Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [268]
Le Phare St-louis ( 01 39 53 40 12; 33 rue du Vieux Versailles; menus €11-16; lunch & dinner to 11pm) This cosy Breton place heaves. Pick from 15 savoury galettes (buckwheat pancakes; €6.70 to €8) and 40-odd different sweet crêpes, including the Vieux Versailles (€5.60) topped with redcurrant jelly, pear and ice cream then set ablaze with Grand Marnier.
À La Ferme ( 01 39 53 10 81; 3 rue du Maréchal Joffre; starters/mains €6/14, menus €17.50 & €21.80; lunch & dinner to 11pm Wed-Sun) Cow-hind seats and rustic garlands strung from old wood beams add a country air to ‘At the Farm’, temple to grilled meats and cuisine from southwest France.
For picnic supplies:
Marché & Halles Notre Dame (place du Marché Notre Dame; inside 7am-1pm & 3.30-7pm Tue-Sat, outside 7.30am-2pm Tue, Fri & Sun) Indoor and outdoor food market.
Monoprix (9 rue Georges Clemenceau)
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SLEEPING
Hôtel De France ( 01 30 83 92 23; www.hotelfrance-versailles.com; 5 rue Colbert; s/d/tr €137/141/174) If you’re going to stay in this regal town, you may as well go the whole hog and plump for a canopied bed and floral bedspread in a three-star 18th-century townhouse. It’s old, old-fashioned and across from the chateau.
Royal Hôtel ( 01 39 50 67 31; www.royalhotelversailles.com; 23 rue Royale; d €58-69, tr/q €92/110) In the delightful St-Louis neighbourhood, this 35-room hotel displays character and a fondness for patterned wallpaper. The smallish rooms mix bulk furnishings with old-fashioned touches and there are self-catering studios for keen cooks.
Hôtel d’Angleterre ( 01 39 51 43 50; www.hotel-angleterre-versailles.com; 2bis rue de Fontenay; d €50-88, ste €120) On a quiet street away from the chateau mayhem sits this good-value 18-room hotel – look for the burnt-copper canopy above the entrance. The cheapest rooms only have a shower; rooms 15 and 23 are family friendly.
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FONTAINEBLEAU
The smart town of Fontainebleau (population 17,811) grew up around its elegant Renaissance chateau, one of France’s largest royal residences, around which the beautiful Forêt de Fontainebleau fans out. The chateau is less crowded and pressured than Versailles and its forest – rich in walking, cycling, rock climbing, horse-riding opportunities and game – is as big a playground as it was in the 16th century.
The town’s lifeblood is international graduate business school Insead (www.insead.edu), which brings in some 2000 students a year and seals Fontainebleau’s reputation as a nice respectable middle-class place to be – for the French and expats alike. The town has an Anglican church, its own Wednesday-morning English school and a dynamic pick of swish cafés, bars and cultural happenings. No wonder so many work in Paris but choose to live in this safe, healthy living space oozing, as many a local will tell you, ‘a certain Swiss ambience’.
Château de Fontainebleau ( 01 60 71 50 70; www.musee-chateau-fontainebleau.fr, in French; place Général de Gaulle; adult/18-25yr/under 18yr €8/6/free, 1st Sun of the month free for all; 9.30am-6pm Wed-Mon Jun-Sep, 9.30am-5pm Wed-Mon Oct-May), with its 1900 rooms, is one of France’s most beautifully decorated and furnished chateaux. Walls and ceilings are richly coated with wood panelling, gilded carvings, frescoes, tapestries and paintings. The parquet floors are of the finest woods, the fireplaces are decorated with exceptional carvings, and many of the pieces of furniture are originals dating back to the Renaissance. An informative 1½-hour audioguide leads visitors around the main areas of the palace (whose list of former tenants or visitors is like a who’s who of French royalty) and two guided tours (adult/18-25 years €12.50/11; 1¼ hours) take visitors to the Petits Appartements and Musée Napoléon 1er (10.30am and 3.30pm daily) and the Second-Empire salon and Musée Chinois de l’Imperatice Eugénie (11.30am and 2.30pm daily). Sign