• Director(s):

    DELOGET (Delphine), DIVERS

  • Producer(s):

    SYSTEM TV, ARTE FRANCE

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2012

  • Language(s):

    German, French

  • Rights:

    TV, DVD, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET, VOD

The Fontainebleau forest is one of the biggest forests in France, famous for its sandstone rocks, its sandy deserts, its varied landscape and its majestic trees. 

The forest is considered as the « green lung » of the Ile-de-France. It is listed since 1998 as “worldwide reserve of biosphere”. 
This forest area has become in 1820 a wonderful life-size studio for the painters of the “Barbizon school”. They changed the art world, but they were also the first ones to consider Fontainebleau’s landscapes as a heritage to protect. Following their idea, Napoleon the 3rd created in 1861 these famous biological reserves, the first ones in the world. 
With the arrival of the train in 1849, tourists rush to Fontainebleau. A man with an inventive spirit, Claude François Denecourt, had the idea of taming these areas that were believed wild and seamy. He drew through the forest a great number of paths and constructions that are still used by happy walkers nowadays.