5 X The Fun

A blog about our crazy adventures

Fontainebleau

Distance driven today (August 19) – 615 km (382 miles)

Total distance driven 2535 km (1575 miles)

After the longest drive, which took us about 8 hours with stops, we finally arrived to La Chappelle-La-Reine, a small village just south of Fontenbleau. It was after 10PM, so we just collapsed, but the next day we explored the Bnb where we stayed, an estate with large gardens, a pool and lots of games for kids. We were one of 3-4 families staying at the property, so there were plenty of young kids around.

Good morning!

We’re staying at the “Atelier of the dreams” where you live with your head in the stars. In reality, you have to be careful not to hit your head on the ceiling as it’s super low, and you have bend half way to get from one side of the room to another. I guess it a way to make this around romantic 😂

But it’s a cute little workshop full of character with 2 small bedrooms up a spiral staircase

The owners had a big golden retriever named Tao, a sweet, overly friendly dog who scared the kids (and me) a few times, but was generally cute.

Maia enjoyed the giant swings!

And tight rope waking

Sophie explored the little tree house

And Aleks practiced some flips

I had a bit of fun too 🤪

Then we went for a hike in the The forest of Fontainebleau. It’s one of the largest in France, encompassing 50,000 acres (spoiler alert – we didn’t cover all of it). There are nearly 200 miles of marked trails to explore, we randomly picked one, which was lovely.

As the start of the trail

Check out these rocks

The forest is known for large rocks. We saw a few, one resembling a bunny and another in a shape of a falcon

Falcon rock

Maia and Aleks spent most of the time discussing the plan for Maia’s 6th birthday. We’re having a Mario themed party by the way. Spoiler alert, Daddy will be Bowser, I will be princess Peach. Who will Maia and Aleks be?

They really bonded on this trip

I bonded with Sophie a bit, but she generally prefers Daddy pretty much like always

Mysterious rock towers built by aliens

Sadly we didn’t have the capacity or time to visit the Fontainebleau palace as we only had 1 day and taking 3 young tired kids to a huge tourist attraction that they probably won’t fully appreciate when it’s 30 degrees outside. I have been there and before and it’s worth a proper visit. Maybe next time!