times and when the Drain was awarded to Leytonstone, our lad in a fit of pique, stole his brother's papers and burnt them. In retaliation, the other brother hired two local hard men to duff up his brother and steal his papers, but the local police (I am sure it could not have been Frances Road Station) chased and caught the villains but before they were apprehended they fed the papers to a goat to lose the evidence. These papers contained details of all the local streams with flow rates, all the original piping and land drainage. This is why all of the very complex streams and pipes are not on the Water Board's ground maps of our site.

You are dealing with very ancient waterways here, as originally, our site area was at the edge of a great marsh east of London. A number of streams run down from the high forest areas of Epping and Wanstead, by way of Whipps Cross. For instance the Hollow and Eagle Ponds feed the Fillebrook Stream which runs alongside the Auckland Road Site. Another historical point, is that it was around here that Alfred blocked some rivers and streams to form extra marshland in order to keep the Danes at bay. There are two high points in this area, one at what is now Ruckholt Road. Ruckholt being a derivation of Rock Halt and this was an outcrop in the marshland area, fortified by an early Viking who used it as a power base to rule the marsh area, the second high point is at the present junction of Osier Way and Oliver Road. It was here that the Passmore Edwards team found a Neolithic Settlement, ideally placed between two main stream inlets to the marsh area. A minor stream flowed along the course where Windsor Road is today and joined up with one of the main streams which came through the Thornhill Road area, while the second main stream, this the one which we are interested in, flowed through Wilmot Road. These two main streams are mentioned by Julius Caesar, as when the locals Brits at Ilford were giving him trouble, overnight, he crossed the Ley with a strong force and crossing our two streams with difficulty, as he had cavalry with him and the banks were very steep, marched overland and set up his attack formation at the top of what is now Ilford Hill. When the local Brits got up the following morning, they found the Roman Army ready to fight. The Brits surrendered at once. During the 1800's there was quite a severe earthquake in Essex and this resulted in the Thornhill and Windsor Road streams being diverted along Oliver Road and running down to where the Fillebrook Stream was running. To avoid the major flooding that this caused an open land drain was run alongside the old Fillebrook. It is this which causes the flooding outside the Orient's Ground during heavy rainstorms. If the portcullis at the exit of the Fillebrook where it runs into the main Dagenham Ditch, which is on the Auckland Road Site is not kept clear, there will be a feed-back of flood water along the Fillebrook and the open land drain cannot expend its excess water into the stream, so it then comes up through the drains outside of the Orient's Ground. I realised this fifteen years ago when the Oliver Road site was always flooding in the rainy season. I undertook to keep the portcullis clear and the flooding stopped during the period. Sometime after I left the Sites I began to hear on the local wireless traffic reports of the flooding starting up again, it caused some inconvenience at the Rememberance Day march. When I wrote to the Waltham Forest Council about this I was informed that as I was not in the Borough it did not concern me.

We can now concentrate on the main Wilmot Road stream which os the one affecting the Oliver Road Site. I will say again that this is an ancient stream, it used to run past a Roman villa, the remains of which can still be seen in the grounds of the old Trades Hall where Church Road joins the High Road. It was burnt down by Boudicca when the Iceni revolted against the Romans In the first Century. In the area of Wilmot Road, it used to be an open stream backed onto by a number of local nurseries. The stream disappeared underground just this side of the old Oliver Road. Underground, it followed the contours of the underlying clay convolutions and broke up into three small waterways. One ran down towards the Bowling Green area, a second ran towards the Ive Farm area and this fed the watercress beds which were run by the Leyton Boatmen or marshmen. The central flow, the major one, is the one that runs through the Oliver Road Estates and feeds the pond in the allotment site. This was known since very early times as Jesus Christ's Cup because it was always flowing and always pure. Cedric the Hermit lived by it for seven years. It is possible that this is the pond at which King Harold drank when he was on his way from London to his power base at Waltham. He used to leave London, walk through the marsh area to the site of an old Iron Age fortress, which used to be where the present Drapers Field is today. He used to pick up the Waltham Road and just along it he used to practise the old Anglo-Saxon ploy of the defensive Shield Wall. Afterwards he used to drink at a 'magical spring' and then proceed on his way to Waltham. So the King Harold pub in the Leyton High Road may be quite significant as the place where he joined the Waltham Way. The Oliver Road Allotment Site was built around this spring as there was certain always to be water available for the plants.

This system ran without a hitch for many of hundreds of years until an engineer named Bazalgette was instructed to lay a sewer system for London in order to eliminate the stench that overhung London due to the many open sewers and streams full of debris that criss-crossed the capital. Bazalgette devised a plan to build 82 miles of underground, intercepting, contra-cleaning sewers, fed by water pumping stations that required a constant head of water being fed into them. At the same time the Burgers of West ham had petitioned the High Court about the sewerage that was floating down into their area from the increasing population of Leyton. Streams such as the Channelsea and Ley Duct were being blocked with sewerage and disease was abounding in these areas. Bazalgette realised that he would have to control all of the waterways running into his system if it was to work and he would have special difficulties in the Leyton area. The only place where a Sewerage Works could be built eventually was on marshland area, now the Auckland Area. Doing so would destroy the watercress beds of the Marshmen. He started work by getting his gang of Irish navvies to cut a V-shaped ditch south of Oliver Road, following the course of the main Jesus Christ's Cup stream and built a culvert, or rather a double culvert to ensure that the stream would always flow at a constant rate. To avoid an overflow, he dug a drop-hole so that the water from the Cup instead of flowing into the Dagenham Brook, would fall into an underground cross stream, known as the Etloe Pipe, as it was this stream that Etloe House used as its water supply. It's position, the drop-hole is on Plot 54 where the man-hole cover is now. This underground stream, the Etloe Pipe, was earmarked for use at a later stage as Bazalgette was to concentrate on the "Big Stink" works, for use with the proposed Leyton Sewerage Works and if you can get hold of a map of Leyton for 1894 Old Ordnance Survey Map Godfrey Edition, London Sheet 32, it will give you an overall layout of the area, from which you can deduce to a very close mark the runways of the streams and various pipes. When it became obvious that the watercress beds were being destroyed, the Marshmen took quite a poor view of it and attacked the Irish Navvies. As cutlasses and muskets were used by both sides, there was quite a loss of life. The battle started at Wilmot Road and then went down Oliver Road to where the Orient Ground now stands. As the mortuary was were the Council tip used to be (Bywaters) it was the ideal site for the battle. The Government of the day did not want any of this to get out because of the fear of a general up-rising throughout the country about living conditions, so the Guards were brought in and stationed at Etloe House and the old Trades Lodge in the High Street. A D-notice was put on the news of the battle and all plans for the area were made top secret and even if you look into Bazalgette's private papers, they are blank where Leyton is concerned while all of the other areas are written up in detail. But I actually spoke with a near eye-witness to the battle and it was he who put me onto this line of investigation, it was Mr Lovely, who had a plot on Auckland Road. He was ninety three when he died and he had lived in Leyton all of his life. His father and grandfather were Marshmen and his father had a cutlass slash down his face as a result. It was a shame that I only found out about his wealth of local history a few weeks before he died, as he had facts like the battle which only he knew then.

After Bazalgettes had left and the London Sewer System was working, work then started on the Leyton Sewerage Works. The drop-hole was expanded and the Etloe Pipe was replaced with an open underground culvert, which I believe you can still see today on Plot 67. This lined up with the Rake Tanks that were installed and shown quite plainly on the 1894 map from which you can deduce the path taken by the culvert. An extra drain was run along the lower banking of the Dagenham Brook on the allotment side, to carry away excess water that built up outside the Sewerage Works. It appears that the stream that leads towards Ive Farm from the Wilmot Road branch also started to flow and this was lead into the extra drain and an inspection hatch was put in the area around Plot 1 at the site. A water measuring station was put across the Dagenham Brook to record any increase in flow as any overflow could have flooded the new railway sidings that were being built.

We can now come up to modern times and it appears that the constructors of the old tower blocks were very lucky not to cause major flooding when they were pile driving the foundations. The first flood happened when they connected the main water supply up incorrectly and turned it on, this was the first flood that took off the top soil in the top corner plots as it followed the original course of the waterway that fed the watercress beds. Jesus Christ's Cup still kept its normal flow during this flood. When the tower blocks were about to be demolished is when the serious flooding started. We began to get seepage into all the top plots and the jesus Christ's Cup increased in flow rate. It was obvious that the heavy pounding equipment had done some form of damage when the foundations of the blocks were worked on. Straight away everyone denied that they were responsible. Bovis blamed it on the plot holders over watering the allotments and sent me a booklet on proper use of water in gardening. Ave Arup threatened me with legal action if I implied that they or any of their sub-contractors were responsible. That was when I had the story published on the front page of the Guardian. We got no support from the Council who sided with Bovis. I thought it quite unusual at the number of Council Officers, who finished up working for Bovis and the Housing Action Trusts, who agreed when in the council, unofficially, that there was a problem and denied with great gusto that there was nothing wrong when working for the Trusts. This was the start of three years investigation until I found out what had happened. For three years we lost the use of the plots at the top of the site and eventually I surmised that the pounding by Bovis had collapsed the culverts put in by old Bazalgette. The initial cutting off of the Jesus Christ's Cup was when the collapse stopped the supply and the increased flow was when the flow had found its way into the Ive Farm system and then fed back into the channel past the obstruction. I wrote out quite a long report and did detailed maps, photos taken from the firm's helicopter and even Geo-physics readings showing waterways but as there was considerable money involved it was thrown out. This was the infamous meeting where I knocked out two teeth of the Council Officer who tore up my report and threw it at me. My knuckle still aches today when the cold catches it.

The matter was only resolved when an Ave Arup engineer, the only decent one there, Jim Collins, and who was about to retire, came to the site to sort the matter out. This was not any goodwill on the part of Ave Arup, it was because they were still trying to get the Euro-Trak to run into Stratford. Jim and myself had a meeting at 9.30 in his office in the estate and we spent till 10.15 looking at my paperwork and plans. At 11.15 Jim started the first of two bore holes, the second bore hole came slap down on the collapsed culvert. It took two hours after lunch to open up a trench and by 6.30 the collapse had been cleared and steel sheets laid over the damaged area. By the next morning all of the flooding had stopped and the Jesus Christ's Cup was back to its normal flow. Three weeks later, a letter was sent to the Council Allotments' Committee from Bovis, Ave Arup's contractors - the flooding had stopped and their view that the flooding would eventually right itself had been proved correct. They claimed that they had saved the Council a hundred thousand pounds by not taking up the 'ramblings of a madman', myself, over this matter. A letter of thanks was sent by the Committee to the contractors.

During the flooding and when the Cup was overflowing, I suggested that we could modify the Cup and take the overflow directly into the drop hole as this is where any overflow originally went. But I was advised that it could be a protected structure, as it was part of the Victorian system. So I had the Council telling me that a structure that they claimed did not exist could not be tampered with as it was protected.

I will send a couple of rough drawings with as much information on them as I can remember, but to understand the situation properly you should send to Alan Godfrey, 57-58, Spoor Street, Dunston, Gateshead for the map I have quoted earlier on. Another address to get the map from is Paterson Printers, 12, Ladygate, South Shields. Better still call in at Smiths and ask them to order it for you. I think that you will find the ISBN number is 0 85054 032 1. I can remember it as it was very close to my old Works Number.

The cause of the increased flow of the Jesus Christ's Cup stream is now very deeply bedded under the new housing. The Council are going to deny all responsibility, the constructors will show you maps that prove it could not have been them, so I think the best way is to incorporate an overflow and buried runway directly into the drop hole. If the runway is laid along the natural soakaway that opens into the drop hole, then there will be minimum damage to any old structure. A deep trench between the pond and the drop hole should expose quite clearly the soakaway.

 

As my fingers are now just going numb and I think that I have put down all that I can remember. I'll read through it and if it is too did-jointed then I will type it out again, but if it is readable I will leave it as it is, warts and all.

 

Fred Lineham

Bit of arty farty with 37884. St Philips Marsh 2/5/16

The Postcard

 

A postally unused Collection Artistique carte postale published by L.M.

 

Although the card was not posted, someone has written in ink on the back:

 

"Just another card for your

collection.

I was leaning over looking

into this water the other

Sunday.

It is full of fish. They would

fight for a bit of bread, and

they looked so pretty, all

shining in the sun".

 

For two other early photographs of the carp lake at Fontainebleau, please search for the tags 88FCL73 and 48FTL88.

 

The Palace of Fontainebleau

 

The Palace of Fontainebleau, or Château de Fontainebleau, is located 55 kilometers (34 miles) southeast of the centre of Paris.

 

The castle and subsequent palace served as a residence for French monarchs from Louis VII to Napoleon III.

 

Francis I and Napoleon were the monarchs who had the most influence on the Palace as it stands today.

 

It became a national museum in 1927, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 for its unique architecture and historical importance.

 

The Medieval Palace

 

The earliest record of a fortified castle at Fontainebleau dates to 1137. It became a favorite residence and hunting lodge of the Kings of France because of the abundant game and many springs in the surrounding forest.

 

Fontainebleau took its name from one of the springs, la Fontaine de Bliaud, located now in the English Garden, next to the wing of Louis XV.

 

Fontainebleau was used by King Louis VII, for whom Thomas Becket consecrated the chapel in 1169; also by Philip II; by Louis IX (later canonised as Saint Louis), who built a hospital and a convent, the Couvent des Trinitaires, next to the castle; and by Philip IV, who was born and died in the castle.

 

The Renaissance Château of Francis I (1528–1547)

 

In the 15th. century some modifications and embellishments were made to the castle by Isabeau of Bavaria, the wife of King Charles VI, but the medieval structure remained essentially intact until the reign of Francis I (1494–1547).

 

He commissioned the architect Gilles Le Breton to build a palace in the new Renaissance style, recently imported from Italy. Le Breton preserved the old medieval donjon, where the King's apartments were located, but incorporated it into the new Renaissance-style Cour Ovale, built on the foundations of the old castle.

 

It included the monumental Porte Dorée, as its southern entrance. as well as a monumental Renaissance stairway, the Portique de Serlio, to give access the royal apartments on the north side.

 

Beginning in about 1528, Francis constructed the Galerie François I, which allowed him to pass directly from his apartments to the chapel of the Trinitaires. He brought the architect Sebastiano Serlio from Italy, and the Florentine painter Rosso Fiorentino, to decorate the new gallery.

 

Between 1533 and 1539 Fiorentino filled the gallery with murals glorifying the King, framed in stucco ornament in high relief, and panelling sculpted by the furniture maker Francesco Scibec da Carpi.

 

Another Italian painter, Francesco Primaticcio from Bologna, joined later in the decoration of the palace. Together their style of decoration became known as the first School of Fontainebleau. This was the first great decorated gallery built in France. Fontainebleau introduced the Renaissance to France.

 

In about 1540, Francis began another major addition to the château. Using land on the east side of the Château purchased from the order of the Trinitaires, he began to build a new square of buildings around a large courtyard.

 

The Château was surrounded by a new park in the style of the Italian Renaissance garden, with pavilions and the first grotto in France.

 

The Château of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici (1547–1570)

 

Following the death of Francis I, King Henry II decided to continue and expand the Château. The King and his wife chose the architects Philibert de l'Orme and Jean Bullant to do the work.

 

They extended the east wing of the lower court and decorated it with the first famous horseshoe-shaped staircase which was built between 1547 and 1559. The staircase was subsequently re-built for Louis XIII by Jean Androuet du Cerceau in about 1632-1634.

 

In the Oval Court, they transformed the loggia planned by Francois into a Salle des Fêtes or grand ballroom with a coffered ceiling. Facing the courtyard of the fountain and the fish pond, they designed a new building, the Pavillon des Poeles (destroyed), to contain the new apartments of the King.

 

The decoration of the new ballroom and the gallery of Ulysses with murals by Francesco Primaticcio and sculptured stucco continued.

 

At Henri's orders the Nymphe de Fontainebleau by Benvenuto Cellini was installed at the gateway entrance of Château d'Anet, the domain of Henri's primary mistress Diane de Poitiers (the original bronze lunette is now in the Musée du Louvre, with a replica in place).

 

Following the death of Henry II in a jousting accident, his widow, Catherine de' Medici, continued the construction and decoration of the château. She named Primaticcio as the new superintendent of royal public works.

 

He designed the section known today as the wing of the Belle Cheminée, noted for its elaborate chimneys and its two opposing stairways. In 1565, as a security measure due to the Wars of Religion, she also had moat dug around the château to protect it against attack.

 

Château of Henry IV (1570–1610)

 

King Henry IV made more additions to the château than any King since Francis I. He extended the oval court toward the west by building two pavilions, called Tiber and Luxembourg.

 

Between 1601 and 1606, he remade all the façades around the courtyard, including that of the chapel of Saint-Saturnin, to give the architecture greater harmony. On the east side, he built a new monumental domed gateway, the Porte du Baptistère.

 

Between 1606 and 1609, he built a new courtyard, the Cour des Offices or Quartier Henry IV, to provide a place for the kitchens as well as residences for court officials.

 

Two new galleries, the Galerie de Diane de Poitiers and the Galerie des Cerfs, were built to enclose the old garden of Diane. He also added a large Jeu de Paume, or indoor tennis court, the largest such court in the world.

 

A Second School of Fontainebleau painters and decorators went to work on the interiors. The architect Martin Fréminet created the ornate chapel of the Trinity, while the painters Ambroise Dubois and Toussaint Dubreuil created a series of heroic paintings for the salons. A new wing, named after its central building, La Belle Cheminée, was built next to the large carp pond.

 

Henry IV also devoted great attention to the park and gardens around the Château. The garden of the Queen or garden of Diane, created by Catherine de' Medici, with the fountain of Diane in the centre, was located on the north side of the palace.

 

Henry IV's gardener, Claude Mollet, who trained at Château d'Anet, created a large parterre of flower beds, decorated with ancient statues and separated by paths into large squares.

 

The fountain of Diana and the grotto were made by Tommaso Francini, who may also have designed the Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Garden for Marie de Medici.

 

On the south side, Henry created a park, planted with pines, elms and fruit trees, and laid out a grand canal 1200 meters long, sixty years before Louis XIV built his own grand canal at Versailles.

 

The Château from Louis XIII through Louis XVI

 

King Louis XIII was born and baptized in the Château, and continued the works begun by his father. He completed the decoration of the chapel of the Trinity, and assigned the court architect Jean Androuet du Cerceau to re-construct the horseshoe stairway on the courtyard that had become known as the Cour de Cheval Blanc.

 

After his death, his widow, Anne of Austria, re-decorated the apartments within the Wing of the Queen Mothers (Aile des Reines Mères) next to the Court of the Fountain, designed by Primatrice.

 

King Louis XIV spent more days at Fontainebleau than any other monarch. He liked to hunt there every year at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.

 

He made few changes to the exterior of the Château, but did build a new apartment for his companion Madame de Maintenon. He furnished it with major works of André-Charles Boulle. He also demolished the old apartments of the baths under the Gallery of Francis I to create new apartments for the royal princes.

 

The architect Jules Hardouin-Mansard built a new wing alongside the Galerie des Cerfs and the Galerie de Diane in order to provide more living space for the Court.

 

Louis XIV made major changes to the park and gardens; he commissioned André Le Nôtre and Louis Le Vau to redesign the large parterre into a French formal garden. He destroyed the hanging garden which Henry IV had built next to the large carp lake, and instead built a pavilion, designed by Le Vau, on a small island in the centre of the lake.

 

Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau at the Château on the 22nd. October 1685, revoking the policy of tolerance towards Protestants begun by Henry IV.

 

Louis welcomed many foreign guests at the Château, including the former Queen Christina of Sweden, who had just abdicated her crown. While a guest in the Château on the 10th. November 1657, Christina suspected her Master of the Horse and reputed lover, the Marchese Gian Rinaldo Monaldeschi, of betraying her secrets to her enemies.

 

Her servants chased him through the halls of the Château and stabbed him to death. Louis XIV came to see her at the Château, did not mention the murder, and allowed her to continue her travels.

 

On the 18th. and 20th. May 1717, following the death of Louis XIV, the Russian Czar Peter the Great was a guest at Fontainebleau. A hunt for stags was organized for him, along with a banquet.

 

Although officially the visit was a great success, later memoires revealed that Peter disliked the French style of hunting, and that he found the Château too small, compared to the other royal French residences.

 

The routine of Fontainebleau also did not suit his tastes; he preferred beer to wine (and brought his own supply with him) and he liked to get up early, unlike the French Court.

 

The renovation projects of Louis XV were more ambitious than those of Louis XIV. To create more lodging for his enormous number of courtiers, in 1737–38 the King built a new courtyard, called the Cour de la Conciergerie or the Cour des Princes, to the east of the Galerie des Cerfs.

 

On the Cour du Cheval Blanc, the wing of the Gallery of Ulysses was torn down and gradually replaced by a new brick and stone building, built in stages in 1738–1741 and 1773–74, extending west toward the Pavilion and grotto of the pines.

 

Between 1750 and 1754, the King commissioned the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel to build a new wing along the Cour de la Fontaine and the carp lake.

 

The old Pavilion des Poeles was demolished and replaced by the Gros Pavilion, built of cream-colored stone. Lavish new apartments were created inside this building for the King and Queen. The new meeting room for the Royal Council was decorated by the leading painters of the day, including François Boucher, Carle Vanloo, Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre and Alexis Peyrotte. A magnificent small theatre was created on the first floor of the wing of the Belle Cheminée.

 

King Louis XVI also made additions to the Château in order to create more space for his courtiers. A new building was constructed alongside the Gallery of Francis I; it created a large new apartment on the first floor, and a number of small apartments on the ground floor, but also blocked the windows on the north side of the Gallery of Francis I.

 

The apartments of Queen Marie-Antoinette were redone, a Turkish-style salon was created for her in 1777, a room for games in 1786–1787, and a boudoir in the arabesque style. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette made their last visit to Fontainebleau in 1786, on the eve of the French Revolution.

 

The Château during the Revolution and the First Empire

 

During the French Revolution the Château did not suffer any significant damage, but all the furniture was sold at auction. The buildings were occupied by the Central School of the Department of Seine-et-Marne until 1803, when Napoleon I installed a military school there.

 

As he prepared to become Emperor, Napoleon wanted to preserve as much as possible of the palaces and protocol of the Old Regime. He chose Fontainebleau as the site of his historic 1804 meeting with Pope Pius VII, who had travelled from Rome to crown Napoleon Emperor.

 

Napoleon had a suite of rooms decorated for the Pope, and had the entire Château refurnished and decorated. The bedroom of the Kings was transformed into a throne room for Napoleon. Apartments were refurnished and decorated for the Emperor and Empress in the new Empire style.

 

The Cour du Cheval Blanc was re-named the Cour d'Honneur. One wing facing the courtyard, the Aile de Ferrare, was torn down and replaced with an ornamental iron fence and gate, making the façade of the Palace visible.

 

The gardens of Diane and the gardens of the Pines were replanted and turned into an English landscape garden.

 

Napoleon's visits to Fontainebleau were not frequent, because he was occupied so much of the time with military campaigns. Between 1812 and 1814, the Château served as a very elegant prison for Pope Pius VII. On the 5th. November 1810, the chapel of the Château was used for the baptism of Napoleon's nephew, the future Napoleon III, with Napoleon serving as his godfather, and the Empress Marie-Louise as his godmother.

 

Napoleon spent the last days of his reign at Fontainebleau, before abdicating there on the 4th. April 1814. On the 20th. April, after failing in an attempt to commit suicide, he gave an emotional farewell to the soldiers of the Old Guard, assembled in the Court of Honor. Later, during the One Hundred Days, he stopped there on the 20th. March 1815.

 

In his memoires, written while in exile on Saint Helena, he recalled his time at Fontainebleau:

 

"The true residence of Kings, the house of

the centuries. Perhaps it was not a rigorously

architectural palace, but it was certainly a place

of residence well thought out and perfectly

suitable. It was certainly the most comfortable

and happily situated palace in Europe.”

 

The Château during the Restoration and the Reign of Louis-Philippe (1815–1848)

 

Following the restoration of the Monarchy, Kings Louis XVIII and Charles X each stayed at Fontainebleau, but neither made any major changes to the palace. Louis-Philippe was more active, both restoring some rooms and redecorating others in the style of his period.

 

The Hall of the Guards and Gallery of Plates were redecorated in a Neo-Renaissance style, while the Hall of Columns, under the ballroom, was remade in a neoclassical style. He added new stained glass windows, made by the royal manufactory of Sèvres.

 

The Château During the Second Empire

 

Emperor Napoleon III, who had been baptised at Fontainebleau, resumed the custom of long stays at the Château, particularly during the summer. Many of the historic rooms, such as the Galerie des Cerfs, were restored to something like their original appearance, while the private apartments were redecorated to suit the tastes of the Emperor and Empress.

 

Numerous guest apartments were squeezed into unused spaces within the buildings. The old theatre of the palace, built in the 18th. century, was destroyed by a fire in the wing of the Belle Cheminée 1856. Between 1854 and 1857 the architect Hector Lefuel built a new theatre in the style of Louis XVI.

 

On the ground floor of the Gros Pavilion, the Empress Eugénie built a small but well-stocked museum, containing gifts from the King of Siam in 1861, and works of art taken during the pillage of the Summer Palace in Beijing.

 

The museum also featured paintings by contemporary artists, including Franz Xaver Winterhalter, and the sculptor Charles Henri Joseph Cordier. Close by, in the Louis XV wing, the Emperor established his office, and the Empress made her Salon of Lacquer.

 

These were the last rooms created by the royal residents of Fontainebleau. In 1870, during the Franco-German War, the Empire fell, and the Château was closed.

 

The Château from the Third Republic to the Present Day

 

During the Franco-Prussian War, the palace was occupied by the Prussians on the 17th. September 1870, and briefly used as an army headquarters by Frederic Charles of Prussia from March 1871.

 

Following the war, two of the buildings became the home of the advanced school of artillery and engineering of the French Army, which had been forced to leave Alsace when the province was annexed by Germany.

 

The Château was occasionally used as a residence by the Presidents of the Third Republic, and to welcome state guests including King Alexander I of Serbia (1891), King George I of Greece (1892) Leopold II of Belgium (1895) and King Alphonse XIII of Spain (1913).

 

It also received a visit by the last survivor of its royal residents, the Empress Eugenie, on the 26th. June 1920.

 

The façades the major buildings received their first protection by classification as historic monuments on the 20th. August 1913.

 

In 1923, following the Great War, the Château became the home of the Écoles d'Art Américaines, schools of art and music, which still exist today. In 1927 it became a national museum. Between the wars the upper floors of the wing of the Belle Cheminée, burned in 1856, were rebuilt by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

 

During World War II, Fontainebleau was occupied by the Germans on the 16th. June 1940, and occupied until the 10th. November 1940, and again from the 15th. May to the end of October 1941.

 

Following the war, part of the Château became a headquarters of the Western Union and later NATO's Allied Forces Central Europe/Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, until 1966.

 

The general restoration of the Château took place between 1964 and 1968 under President Charles De Gaulle and his Minister of Culture, Andre Malraux. It was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. In 2006, the Ministry of Culture purchased the royal stables, and began their restoration.

 

Beginning in 2007, restoration began of the theatre of the Château, created by Napoleon III during the Second Empire. The project was funded by the government of Abu-Dhabi, and in exchange the theater was renamed after Sheik Khalifa Bin Zayed al Nahyan. It was inaugurated on the 30th. April 2014.

 

On the 1st. March 2015, the Chinese Museum of the Château was robbed by professional thieves. They broke in at about six in the morning, and, despite alarms and video cameras, in seven minutes stole about fifteen of the most valuable objects in the collection, including the replica of the crown of Siam given by the Siamese government to Napoleon III, a Tibetan mandala, and an enamel chimera from the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1736–1795).

 

The Grand Apartments at Fontainebleau

 

The Gallery of Francis I

 

The Gallery of Francis I is one of the first and finest examples of Renaissance decoration in France. It was originally constructed in 1528 as a passageway between the apartments of the King with the oval courtyard and the great chapel of the convent Trinitaires, but in 1531 Francis I made it a part of his royal apartments, and between 1533 and 1539 it was decorated by artists and craftsmen from Italy, under the direction of the painter Rosso Fiorentino, in the new Renaissance style.

 

The lower walls of the passage were the work of the master Italian furniture maker Francesco Scibec da Carpi; they are decorated with the coat of arms of France and the salamander, the emblem of the King. The upper walls are covered by frescoes framed in richly sculpted stucco. The frescoes used mythological scenes to illustrate the virtues of the King.

 

On the side of the gallery with windows, the frescoes represent Ignorance Driven Out; The Unity of the State; Cliobis and Biton; Danae; The Death of Adonis; The Loss of Perpetual Youth; and The Battle of the Centaurs and the Lapithes.

 

On the side of the gallery facing the windows, the frescoes represent: A Sacrifice; The Royal Elephant; The Burning of Catane; The Nymph of Fontainebleau (painted in 1860–61 by J. Alaux to cover a former entry to the gallery); The Sinking of Ajax; The Education of Achilles and The Frustration of Venus.

 

The Ballroom

 

The Ballroom was originally begun as an open passageway, or loggia, by Francis I. In about 1552 King Henry II closed it with high windows and an ornate coffered ceiling, and transformed it into a room for celebrations and balls.

 

The 'H', the initial of the King, is prominent in the decor, as well as figures of the crescent moon, the symbol of Henry's mistress Diane de Poitiers.

 

At the western end is a monumental fireplace, decorated with bronze statues originally copied from classical statues in Rome. At the eastern end of the room is a gallery where musicians played during balls.

 

The decor was restored many times over the years. The floor, which mirrors the design of the ceiling, was built by Louis-Philippe in the first half of the 19th. century.

 

The frescoes on the walls and pillars were painted beginning in 1552 by Nicolo dell'Abate, following drawings by Primatice. On the garden side of the ballroom, they represent: The Harvest; Vulcan forging weapons for Love at the request of Venus; Phaeton begging the sun to let him drive his chariot; and Jupiter and Mercury at the home of Philemon and Baucis.

 

The frescoes on the side of the Oval Courtyard represent: The feast of Bacchus; Apollo and the Muses on Mount Parnassus; The Three Graces dancing before the gods; and The wedding feast of Thetis and Peleus.

 

St. Saturnin's Chapel

 

Behind the ballroom, there is St. Saturnin's Chapel. The lower chapel was originally built in the 12th. century, but was destroyed and completely rebuilt under Francis I. The windows made in Sèvres were installed during Louis Philippe's period, and were designed by his daughter Marie, an artist herself.

 

The upper chapel was the royal chapel decorated by Philibert de l'Orme. The ceiling, made in the same style as the ballroom, ends with a dome.

 

Room of the Guards

 

A room for the guards was always located next to the royal bedchambers. The Salle des Gardes was built during the reign of Charles IX. Some traces of the original decor remain from the 1570's, including the vaulted ceiling and a frieze of military trophies attributed to Ruggiero d'Ruggieri.

 

In the 19th. century Louis Philippe turned the room into a salon, and redecorated it with a new parquet floor of exotic woods echoing the design of the ceiling, along with a monumental fireplace (1836), which incorporates pieces of ornament from demolished rooms that were built the 15th. and early 16th. century.

 

The bust of Henry IV, attributed to Mathieu Jacquet, is from that period, as are the two figures on either side of the fireplace. The sculpted frame around the bust, by Pierre Bontemps, was originally in the bedchamber of Henry II.

 

The decorations added by Louis Philippe include a large vase decorated with Renaissance themes, made by the Sèvres porcelain manufactory in 1832.

 

During the reign of Napoleon III, the hall was used as a dining room.

 

Stairway of the King

 

The stairway of the King was installed in 1748 and 1749, in the space occupied during the reign of Francis I by the bedroom of Anne de Pisseleu, the Duchess of Étampes, a favorite of the King.

 

It was designed by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, who used many decorative elements from the earlier room, which had originally been decorated by Primatice.

 

The upper portion of the walls is divided into panels, oval and rectangular, with scenes representing the love life of Alexander the Great. The paintings are framed by large statues of women by Primatice. The eastern wall of the room was destroyed during the reconstruction, and was replaced during the reign of Louis Philippe in the 19th. century with paintings by Abel de Pujol.

 

The Queen's Bedroom

 

All of the Queens and Empresses of France from Marie de Medici to the Empress Eugènie slept in the bedchamber of the Queen. The ornate ceiling over the bed was made in 1644 by the furniture-maker Guillaume Noyers for the Dowager Queen Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV, and bears her initials.

 

The room was redecorated by Marie Leszczynska, the Queen of Louis XV in 1746–1747. The ceiling of the alcove, the decoration around the windows and the wood panelling were made by Jacques Vererckt and Antoine Magnonais in the rocaille style of the day. The decoration of the fireplace dates to the same period.

 

The doors have an arabesque design, and were made for Marie-Antoinette, as were the sculpted panels over the doors, installed in 1787. The bed was also made especially for Marie Antoinette, but did not arrive until 1797, after the Revolution and her execution. it was used instead by Napoleon's wives, the Empress Josephine and Marie-Louise of Austria.

 

The walls received their ornamental textile covering, with a design of flowers and birds, in 1805. It was restored in 1968–1986 using the original fabric as a model.

 

The furniture in the room all dates to the First Empire. The balustrade around the bed was originally made for the throne room of the Tuileries Palace in 1804. The armchairs with a sphinx pattern, the consoles and screen and the two chests of drawers were placed in the room in 1806.

 

The Boudoir of Marie-Antoinette

 

The boudoir next to the Queen's bedroom was created for Queen Marie-Antoinette in 1786, and permitted the Queen to have a measure of privacy.

 

The room is the best surviving example of the decorative style just before the French Revolution, inspired by ancient Roman models, with delicately painted arabesques, cameos, vases, antique figures and garlands of flowers against a silver background, framed by gilded and sculpted woodwork.

 

The room was made for the Queen by the same team of artists and craftsmen who also made the game room; the design was by the architect Pierre Rousseau (1751-1829); the wood panelling was sculpted by Laplace, and painted by Michel-Hubert Bourgeois and Louis-François Touzé.

 

Eight figures of the Muses were made in plaster by Roland; the ornate mantle of the fireplace was made by Jacques-François Dropsy, and decorated with glided bronze works by Claude-Jean Pitoin.

 

The mahogany parquet floor, decorated with the emblems of the Queen, was made by Bernard Molitor, and finished in 1787. The painted ceiling, by Jean-Simon Berthélemy, shows Aurora with a group of angels.

 

The furnishings were designed for the room by Jean-Henri Riesener, using the finest materials available; mother of pearl, gilded bronze, brass, satin and ebony. Some of the original furnishings remain, including the cylindrical desk and the table, which were made between 1784 and 1789.

 

The two armchairs are copies of the originals made by Georges Jacob which are now in the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, while the footstool is the original.

 

The Throne Room of Napoleon (former bedroom of the King)

 

The Throne Room was the bedroom of the Kings of France from Henry IV to Louis XVI.

 

In 1808 Napoleon decided to install his throne in the former bedroom of the Kings of France in the location where the royal bed had been. Under the Old Regime, the King's bed was a symbol of royal authority in France and was saluted by courtiers who passed by it. Napoleon wanted to show the continuity of his Empire with the past monarchies of France.

 

The majority of the carved wood ceiling, the lower part of the wood panelling, and the doors date to the reign of Louis XIII. The ceiling directly over the throne was made at the end of the reign of Louis XIV.

 

Louis XV created the portion of the ceiling directly over the throne, a new chimney, sculpted wooden medallions near the fireplace, the designs over the doors, and the fine carved woodwork facing the throne (1752–54).

 

He also had the ceiling painted white and gilded and decorated with mosaics, to match the ceiling of the bedroom of the Queen.

 

Napoleon added the standards with his initial and the Imperial eagle. The decoration around the throne was originally designed in 1804 by Jacob-Desmalter for the Palace of Saint-Cloud, and the throne itself came from the Tuileries Palace.

 

The chimney was originally decorated with a portrait of Louis XIII painted by Philippe de Champaigne, which was burned in 1793 during the French Revolution. Napoleon replaced it with a portrait of himself, by Robert Lefèvre. In 1834, King Louis-Philippe took down Napoleon's picture and replaced with another of Louis XIII.

 

The Council Chamber

 

The Council Chamber, where the Kings and Emperors met their closest advisors, was close to the Throne Room. It was originally the office of Francis I, and was decorated with painted wooden panels showing following designs of Primatice, the virtues and the heroes of antiquity.

 

The room was enlarged under Louis XIV, and the decorator, Claude Audran, followed the same theme.

 

The room was entirely redecorated between 1751 and 1754 by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, with arcades and wooded panels showing the virtues, and allegories of the seasons and the elements, painted by Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre and Carle van Loo.

 

The painter Alexis Peyrotte added another series of medallions to the upper walls depicting floral themes, the sciences and arts. The five paintings on the vaulted ceiling were the work of François Boucher, and show the seasons and the sun beginning its journey and chasing away the night.

 

A half-rotonda on the garden side of the room was added by Louis XV in 1773, with a painted ceiling by Lagrenée depicting Glory surrounded by his children.

 

The room was used as a council chamber by Napoleon I, and the furnishings are from that time. The armchairs at the table for the ministers are by Marcion (1806) and the folding chairs for advisors are by Jacob-Desmalter (1808).

 

Apartment of the Pope and of the Queen-Mothers

 

The apartment of the Pope, located on the first floor of the wing of the Queen Mothers and of the Gros Pavillon, takes its name from the 1804 visit of Pope Pius VII, who stayed there on his way to Paris to crown Napoleon I the Emperor of France.

 

He stayed there again, involuntarily, under the close supervision of Napoleon from 1812 to 1814. Prior to that, beginning in the 17th. century it was the residence of the Queen Mothers Marie de' Medici and Anne of Austria.

 

It was also the home of the Grand Dauphin, the oldest son of Louis XIV. In the 18th. century it was used by the daughters of Louis XV, and then by the Count of Provence, the brother of Louis XVI.

 

During the First Empire it was used by Louis, the brother of Napoleon, and his wife Queen Hortense, the daughter of the Empress Josephine. During the reign of Louis-Philippe, it was used by his eldest son, the Duke of Orleans.

 

During the Second Empire, it was occupied by Stephanie de Bade, the adopted niece of Napoleon I. It was restored in 1859–1861, and used thereafter for guests of high rank. It was originally two apartments, which were divided or joined over the years depending upon its occupants.

 

The Grand Salon, the Antechamber to the Bedroom of the Queen-Mother (Mid-17th. century)

 

The Salon de Reception was the anteroom to the bedroom of Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII and mother of Louis XIV. It features a gilded and sculpted ceiling divided into seven compartments, representing the sun and the known planets, along with smaller compartments for military trophies.

 

The room was created in 1558 by Ambroise Perret as the bedroom of Henry II in the pavilion des Poeles, a section of the Château that was later destroyed. Anne had it moved and decorated with her own emblems, including a pelican. The wood paneling in the room is probably from the same period.

 

The decor of the bedroom dates largely to the 1650's; it includes grotesque paintings in compartments on the ceiling, attributed to Charles Errard; richly carved wood paneling featuring oak leaves and putti; and paintings over the doors of Anne of Austria costumed as Minerva and Marie-Therese of Austria costumed as Abundance, both painted by Gilbert de Sève.

 

The bedroom was modified in the 18th. century by the addition of a new fireplace and sculptured borders of cascades of flowers around the mirrors added in 1784. During the Second Empire, painted panels imitating the style of the 17th. century were added above the mirrors and between the mirrors and the doors.

 

The Gallery of Diana

 

The Gallery of Diana, an eighty-metre (242 feet) long corridor now lined with bookcases, was created by Henry IV at the beginning of the 17th. century as a place for the Queen to promenade. The paintings on the vaulted ceiling, painted beginning in 1605 by Ambroise Dubois and his workshop, represented scenes from the myth of Diana, goddess of the Hunt.

 

At the beginning of the 19th. century, the gallery was in ruins. In 1810 Napoleon decided to turn it into a gallery devoted to the achievements of his Empire. A few of the paintings still in good condition were removed and put in the Gallery of Plates.

 

The architect Hurtault designed a new plan for the gallery, inspired by the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, featuring paintings on the ceiling illustrating the great events of Napoleon's reign.

 

By 1814 the corridor had been rebuilt and the decorative frames painted by Moench and Redouté, but the cycle of paintings on the Empire had not been started when Napoleon fell from power.

 

Once the monarchy was restored, King Louis XVIII had the gallery completed in a neoclassical style. A new series of the goddess Diana was done by Merry-Joseph Blondel and Abel de Pujol, using the painted frames prepared for Napoleon's cycle.

 

Paintings were also added along the corridor, illustrating the history of the French monarchy, painted in the Troubador style of the 1820's and 1830's, painted by a team of the leading academic painters.

 

Beginning in 1853, under Napoleon III, the corridor was turned into a library and most of the paintings were removed, with the exception of a large portrait of Henry IV on horseback by Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse. The large globe near the entrance of the gallery, placed there in 1861, came from the office of Napoleon in the Tuileries Palace.

 

The Apartments of Napoleon

 

In 1804 Napoleon decided that he wanted his own private suite of apartments within the Palace, separate from the old state apartments. He took over a suite of six rooms which had been created in 1786 for Louis XVI, next to the Gallery of Francis I, and had them redecorated in the Empire style.

 

The Emperor's Bedroom

 

Beginning in 1808, Napoleon had his bedroom in the former dressing room of the King. From this room, using a door hidden behind the drapery to the right of the bed, Napoleon could go directly to his private library or to the offices on the ground floor.

 

Much of the original decor was unchanged from the time of Louis XVI; the fireplaces, the carved wooden panels sculpted by Pierre-Joseph LaPlace and the sculpture over the door by Sauvage remained as they were.

 

The walls were painted with Imperial emblems in gold on white by Frederic-Simon Moench. The bed, made especially for the Emperor, was the summit of the Empire style; it was crowned with an imperial eagle and decorated with allegorical sculptures representing Glory, Justice, and Abundance.

 

The Emperor had a special carpet made by Sallandrouze in the shape of the cross of the Legion of Honor; the branches of the cross alternate with symbols of military and civilian attributes.

 

The chairs near the fireplace were specially designed, with one side higher than the other, to contain the heat from the fire while allowing the occupants to see the decorations of the fireplace.

 

The painting on the ceiling of the room was added later, after the downfall of Napoleon, by Louis XVIII. Painted by Jean-Baptiste Regnault, it is an allegory representing The clemency of the King halting justice in its course.

 

The study was a small room designated as Napoleon's work room. In 1811 he added the camp bed, similar to the bed he used on his military campaigns, so he could rest briefly during a long night of work.

 

The salon of the Emperor was simply furnished and decorated. It was in this room, on the small table on display, that the Emperor signed his abdication in 1814.

 

The Theatre

 

Concerts, plays and other theatrical productions were a regular part of court life at Fontainebleau. Prior to the reign of Louis XV these took place in different rooms of the palace, but during his reign, a theatre was built in the Belle-Cheminée wing. It was rebuilt by the architect Gabriel, but was destroyed by a fire in 1856.

 

It had already been judged too small for the court of Napoleon III, and a new theatre was begun in 1854 at the far eastern end of the wing of Louis XIV. It was designed by architect Hector Lefuel in the style of Louis XVI, and was inspired by the opera theatre at the palace of Versailles and that of Marie-Antoinette at the Trianon Palace.

 

The new theatre, with four hundred seats arranged in a parterre, two balconies and boxes in a horseshoe shape, was finished in 1856. It has the original stage machinery, and many of the original sets, including many transferred from the old theatre before the fire of 1856.

 

The theatre was closed after the end of the Second Empire and was rarely used. A restoration began in 2007, funded with ten million Euros by the government of Abu-Dhabi. In exchange, the theatre was renamed after Sheik Khalifa Bin Zayed al Nahyan.

 

It was inaugurated on the 30th. April 2014. The theatre can be visited, but it no longer can be used for plays because some working parts of the theater, including the stage, were not included in the restoration.

 

The Chinese Museum

 

The Chinese Museum, on the ground floor of the Gros Pavillon close to the lake, was among the last rooms decorated within the Chateau while it was still an imperial residence.

 

In 1867, the Empress Eugenie had the rooms remade to display her personal collection of Asian art, which included gifts given to the Emperor by a delegation sent by the King of Siam in 1861, and other objects taken during the destruction and looting of the Old Summer Palace near Beijing by a joint British-French military expedition to China in 1860.

 

The objects displayed in the antechamber include two royal palanquins given by the King of Siam, one designed for a King and the other (with curtains) for a Queen. Inside the two salons of the museum, some of the walls are covered with lacquered wood panels in black and gold, taken from 17th. century Chinese screens, along with specially designed cases to display antique porcelain vases.

 

Other objects on display include a Tibetan stupa containing a Buddha taken from the Summer Palace in China; and a royal Siamese crown given to Napoleon III.

 

The salons are lavishly decorated with both Asian and European furnishings and art objects, including silk-covered furnishings and Second Empire sculptures by Charles Cordier and Pierre-Alexandre Schoenewerk. The room also served as a place for games and entertainment; an old bagatelle game and a mechanical piano from that period are on display.

 

In addition to the Chinese Museum, the Empress created a small office in 1868, the Salon of Lacquerware, which was also decorated with lacquered panels and Asian art objects, on the ground floor of the Louis XV wing. This was the last room decorated before the fall of the Empire, and the eventual transformation of the Chateau into a museum.

 

The Chapel of the Trinity

 

The Chapel of the Trinity was built at the end of the reign of Francis I to replace the old chapel of the convent of the Trinitaires. It was finished under Henry II, but was without decoration until 1608, when the painter Martin Freminet was commissioned to design frescoes for the ceiling and walls.

 

The sculptor Barthèlemy Tremblay created the vaults of the ceiling out of stucco and sculpture. The paintings of Freminet in the central vaults depict the redemption of Man, from the appearance of God to Noah at the launching of the Ark (Over the tribune) to the Annunciation.

 

They surrounded these with smaller paintings depicting the ancestors of the Virgin Mary, the Kings of Judah, the Patriarchs announcing the coming of Christ, and the Virtues.

 

Between 1613 and 1619 Freminet and Tremblay added paintings in stucco frames between the windows on the sides of the chapel, depicting the life of Christ. Freminet died in 1619, and work did not resume until 1628.

 

The Trinity chapel, like Sainte-Chapelle in Paris other royal chapels, had an upper section or tribune, where the King and his family sat, with a separate entrance; and a lower part, where the rest of the Court was placed.

 

Beginning in 1628, the side chapels were decorated with iron gates and carved wood panelling, and the Florentine sculptor Francesco Bordoni began work on the marble altar. The figure to the left depicts Charlemagne, with the features of Henry II, while the figure on the right depicts Louis IX, or Saint Louis, with the features of Louis XIII, his patron.

 

Bordoni also designed the multicolored marble pavement before the altar and on the walls of the nave. The painting of the Holy Trinity over the altar, by Jean Dubois the Elder, was added in 1642.

 

In the mid-17th. century the craftsman Anthony Girault made the sculpted wooden doors of the nave. while Jean Gobert made the doors of the tribune where the Royal family worshipped.

 

In 1741 the royal tribune was enlarged, while ornate balconies of wrought iron were added between the royal tribune and the simpler balconies used by the musicians and those who chanted the mass. In 1779, under Louis XVI, the frescoes of Freminet illustrating the life of Christ, which had deteriorated with time, were replaced by new paintings on the same theme. The paintings were done in the same style by about a dozen painters from the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.

 

Under Napoleon, the old tabernacle of the chapel, which had been removed during the Revolution, was replaced by a new one designed by the architect Maximilien Hurtault.

 

Beginning in 1824, the chapel underwent a program of major renovation and restoration that lasted for six years. The twelve paintings of the life of Christ were removed, as well as the gates to the side chapels.

 

During the Second Empire, the wood panelling of the side chapels was replaced. The restoration was not completed until the second half of the 20th. century, when the twelve paintings, which had been scattered to different museums, were brought together again and restored in their stucco frames. Between 1772 and 1774, a small organ made by François-Henri Cilquot was installed on the left side of the chapel, near the altar.

 

On the 5th. September 1725, the chapel was the setting for the wedding of Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska. Napoleon III was baptized there on 4 November 1810, and Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orleans, the son of King Louis-Philippe, was married there to Helene de Mecklembourg Schwerin on the 30th. May 1837.

 

The Gardens and the Park at Fontainebleau

 

From the time of Francis I, the palace was surrounded by formal gardens, representing the major landscaping styles of their periods; the French Renaissance garden, inspired by Italian Renaissance gardens; the French formal garden, the favorite style of Louis XIV; and, in the 18th. and 19th. century, the French landscape garden, inspired by the English landscape garden.

 

The Garden of Diana

 

The Garden of Diana was created during the reign of Henry IV; it was the private garden of the King and Queen, and was visible from the windows of their rooms.

 

The fountain of Diana was originally in the centre of the garden, which at that time was enclosed by another wing, containing offices and later, under, Louis XIV, an orangery. That building, and another, the former chancellery, were demolished in the 19th. century, thereby doubling the size of the garden.

 

From the 17th. until the end of the 18th. century, the garden was in the Italian and then the French formal style, divided by straight paths into rectangular flower beds centred on the fountains, and decorated with statues, ornamental plants and citrus trees in pots.

 

It was transformed during the reign of Napoleon I into a landscape garden in the English style, with winding paths and trees grouped into picturesque landscapes, and it was enlarged during the reign of Louis-Philippe. it was opened to the public after the downfall of Napoleon III.

 

The fountain in the centre was made by Tommaso Francini, the master Italian fountain-maker, whose work included the Medici Fountain in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris.

 

The bronze statue of Diana, the goddess of the hunt, with a young deer, was made by the Keller brothers in 1684 for another royal residence, at Marly. It is a copy of an antique Roman statue, Diana of Versailles, which was given by the Pope to King Henry IV, and which is now in the Louvre.

 

The original statue of the fountain, made by Barthelemy Prieur in 1602, can be seen in the Gallery of the Cerfs inside the palace. The sculptures of hunting dogs and deer around the fountain were made by Pierre Biard.

 

The Carp Lake, English Garden, Grotto and Spring

 

The lake next to the palace, with an area of four hectares, was made during the reign of Henry IV, and was used for boating parties by members of the Court, and as a source of fish for the table and for amusement.

 

Descriptions of the palace in the 17th. century tell of guests feeding the carp, some of which reached enormous size, and were said to be a hundred years old. The small octagonal house on an island in the center of the lake, Pavillon de l'Étang, was added during the reign of Louis XIV, then rebuilt under Napoleon I, and is decorated with his initial.

 

The English garden also dates back to the reign of Henry IV. In one part of the garden, known as the garden of pines, against the wing of Louis XV, is an older structure dating to Francis I; the first Renaissance-style grotto to be built in a French garden, a rustic stone structure decorated with four statues of Atlas.

 

Under Napoleon, his architect, Maximilien-Joseph Hurtault, turned this part of the garden into an English park, with winding paths and exotic trees, including catalpa, tulip trees, sophora, and cypress trees from Louisiana, and with a picturesque stream and boulders.

 

The garden also features two 17th. century bronze copies of ancient Roman originals, the Borghese gladiator and the Dying Gladiator. A path leads from the garden through a curtain of trees to the spring which gave its name to the palace, next to a statue of Apollo.

 

The Parterre and Canal

 

On the other side of the Château, on the site of the garden of Francis I, Henry IV created a large formal garden, or parterre Along the axis of the parterre, he also built a grand canal 1200 metres long, similar to one at the nearby château of Fleury-en-Biere.

 

Between 1660 and 1664 the chief gardener of Louis XIV, André Le Nôtre, and Louis Le Vau rebuilt the parterre on a grander scale, filling it with geometric designs and paths bordered with boxwood hedges and filled with colourful flowerbeds.

 

They also added a basin, called Les Cascades, decorated with fountains, at the head of the canal. Le Nôtre planted shade trees along the length of the canal, and also laid out a wide path, lined with elm trees, parallel to the canal.

 

The fountains of Louis XIV were removed after his reign. More recently, the Cascades were decorated with works of sculpture from the 19th. century. A large ornamental fountain was installed in the central basin in 1817.

 

A bronze replica of an ancient Roman statue, "The Tiber", was placed in the round basin in 1988. It replaced an earlier statue from the 16th. century which earlier had decorated the basin.

 

Two statues of sphinxes by Mathieu Lespagnandel, from 1664, are placed near the balustrade of the grand canal.

taken on thursday in lower walton

India tiger safari trip.

 

Kanha was a bit of a dissapointment as there was heavy flooding, especially in the core zone, so noone was allowed in.

Normally we were supposed to have 3 game drives in the core zone. We did only one in the bufferzone, but the animals were very scarce. In the afternoon it was raining so heavily that we couldn't even go out and our second game drive was cancelled.

 

So the second day we cancelled our third game drive and visited a local village instead.

We would not have been allowed in the core zone anyway, and we feared the bufferzone would be just the same as the day before.

Bit of a stitching error at the top.

 

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

via Instagram bit.ly/2aE1jze

Despite altering the plan a bit to include container shipping, the work at the New Richmond Autoport goes on. Four large pieces of this prefab switch arrived this week on an 89 foot flat car made for the job CN 55017 (formerly CNA 703119, an autorack appropriately enough). A CN Brandt truck retrieved the car off the New Richmond siding and brought it west to the autoport site. A couple excavators were waiting there to unload the switch.

 

With a guy in the truck, crew on the ground and operators in both machines they made quick work of unloading the switch, setting down the first piece when I got there. I was going to snap a couple photos and go but the pace of the work was brisk and interesting so I ending up watching the other 3 pieces get unloaded.

 

The crew works on and around the switch car releasing the chains that held the piece to the car for transport and securing the excavator chains to the panel ahead of the lift. The design of this car looks to be an improvement upon the old method of placing a similar A-frame inside a gondola. With this car the piece sits lower to the ground, has easier access, and doesn't need to be lifted very high to clear the car. April 30, 2020.

Back in 1990, when i was 13, my father gave me an Atari 800 xl. This is a (very) Basic program I made using the highest graphical capacity of 300x190 px.

 

In a tv, the output seems to have pixels in white, red and blue, but the graphics is actually made in just one color.

After a bit of a summer hiatus (preparing for BrickCon), The Living Brick is back in business, with a new look and a new url... www.thelivingbrick.com.

 

Please summmon your collective psychic energies to get me blogging again. And also, please send me ideas or suggestions for what you'd like to see in there! Otherwise be prepared for the same tirade of great character-based MOCs ruined by an unfunny stream-of-consciousness shit.

 

Just no more Star Wars and positively no fucking mini-figs!

 

 

Bit of snow on the distant Rochdale moors from Silver Lane pools Risley looking across the Eastern Arable fields .

 

Giacomo Casanova was a bit of a fibber sometimes, but we already knew that, yes? Or better, let’s say he like to embellish the truth. When, in his memoirs, he describes his stay in Berlin (all contained in “Casanova in Berlin”), he writes that he stayed at the Hotel Ville de Paris, which was the most prestigious hotel in the Prussian capital, just a few steps from the royal palace. We know for certain, however—thanks to eye-witness testimony from James Boswell—that Giacomo stayed at the Three Lilies Inn (Gasthof Zu den drei Lilien) in Poststraße, an establishment that was a little less luxurious than Hotel Stadt Paris.

Photo: page from the original manuscript in which Giacomo discusses his hotel. The manuscript is the property of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

 

Follow me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/itsandreaperego/

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@MrPeregus

And Instagram: www.instagram.com/andreaperegus/

bit of a odd one................COMMENT with your thoughts

8-bit'n the Android logo.

 

There are a few of these 8-bit versions floating around so this is by no means a novel exercise. I just find it fun and interesting to see how well you could hold certain details.

For more info on The Renegade Craft Fair, visit: renegadecraft.com

and the quarter that was featured in El Raval.

With a bit of discussion from @dollsahoy and @cheshiretiffy I decided to peel off the Rockers decal from the super torn up shirt and decided to put it on a plain tank top.

 

I attached it using a piece of baking paper on top then ironing it to the shirt. At first I used the cotton setting but it just ended up messing the top layer of plastic in the decal, and it really didn’t bond to the shirt. Also the parts that were already curled up didn’t wanna flatten.

 

So I lowered the heat setting super low, and just rested the iron on top the baking paper for about 15 minutes. It was tense cuz I constantly checked to make sure nothing caught on fire.

 

It ended up bonding most of the decal to the shirt asides from a few of the corners, and it flattened the decal so it didn’t curl up as much.

 

I may fabric glue the stray corners down when I can but otherwise it was a simple enough task lol…

 

Various nuts, bolts, screws, nails, and other hardware left behind in a mechanical shop at Letchworth Village.

On my lower left neck. New horseshoe style earrings. Made of silicone, which are easy on and off.

Flag Netherlands. Built 2017

bit tatty.rust on rear arches.

Bits of my bedroom!

 

More info in my

BLOG

 

FACEBOOK | TWITTER

 

Want to see more bits of my home? Take a look at my Home Sweet Home Set

feel it

my college...

 

this is the main institute building view from the central lawns.

 

Another lame attempt at HDR!

The Bits

a bit poorly executed but sometimes when i drink i like to take pictures and this is the outcome. the light painting was a lot harder on the darker car and being inebriated i wasn't able to keep the lines as straight as i wanted them to be. oh well

a little over 100 shots stacked. first time i messed with white balance and i kind of liked the redish sky vs the blue of the car.

 

side note:

ive been thinking of trying to do one in one single frame but finding a place where there is no light is becoming quite difficult

Aerolineas Argentinas

Airbus A340-313

Miami - International

I’ve been wanting to take a city break in summer, rather than in the cold months for a while, so rather than heading for the Lake District for a week of toil on the fells when Jayne could get a week off, we took off from Liverpool for Paris. Flight times were nice and sociable but it meant we were on the M62 car park at a busy time in both directions – it’s a shambles! I’ve stopped over in Paris a dozen times – on my way to cycling in the Etape du Tour in the Alps or Pyrenees – and had a few nights out there. Come to think about it and we’ve spent the day on the Champs Elysees watching the final day of the Tour de France with Mark Cavendish winning. We hadn’t been for a holiday there though and it was a bit of a spur of the moment decision. Six nights gave us five and a half days to explore Paris on foot. I had a good selection of (heavy) kit with me, not wanting to make the usual mistake of leaving something behind and regretting it. In the end I carried the kit in my backpack – an ordinary rucksack – to keep the weight down, for 103 miles, all recorded on the cycling Garmin – and took 3500 photos. The little Garmin is light and will do about 15 hours, it expired towards the end of a couple of 16 hour days but I had the info I wanted by then. This also keeps the phone battery free for research and route finding – I managed to flatten that once though.

 

What can I say – Paris was fantastic! The weather varied from OK to fantastic, windy for a few days, the dreaded grey white dullness for a while but I couldn’t complain really. We were out around 8.30 in shorts and tee shirt, which I would swap for a vest when it warmed up, hitting 30 degrees at times, we stayed out until around midnight most nights. It was a pretty full on trip. The security at some destinations could have been a problem as there is a bag size limit to save room in the lifts etc. I found the French to be very pragmatic about it, a bag search was a cursory glance, accepting that I was lugging camera gear, not bombs around, and they weren’t going to stop a paying customer from passing because his bag was a bit over size.

 

We didn’t have a plan, as usual we made it up as we went along, a loose itinerary for the day would always end up changing owing to discoveries along the way. Many times we would visit something a few times, weighing the crowds and light etc. up and deciding to come back later. I waited patiently to go up the Eiffel Tower, we arrived on Tuesday and finally went up on Friday evening. It was a late decision but the weather was good, the light was good and importantly I reckoned that we would get a sunset. Previous evenings the sun had just slid behind distant westerly clouds without any golden glory. It was a good choice. We went up the steps at 7.30 pm, short queue and cheaper – and just to say that we had. The steps are at an easy angle and were nowhere near as bad as expected, even with the heavy pack. We stayed up there, on a mad and busy Friday night, until 11.30, the light changed a lot and once we had stayed a couple of hours we decided to wait for the lights to come on. This was a downside to travelling at this time of year, to do any night photography we had to stay out late as it was light until 10.30. The Eiffel Tower is incredible and very well run, they are quite efficient at moving people around it from level to level. It was still buzzing at midnight with thousands of people around. The sunset on Saturday was probably better but we spent the evening around the base of the Tower, watching the light change, people watching and soaking the party atmosphere up.

 

Some days our first destination was five miles away, this is a lot of road junctions in a city, the roads in Paris are wide so you generally have to wait for the green man to cross. This made progress steady but when you are on holiday it doesn’t matter too much. Needless to say we walked through some dodgy places, with graffiti on anything that stays still long enough. We were ultra-cautious with our belongings having heard the pickpocket horror stories. At every Café/bar stop the bags were clipped to the table leg out of sight and never left alone. I carried the camera in my hand all day and everywhere I went, I only popped it in my bag to eat. I would guess that there were easier people to rob than us, some people were openly careless with phones and wallets.

 

We didn’t enter the big attractions, it was too nice to be in a museum or church and quite a few have a photography ban. These bans make me laugh, they are totally ignored by many ( Japanese particularly) people. Having travelled around the world to see something, no one is going to stop them getting their selfies. Selfies? Everywhere people pointed their cameras at their own face, walking around videoing – their self! I do like to have a few photos of us for posterity but these people are self-obsessed.

 

Paris has obviously got a problem with homeless (mostly) migrants. Walk a distance along the River Seine and you will find tented villages, there is a powerful smell of urine in every corner, with the no alcohol restrictions ignored, empty cans and bottles stacked around the bins as evidence. There are families, woman living on mattresses with as many as four small children, on the main boulevards. They beg by day and at midnight they are all huddled asleep on the pavement. The men in the tents seem to be selling plastic Eiffel Tower models to the tourists or bottled water – even bottles of wine. Love locks and selfy sticks were also top sellers. There must be millions of locks fastened to railings around the city, mostly brass, so removing them will be self-funding as brass is £2.20 a kilo.

 

As for the sights we saw, well if it was on the map we tried to walk to it. We crossed the Periphique ring road to get to the outer reaches of Paris. La Defense – the financial area with dozens of modern office blocks – was impressive, and still expanding. The Bois de Boulogne park, with the horse racing track and the Louis Vuitton Centre was part of a 20 mile loop that day. Another day saw us in the north east. We had the dome of the Sacre Couer to ourselves, with thousands of tourists wandering below us oblivious of the entrance and ticket office under the church. Again the light was fantastic for us. We read that Pere Lachaise Cemetery or Cimitiere du Pere Lachaise was one of the most visited destinations, a five mile walk but we went. It is massive, you need a map, but for me one massive tomb is much the same as another, it does have highlights but we didn’t stay long. Fortunately we were now closer to the Canal St Martin which would lead us to Parc de la Villette. This was a Sunday and everywhere was both buzzing and chilled at the same time. Where ever we went people were sat watching the world go by, socializing and picnicking, soaking the sun up. As ever I wanted to go up on the roof of anything I could as I love taking cityscapes. Most of these were expensive compared with many places we’ve been to before but up we went. The Tour Montparnasse, a single tower block with 59 floors, 690 foot high and extremely fast lifts has incredible views although it was a touch hazy on our ascent. The Arc de Triomphe was just up the road from our hotel, we went up it within hours of arriving, well worth the visit.

 

At the time of writing I have no idea how many images will make the cut but it will be a lot. If I have ten subtly different shots of something, I find it hard to consign nine to the dark depths of my hard drive never to be seen again – and I’m not very good at ruthless selection – so if the photo is OK it will get uploaded. My view is that it’s my photostream, I like to be able to browse my own work at my leisure at a later date, it’s more or less free and stats tell me these images will get looked at. I’m not aiming for single stunning shots, more of a comprehensive overview of an interesting place, presented to the best of my current capabilities. I am my own biggest critic, another reason for looking at my older stuff is to critique it and look to improve on previous mistakes. I do get regular requests from both individuals and organisations to use images and I’m obliging unless someone is taking the piss. I’m not bothered about work being published (with my permission) but it is reassuringly nice to be asked. The manipulation of Flickr favourites and views through adding thousands of contacts doesn’t interest me and I do sometimes question the whole point of the Flickr exercise. I do like having access to my own back catalogue though and it gives family and friends the chance to read about the trip and view the photos at their leisure so for the time being I’m sticking with it. I do have over 15 million views at the moment which is a far cry from showing a few people an album, let’s face it, there’s an oversupply of images, many of them superb but all being devalued by the sheer quantity available.

 

Don’t think that it was all walking and photography, we had a great break and spent plenty of time in pavement bistros having a glass of wine and people watching. I can certainly understand why Paris is top of the travellers list of destinations.

 

Bit of Clairness

Recent moth bits and a welcome returning species

 

On Tuesday at work I was just checking the bug zapper in the kitchen (as I do frequently to see if there's any interesting deceased moths amongst the frazzle of flies, I found 2 Emmelina monodactyla, 1 Agonopterix heracliana and an Epiphyas postvittana, pretty much expected species in the middle of a town but as I just moved the zapper I saw a large dark micro just sitting there...and I said to myself 'Well I wasn't expecting to see a Diurnea fagella' it being new for the year for me...rescued from the perils of electricity I took him home for a better photo.

That same night and after another mild day hitting 16 degrees the trap went out at 6pm ready to see what might turn up come the morning, the sky did clear and it was a little cool this morning with a heavy dew but I was still pleased with 12 moths of 8 species which I know seems little in comparison to other trappers lists at the moment.

It was certainly quality over quantity as well with even a mint condition Epiphyas postvittana grabbing my attention for a photo.

The best moth for me was a very pale Lead-coloured Drab, only my second record for the garden (I had forgot that I first took this species in 2014).

It is a moth that I use to trap commonly when I lived with my parents, sometimes 5 or 6 per trap would you believe!

Also my second Oak Beauty of the year was nice and a really striking Clouded Drab had to have it's shoot with the Lead-coloured Drab.

 

All in all a pleasing result.

 

Catch Report - 14/03/17 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

 

Macro Moths

 

1x Lead-coloured Drab [NFY]

2x Clouded Drab

3x Common Quaker

1x Early Grey

1x Hebrew Character

2x March Moth

1x Oak Beauty

 

Micro Moths

 

1x Epiphyas postvittana

Stevenson square, Manchester.

Yard work at Brampton Intermodal Terminal

(8 bit Ära)

 

Bj. und Veröffentlichung ab Juli 1983 in Japan

 

Oktober 1985 in Amerika

 

September 1986 in Europa

Verkaufszahlen: Ca. 61,91 Millionen

Konsole im Bundle Super Set Inklusive:

 

TV Adapter

 

4 Controller mit der Four Score Einheit

 

Die Spiele Super Mario Bros.

Tetris und Worldcup

 

Nicht im Bundle enthalten das Spiel

Maniac Mansion von Lucas Arts

für das NES (1987)

   

* Bit too much of this, really...

Monday afternoons I've been getting a bit of spare time .... today I spent that time at Primbee on Lake Illawarra on the way home.. The Pentax was at home but I had the Sony RX10MkIv with me and it more than carried the task at hand.

via Instagram bit.ly/2azqPYA

bit more bokeh

Jan 25, 2009 Explore #231 (reported by Scout)

Bits and Pretzels 2017 - Day Two - Image © Andreas Gebert

Shot on iPhone XS.

Bit of a mixture this month.

 

1. 152/365 Life balance, 2. 153/365 Before noon / after noon, 3. 154/365 City streets, 4. 155/365 Happy birthday to me, 5. 156/365 Game time, 6. 157/365 Lamp post, 7. 158/365 It’s a sign, 8. 159/365 Saturday morning vibes, 9. 160/365 Around the bridge, 10. 161/365 Ghost in the machine, 11. 162/365 The jetty, 12. 163/365 Flick off, mate, 13. 165/365 Cloudy up and down - Explored, 14. 165/365 On guard, 15. 166/365 Photo shoot, 16. 167/365 Into the mist, 17. 168/365 Old school, 18. 169/365 Stripes, 19. 170/365 Step up - Explored, 20. 171/365 Shooting for the sky ..., 21. 172/365 Didn’t get the memo, 22. 173/365 Light in the forest, 23. 174/365 L, 24. 175/365 Wet roads, 25. 176/365 Over the bridge, 26. 177/365 The pitch, 27. 178/365 Not a rose - Explored, 28. 179/365 Making a point, 29. 180/365 On the ice, 30. 181/365 His happy place