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00:00Palaces, the most spectacular and lavish homes on earth.
00:12Luxuriously designed for the royals who wanted the biggest and the best.
00:18Behind the golden gates of these royal megastructures are incredible stories waiting to be discovered.
00:25Infamous monarchs from history and the artists, designers and engineers who turned their grand visions into a reality.
00:35These are the most opulent, flamboyant and innovative royal residences around the world.
00:46This time Chateau de Fontainebleau began life as a medieval castle in the 12th century
00:53before being turned into a renaissance masterpiece in the 1500s.
01:00Kings and emperors of France resided at this grand country retreat for nearly 750 years,
01:08making Fontainebleau one of the world's greatest palaces.
01:12Lying 55 kilometers southeast of Paris, Fontainebleau has stood in the forests of rural France for nearly a thousand years.
01:19In his memoirs, Napoleon Bonaparte called the imposing structure the true home of kings.
01:26Lying 55 kilometers southeast of Paris, Fontainebleau has stood in the forests of rural France for nearly a thousand years.
01:34In his memoirs, Napoleon Bonaparte called the imposing structure the true home of kings.
01:40Today, Chateau de Fontainebleau is a gigantic structure containing 1500 rooms.
01:58With constant renovations and additions by kings and emperors over seven centuries,
02:03it has changed dramatically through the years.
02:08In French, the word Chateau means both castle and palace.
02:12And this is not an accident because, of course, royal houses were first in the Middle Ages castles
02:18and then later developed into very grand palaces as we know them today.
02:22So Fontainebleau starts off as a castle round a courtyard with a keep.
02:27And indeed, the keep of 1137 still survives.
02:31It was Francis I that decided to transform this castle into something which we would describe as a palace
02:39by building huge corridors and galleries attached to the original castle
02:44while keeping some of the original buildings.
02:48King Francis I's 16th century reimagining of Fontainebleau retained a section of the medieval castle
02:55which still stands today.
02:58Vincent Droguet is the Director of Heritage and Collections at the Chateau.
03:04We are here in the oldest castle castle called the Cours Oval.
03:10The particularity of this castle is that François I worked in 1528-1530
03:16but he wanted to preserve medieval buildings that were still in place
03:20and install these buildings on medieval foundations.
03:24And he also preserved, at the west side of this castle, the big dungeon,
03:30what we call the big old tower of Saint Louis.
03:35A building that has been preserved to our days, a dungeon with very thick walls.
03:40Although much has changed about Fontainebleau over the centuries,
03:44the dungeon was kept fully intact by every monarch who resided here.
03:49Each of the royal dynasties of France saw it as a symbol of heritage and antiquity.
03:55Now housing palace administration on the inside,
03:58the robust exterior stonework of the dungeon remains solid almost a millennium later.
04:04In the Middle Ages, building was done by craftsmen, master craftsmen,
04:11who designed and built the building.
04:13They were responsible for both.
04:14And the patron would come to the master craftsmen and describe what they wanted,
04:18and then they would work out together what was being built on site,
04:23coming back to the site regularly to see whether the progress is what they expected.
04:27Simply, these are certainly the maçons who worked for the king,
04:34who built the dungeon that we can still see today,
04:38which is a dungeon with extremely thick walls,
04:42built with materials taken close to Fontainebleau.
04:49One of the key materials that's used in this castle is sandstone
04:54that was sourced locally from a forest, and also rubble stones,
04:58and those have been set together using a mix like a paste called mortar.
05:04Louis VII was the first known king to reside at the medieval castle of Fontainebleau
05:10in the 12th century,
05:12and his successors were still visiting the castle some 300 years later.
05:17The castle was vacated by the French monarchy,
05:45and it remained empty for a hundred years.
05:48It was then in the early 16th century that King Francis I came to the throne
05:54and decided to make Fontainebleau his passion project.
05:58So, François I was going to discover the site of Fontainebleau,
06:07it is to say the forest,
06:08and in the middle of this forest, the existence of a castle
06:13which is at this moment in very bad state.
06:16It is inhabitable, the buildings are in large part ruined,
06:21and he decided, from 1527, to rebuild the castle
06:28and to make one of his favorite houses.
06:33Francis was heavily influenced by the Renaissance movement that had begun in Italy.
06:38ideas about design and architecture had transitioned from the medieval style of construction.
06:45It is the Italian Renaissance that invents the modern idea of the architect.
06:49The classical buildings which were emulating Rome had to be drawn out in advance,
06:54they couldn't be worked out on site.
06:57And thus somebody had to do the drawings and hand these to the builders to build.
07:02King Francis employed a master mason named Gilles Le Breton to oversee the build.
07:09His construction team helped to turn the medieval castle into a palace fit for a king.
07:18The construction of the new wings of the castle wasn't particularly revolutionary.
07:23It was the way it was carried out, the style in which it was carried out,
07:27that was so radically different.
07:29The stone ashlar that was cut with beautiful fine joints
07:33wasn't radically different from the medieval stonework,
07:36but it was the creation of classical ornament of capitals and friezes and cornices.
07:44And some of these presented technical difficulties.
07:47The cornice is a very heavy element and it's right at the top of the building,
07:51and it cantilevers out, it stretches out over the front of the building,
07:55so that you have to lift the heaviest stones to the top of the building.
08:00When you've got a structure that's being constantly changed over a period of time,
08:06where new things are being added in, old things are being taken away,
08:09one of the biggest challenges around that is making sure that we're keeping structural stability.
08:15If you imagine the gravity loads are all kind of channeling their way through the structure in a particular path,
08:21and then if you're coming in and changing those pathways,
08:24it's really important to make sure that the forces find a different way to travel.
08:29And often what you do to ensure that is to put some temporary supports in there,
08:34and that way you can be sure that the forces do have somewhere safe to dissipate.
08:39The most recognizable thing about the architecture of Francis I, the Renaissance Wings,
08:45is its classical style.
08:47Its use of classical columns taken from the books of Vitruvius, a Roman author,
08:53and their later interpretations by Italian writers.
08:57The use of these is essential in classical architecture.
09:00In the mid-16th century, King Francis I had decided to update the medieval castle of Fontainebleau.
09:16The interiors of Francis' new look home were designed to showcase the groundbreaking artwork of the Renaissance.
09:24The Italian Renaissance, the movement of art, the growth of art, the idea of almost a sort of realistic art,
09:34and the flowering of arts and culture during the 15th century.
09:38This began in Italy, and Francis I very much wanted to see it in his own palaces,
09:44and Fontainebleau was the place he used.
09:47Everything about it was a symbol of beauty and Francis' power,
09:52and the way he's doing that is not just through seeming strong and success in war,
09:58but also seeming like the great king of art and culture and the Renaissance and the rebirth.
10:04And certainly the influence of Fontainebleau on France can't be understated.
10:10Francis invited Italian artists Rosso Fiorentino and Francesco Primaticcio over to France to turn his dream into a reality.
10:20They helped decorate a huge new hall for the king, the gallery of Francis I.
10:28Another reign of Francis I, Francis I wanted all these Italian artists to come at his court.
10:34And Rosso Fiorentino and Primaticcio came in Fontainebleau and they really infused French art with what they did and what they saw in Italy.
10:46So the school of Fontainebleau is really a school in the proper sense of the term.
10:50You have these important Italian masters and you have a whole squad, a whole team of young French artists
10:56that will learn how to do fresco or how to do a beautiful leg or a beautiful arm or very fleshy fruits.
11:05And they're the guidance of these masters.
11:06And when they will leave the works at Fontainebleau and when they will work in Paris or elsewhere in France,
11:11they will use what they learned. And so that's how all the Fontainebleau style is becoming popular in France
11:17and will infuse really French art of the 16th century.
11:23King Francis' private gallery has 14 different frescoes along the walls, painted by the school of Fontainebleau during the 1530s.
11:33So here you have Danae. Danae embodies the beautiful girl of the Renaissance, doesn't she?
11:40With her golden hair, her sophisticated hairdo, her almond shaped eyes and her body with the robustness
11:46that recalls the art of Julio Romano in Mantua and also the gracefulness of the face that recalls the art of Raphael.
11:53And really that's the school of Fontainebleau. Danae lies on her very beautiful bed and you can see this kind of golden shower
12:00that is just going down on her. And this golden shower is Jupiter manifesting himself under the appearance of gold.
12:09And he will second date this way Danae and this will give birth to Perseus.
12:14Around this beautiful fresco you have this great caryatis carrying baskets of fruits.
12:20And look the opulence and the abundance and the richness of these fruits with the huge fruits of Italy,
12:27very, very, very big, very, very fleshy. This is really a signature of the gallery of Francis I.
12:35As well as being incredibly beautiful, the artwork forms part of the structural design of the gallery.
12:42A fresco is not just a painting on plaster. The plaster and the paint are mixed,
12:48which makes it particularly difficult to do as you have to paint before the plaster dries.
12:53And the plaster has to be mixed in such a way that there's time for the painter to finish their work each day.
12:59And the painting has to be split into segments to allow this to happen.
13:03The gallery measures 60 metres long, 6 metres wide and 5 metres high.
13:10Before the 18th century renovations at the palace, it had windows on both sides of the room.
13:16The gallery was a particularly impressive space, partly because of its huge length.
13:22It's obviously a very large building, far larger than anyone else would have been used to seeing.
13:26But it also contained an awful lot of glass. Glass in this period is tremendously expensive.
13:31The only way to make windows was to take a sheet of glass and spin it so it spun out like a plate,
13:40and then cut rectangles out of this circular disk of glass.
13:45So each rectangle was relatively small and these were then mounted in larger windows.
13:51Ordinary people very often didn't have glass at all.
13:54So to have a huge gallery with windows down one or even both sides filled with glass,
14:01which was so expensive, showed off how rich you were.
14:05Almost hidden away amongst the frescoes in the gallery is a 16th century depiction of Francis I's new Renaissance wing.
14:17Well, this is kind of the first photograph of Fontainebleau.
14:20So you can recognise the Porte Dorée, the pont, that is just in front of you.
14:24And where all the arcades are is where we are right now, the gallery.
14:29You can see that people are bathing in the pont and it's a very lovely scene.
14:33And the bigger frescoes represent Venus in her bath.
14:36And it's very important for Fontainebleau because you have to remember that downstairs there used to be a full appartement des bains,
14:44seven rooms dedicated exclusively to baths.
14:49The lavish royal baths that were once plumbed in directly below the gallery have since been removed.
14:55Having a room in your house devoted entirely to bathing was virtually unique.
15:01And, of course, all of the associated plumbing and everything that was required would have been completely innovative.
15:08The same kind of technology that was being employed in Renaissance fountains and elsewhere to create water displays was there to be used in creating Francis I's bathroom.
15:18It was the fact that it was being used for a bathroom that was unusual.
15:24The bathrooms were even adorned with artworks of the day, including one of the world's most priceless portraits.
15:31The bath apartment housed the collection of paintings of Francis I with some paintings not very famous such as the Mona Lisa or all the big Raphaels that are in the Louvre.
15:41They were all exposed in this appartement des bains downstairs in the Château de Fontainebleau.
15:47There was art everywhere in the palace and including the fact that the Mona Lisa was at one point hung in some of the bathrooms that this great priceless painting, the most priceless painting now in the world was just like in a bathroom because they had so many other great pieces of art that almost the Mona Lisa was just a footnote.
16:08Another grand addition to Fontainebleau was the stunning ballroom. It was still under construction when Francis I died in 1547.
16:21So we are in the Salle de Balle of the Château de Fontainebleau, a space that was conceived under the reign of Francis I but only accomplished under the reign of his son, King Henry II.
16:33All that you can see on the walls or on the ceiling are the work of Italian artists who came to Fontainebleau in the 16th century to work for the kings of France.
16:42For example, the frescoes were done by Niccolo dell'Abbate upon the drawings of Francesco Primaticcio, one of the most important representants of what is called the first school of Fontainebleau.
16:53After the death of Rosso Fiorentino in 1540, Francesco Primaticcio had taken sole control of the artistic direction of Fontainebleau. The frescoes in the ballroom are all his creation.
17:08So here you have the Feast of Bacchus. You can recognize Bacchus in the center. He's a bit greenish now.
17:15We feel the cup he's holding in his hand and the grape ref he has on his head. Then you move to this arcade where you see Apollo playing a kind of lute for the muses on Mount Parnassus.
17:27And look how the drapery here overhangs on the architecture or how the arm of this lovely lady playing the flute is climbing on the arch.
17:40There you see how much in Fontainebleau architecture and painting are fusing with one another.
17:46And that's really the school of Fontainebleau. It's because architecture, sculpture, painting are all imagined together by just one mind.
17:53And here it was the mind of Primaticcio.
17:57To top it all off, an intricately carved wooden ceiling sits above the 10 meter high room.
18:04This was an amendment by Henry II to the original plan by his father, Francis I.
18:11Francis had commissioned an arched ceiling held up by pillars which were built and still remain in the gallery despite not being needed.
18:20Henry II's new architect changed the plans to include the more fashionable wooden ceiling.
18:27It was conceived by Francis Siebeck de Carpi, an Italian cabinet maker that also worked for the Louvre or for the Chateau de Beauregard.
18:36So it's a wooden ceiling with these kind of coffers with the emblems of Henry II, the crescent, and the cipher of Henry II with the H.
18:46And you see all the work of gilding, of working in the wood that is really typical of these ceilings of the Renaissance.
18:55In 1589, the house of Bourbon became the new royal dynasty in France.
19:02Henry IV was the first Bourbon ruler and continued the elaborate additions to Fontainebleau that had been started by Francis I over 60 years beforehand.
19:13The differences between Henry's and Francis I's palaces can be seen from the Oval Courtyard.
19:20On reconnaît sur la façade le F de François Ier qui alterne avec la salamandre qui était son emblème particulier.
19:31Donc on reconnaît cette période de construction des années 1540 qui est le règne de François Ier.
19:38Mais le bâtiment a été prolongé et la cour a été régularisée par Henri IV qui est un des personnages importants aussi de l'histoire de ce château.
19:50Et on voit que sur certains médaillons de cette façade le F de François Ier est remplacé par le H de Henri IV.
20:00On retrouve du côté nord les deux grandes périodes de construction de la cour d'une certaine façon
20:07avec à l'extrémité sur le pavillon des cheminées sur lequel on voit le H de Henri IV.
20:15Et de ce côté-ci en revanche on retrouve le F de François Ier.
20:21The artistic traditions begun in Fontainebleau under Francis are then continued under Henry IV
20:27who elaborates and increases the size of the building.
20:30And architects like André de Serso who come in and produce this amazing staircase,
20:35this double-horseshoe staircase in front of the building.
20:43King Henry IV's renovations at Fontainebleau extended beyond just bricks and mortar.
20:49He cultivated the medieval parks surrounding the palace
20:53and created three gardens within the 130-acre grounds.
20:57Today, Arnaud Amelot is in charge of them.
21:01King Henry IV's renovations at Fontainebleau
21:29You can see that it's quite large, it's multiple, very diversified,
21:33with each garden which has its own characteristics,
21:38which has a particular atmosphere,
21:39some specificities which are very surprising in the history of the gardens.
21:46These gardens really symbolize the belief in French society at the time,
21:51of the importance of symmetry, of the importance of regularity.
21:55That's what they believe, that if you can tame and civilize the garden,
21:58then you can tame and civilize everything,
22:00and you can build an empire,
22:02and that's what these gardens are so symbolic of.
22:07The Roman goddess of the hunt, Diana,
22:09features heavily in the gardens and the palace itself.
22:14Diane is a mythological character,
22:18of the Greco-Roman mythology,
22:20who has all its place here and its importance.
22:24Why? Because, finally, Fontainebleau
22:26was a place that was very appreciated by all the sovereigns
22:30who succeeded in the centuries.
22:33Here we see this Diane, Diane Alabish,
22:37which is a bronze sculpture.
22:40This is not the original.
22:42The original was deposited inside the Galerie des Serres,
22:46since it's a fragile sculpture,
22:49which was protected inside,
22:54among other bronze sculptures that date for many of the Renaissance.
23:01King Henry also added a number of artificial bodies of water to the gardens,
23:06including the carp pond,
23:09the Cascades,
23:10and the 1200m long Grand Canal.
23:17The canal was one of the first created in France,
23:20and certainly the biggest at the time.
23:23The excavation of the man-made channel called for some engineering expertise.
23:28And, who is it,
23:32this Grand Canal has a very particular disposition
23:36because it is built on half of its surface,
23:41on the off-sol.
23:42Normally, a Grand Canal is simply creused,
23:45while it is both creused and both built on the digues.
23:51And that is also the originality of this Grand Canal,
23:55it is that we have done considerable work,
23:58we have recovered,
23:59we have refaçonned,
24:00we have re-profiled the ground
24:02to recover the land,
24:05the argiles,
24:06to create the quietness of this canal,
24:10and to build the digues
24:11that are all at the east side of the Grand Canal.
24:17The vast canal was fed by water
24:19diverted from both the carp pond
24:22and the river Seine,
24:23four kilometers northeast of Fontainebleau.
24:26The king and one of his courtiers
24:28had a wager on how successful the irrigation would be.
24:31In the meantime, there is a little anecdote,
24:37a pari which was taken between Henri IV and the maréchal of Basson-Pierre
24:41to know the number of days to rebuild again the Grand Canal.
24:48The maréchal of Basson-Pierre said that he would be rebuild in two days,
24:52while the king Henry IV spoke of a much longer time.
24:56And in fact, it was Henri IV who was right.
24:58In reality, it takes a lot of days to fill the water with the Grand Canal,
25:06because it represents about 140,000 m3 of water.
25:10So it's still a gigantic scale.
25:13So for the anecdote, it's the king who was right on his courtiers.
25:18164 years after the death of Henry IV,
25:23his five-time great-grandson, Louis XVI, became king of France in 1774.
25:29Louis and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette,
25:33would escape from the palace of Versailles near Paris
25:36to Fontainebleau every autumn, just in time for the hunting season.
25:42Marie Antoinette aime beaucoup Fontainebleau,
25:46because it's a residence in the middle of nature,
25:49where she is certainly a bit more free than Versailles.
25:52Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette will do relatively important work in Fontainebleau.
25:57And several pieces today present a decor
26:02which has been made for the Queen Marie Antoinette.
26:05Some of the most opulent rooms at Fontainebleau
26:08were decorated specifically for the Queen.
26:12She brought exoticism into Fontainebleau.
26:14Marie Antoinette's rooms in Fontainebleau were absolutely amazing.
26:19And to Louis and Marie Antoinette,
26:21they were just doing everything exactly the same
26:24as all the monarchs before had done.
26:25You make Fontainebleau into this beautiful palace.
26:28Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette was very widely decorated for the Queen Marie Antoinette in 1787.
26:37And we delivered a beautiful bed in wood sculpted and doré for the Queen Marie Antoinette in 1787.
26:49But the last day of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
26:53were never returned to Fontainebleau after 1786.
26:57Their subjects were turning against them.
27:01By this point, with the growth of revolutionary feeling,
27:05with the growth of republican feeling,
27:08with the growth of republican feeling,
27:10it seems too much when you have a country
27:12which is struggling for money
27:14to spend all this money on Versailles,
27:16to spend all this money on Fontainebleau,
27:18to spend all this money on Fontainebleau,
27:30for the Queen to build these huge rooms,
27:32to have fun with all her friends.
27:34Well now, what once had seemed like great patronage,
27:38like a great symbol,
27:39what once had seemed like the King showing his love for France,
27:43now seemed like selfishness,
27:46now seemed like spending the country's money.
27:49And so, although a lot of the focus about excess and extravagance
27:54was focused on Versailles,
27:55there was also criticism of Marie Antoinette's rooms in Fontainebleau,
28:00about how much she'd spent,
28:01and about how divorced, really,
28:03she was in the reality of ordinary French people.
28:07During the French Revolution of 1789 to 1799,
28:12a young man from Corsica named Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Paris to help topple the monarchy.
28:20Christophe Beyer has been writing books about one of history's greatest military leaders for over a decade.
28:27And it's this man,
28:29disabused and liberated from all allegiance to the legitimate dynasties,
28:34who passes, with weapons and baggage,
28:38in service of the revolution,
28:40who pushes the bullets to go to Toulon,
28:43to carry ammunition to the revolutionary army,
28:46who puts the seat in front of the city,
28:48where the royalists took the weapons,
28:51protected by the cannons of the English fleet,
28:55who, from the RAD,
28:56repousses the assaults of the revolution.
28:59And there, because he never perds one minute,
29:03he is found that,
29:04during a trip in the sea from Toulon to Toulon to the Corses,
29:09he had a few hours to lose.
29:11A lose?
29:12What do I say?
29:13For nothing in the world,
29:14Bonaparte had lost one minute.
29:17He made the turn of the murailles,
29:20he analyzed the disposition of the points,
29:22he observed the heights,
29:25and he made, in his head,
29:26the ideal plan of a seat.
29:29Arriving several years later,
29:32at Toulon, he said that it's where to put the cannon.
29:35The point took the cannon to the English fleet,
29:39the Anglers quittent the RAD,
29:43abandoning their royal allies,
29:46who are massacred,
29:48the young Bonaparte,
29:49in the same time as the revolution armies in Toulon,
29:52enter in history.
29:55The palace had been ransacked during the revolution,
29:58so before Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France in December 1804,
30:03he began renovating Fontainebleau.
30:05In 1804,
30:09to receive the pape who came for his crown,
30:13Napoleon decided that he had to rebuild the castle.
30:18So, from Paris,
30:20or from the other houses,
30:22there are a lot of buildings
30:23that are designed to rebuild the castle.
30:26And little by little,
30:28the castle will be repaired,
30:31re-meubled,
30:32embellied,
30:33and inhabited by the emperor and his court.
30:39Napoleon was a military man
30:41who had no desire for wonderful food
30:43or beautiful art
30:45or beautiful war hangings
30:46or lovely sculptures.
30:48He really didn't like them,
30:49but he used them
30:50as a way of bolstering his power,
30:53of intimidating foreign visitors,
30:55as a way of intimidating the French,
30:56as a way of saying,
30:57I am the richest.
31:00Even to this day,
31:02the majority of the furniture at Fontainebleau
31:04dates back to Napoleon's residence at the palace
31:07during the early 19th century.
31:12And this unethical furniture,
31:14which makes Fontainebleau
31:15the big conservator in the world
31:17of the empire style,
31:19this unethical furniture,
31:20you see it here,
31:22in the throne room,
31:24the only living in France and Europe,
31:27the date of the empire.
31:29This throne is composed of a bed,
31:32of a Roman Roman
31:33ensignation
31:36that is a foudre.
31:39And what is the foudre?
31:41What is the foudre?
31:42Fulgur, in Latin,
31:44who is buried by Jupiter
31:46to destroy his enemies
31:48and kill the titans
31:49who would be able to dress against him.
31:53Despite being a great man of the people,
31:56French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
31:58enjoyed playing the role of king at Fontainebleau.
32:02Napoleon was the revolutionary hero,
32:05the republican hero,
32:06the great army hero.
32:07And yet, when he became emperor,
32:10everything was excess
32:12and gold and red and bling,
32:15he said,
32:16all you have to do to fool people
32:18is throw gold dust in their eyes.
32:20And Fontainebleau was a way in which
32:22he threw gold dust
32:23into the eyes of ambassadors,
32:26of ministers of the army.
32:31By 1813,
32:32Napoleon had conquered most of Europe.
32:35But the allied coalition of Prussia,
32:38Austria and Russia
32:40were fighting back.
32:42After defeating Napoleon at the battle of Leipzig
32:45in October 1813,
32:46they invaded France
32:48and conquered Paris in the spring of 1814.
32:52It was the end of the road for the emperor.
32:54So, this abdication,
32:58Napoleon was signed to Fontainebleau
33:00in his apartment
33:01on the 6th of April 1814,
33:06contraint by his entourage,
33:08while he did not decide to give the power.
33:11And then,
33:12a few days later,
33:14on the 20th of April,
33:15he left for the island of Elbe
33:18and he went through the great court of the castle
33:22and gave his adieu to the guard,
33:25which is really his military entourage.
33:29He made, at this moment,
33:30a very memorable speech
33:33auprès of his guard.
33:35Soldats of my old guard,
33:38I give you my adieu.
33:39For 20 years,
33:40on the roads of Europe,
33:42I found you
33:43responding to honor and glory.
33:46We could have continued to fight.
33:48This had been the civil war.
33:50Adieu.
33:51I'm going to write our story.
33:55It was incredibly emotional
33:56because he fought tooth and nail
33:59to get that throne
34:01and he fought tooth and nail
34:02to hold on to it.
34:03And you see the moment
34:05in which he's reduced in Fontainebleau,
34:07in which he becomes no longer the emperor,
34:09no longer the great military campaigner
34:11who no one thought could lose anything.
34:13He becomes just a man.
34:16In February 1815,
34:18Napoleon escaped his exile on Elbe
34:20and seized power of France once more.
34:23But it was fleeting.
34:25He was defeated for a second and final time
34:28at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815.
34:32He was defeated.
34:34He was defeated.
34:35He was defeated.
34:36He was defeated.
34:38He was defeated.
34:39He was defeated.
34:40Face Ă un Anglais alcoolique et tenace,
34:45Wellington manque de plier.
34:47C'est BlĂĽcher qui chauve la vise.
34:49Napoléon est balayé.
34:51Il ne repassera jamais Ă Fontainebleau.
34:53Il demande, l'imprudent,
34:55l'hospitalité à l'Angleterre.
34:58L'Angleterre, en guise d'hospitalité,
35:01lui réserve un rocher
35:02battu par les vents et les tempĂŞtes
35:04au fin fond de l'Atlantique Sud.
35:08While imprisoned on the island of St. Helena,
35:12Napoleon still had his favorite residence
35:15on his mind.
35:17Et il pense Ă son cher Fontainebleau
35:20oĂą il passa plus de 170 jours,
35:23ce qui est Ă©norme pour quelqu'un
35:24qui a couru Ă travers l'Europe.
35:26Et il donnera cette merveilleuse définition.
35:29Fontainebleau, la maison des siècles,
35:32la vraie demeure des rois.
35:38After the defeat of Napoleon,
35:40the French monarchy was restored.
35:43In 1830, King Louis-Philippe,
35:46the fifth cousin of Louis XVI,
35:48resided at Fontainebleau.
35:52Like so many of his predecessors,
35:54the king added a modern innovation
35:56to the Renaissance wing of the palace
35:58for his sister, Madame Adelaide.
36:01This is the chaise volante of Madame Adelaide,
36:04the flying chair.
36:05It's the precursor of an elevator.
36:08And it was used by Madame Adelaide,
36:09the sister of King Louis-Philippe,
36:11who lived very often in Fontainebleau.
36:13She was living in the petit appartement,
36:16downstairs.
36:17And as she had a very fragile condition,
36:20she needed an elevator to come more often
36:22to see her brother who lived upstairs in the castle.
36:25So, Madame Adelaide,
36:26the king's sister,
36:28would enter her elevator this way,
36:30through this little balustral.
36:33A chair would be placed on this platform.
36:36Then you would close it
36:38like this.
36:40And then,
36:42downstairs,
36:43people would use the crank
36:44and the wheel
36:45to take her downstairs.
36:48We're used to,
36:50in modern elevators,
36:51an electric motor
36:52powering an elevator
36:53fast up and down
36:54a shaft.
36:56This elevator
36:57is operated by hand,
36:59a servant
36:59or servants
37:01cranking it.
37:02It would have moved
37:03very slowly up and down
37:04with the accompanying noises
37:06and creaks and groans.
37:07So, Madame Adelaide
37:10was put on her chair
37:11upstairs
37:12and taken down
37:14through,
37:14you see these cables,
37:16to access her apartments
37:18that are at the first level
37:20of the castle.
37:21And you can see here
37:23the wheel
37:24with the crank mechanism
37:26that was manually activated
37:28by two people
37:29that were responsible
37:30for lifting up and down
37:31the princess.
37:34The 19th century elevator
37:36used technology
37:38that can be linked back
37:39to the ancient Mesopotamians.
37:43So, at the time,
37:45the technology would have been
37:46pretty basic.
37:47They would have been using
37:48a pulley system.
37:50Pulley systems have been
37:51in existence
37:52for thousands of years.
37:54In simple form,
37:55you've got a wheel,
37:56you've got a rope
37:57that's wrapped around it,
37:58and then you use
37:59a winch system
38:00to either wrap the rope
38:02around the pulley
38:03or to unravel it,
38:05which then allows
38:06the platform itself
38:07to move up and down.
38:09Here, it's really
38:10the arrival of modernity
38:12in the Renaissance world.
38:14So, even though it is
38:15a very basic,
38:16simple form of engineering,
38:18for me,
38:19it embodies
38:20what engineering is about,
38:21which is making
38:21people's lives easier
38:23and better.
38:26In 1848,
38:28the French monarchy fell again,
38:31with the country electing
38:32Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew,
38:34Louis Napoleon,
38:35as president.
38:37By 1852,
38:38he had declared himself
38:40Emperor Napoleon III,
38:41and, like his uncle,
38:43took ownership of Fontainebleau.
38:45A partir du début
38:49de son règne,
38:50en 1852,
38:52Napoléon III
38:53et son Ă©pouse
38:54l'impératrice Eugénie
38:55vont venir
38:56régulièrement
38:57Ă Fontainebleau
38:58et vont y faire faire
39:00des travaux
39:01relativement importants.
39:03C'est eux,
39:04notamment,
39:04qui vont faire
39:06construire
39:07et aménager
39:08un nouveau théâtre
39:09dans le château
39:10qui existe toujours,
39:12qu'on vient de restaurer,
39:13et qui est un théâtre
39:15de à peu près
39:17420 places
39:18qui est construit
39:19entre 1852
39:21et 1855
39:22et qui a été inauguré
39:24en 1857.
39:28The theater was designed
39:30by French architect
39:31Hector Lefuel,
39:33who converted part
39:34of an 18th century wing
39:35at Fontainebleau
39:36into a private auditorium
39:39for the emperor
39:39and his entourage.
39:43Effectivement,
39:46cette division
39:47de la salle de spectacle
39:48en plusieurs niveaux
39:50avec le premier niveau
39:53qui est le parterre
39:54qui est plutôt réservé
39:55aux officiers,
39:56donc aux personnes
39:58qui portent
39:58l'uniforme militaire,
40:00puis la loge impériale,
40:02la place pour les invités
40:03que l'on retrouve
40:04sur une deuxième galerie.
40:06C'est un minière
40:08opera house
40:09with all the features
40:10of a great opera house
40:11but scaled down.
40:14C'est all shoe-shaped
40:15which was good
40:15for acoustics
40:16but most importantly
40:17good for lines of sight.
40:19It was lit by candles.
40:22Although it could have been
40:22lit by gas
40:23at this era,
40:24it seems to have been
40:25deliberately old-fashioned.
40:28All the audience members
40:29who were guests
40:30of the emperor
40:31were seated
40:32on a comfortable
40:33cushioned chair
40:34upholstered
40:35in luxurious silk.
40:37But even though
40:37the entire theater
40:38appears to be garnished
40:40with expensive adornments,
40:41the stunning architecture
40:43is mainly a facade.
40:44All of this,
40:47once the ossature
40:49is built,
40:50we fill it with plâtre
40:52and it's then
40:53directly on the plâtre
40:54that we apply
40:56the decor
40:57to the pochoir
40:57or a decor
41:00which is made
41:01by moulage.
41:03It's what we call
41:03the carton-pierre.
41:05It's a technique
41:05that allows
41:06to imitate the sculpture
41:07but at the same time
41:08to make
41:09the ornaments
41:10reproductibles
41:11to infinity
41:12and then
41:13we will
41:14put them in place
41:16and put them in place
41:17simply on the clou.
41:18So all these techniques
41:20allow them to be
41:21very, very fast
41:22and I would say
41:24to put them
41:24in a way
41:25in a way
41:25of view
41:26but with very simple means.
41:29Despite creating
41:30the lavish looking theater,
41:32the emperor
41:33rarely used it.
41:35D'un point de vue
41:35personnel,
41:36on ne peut pas dire
41:37que Napoléon III
41:38soit un grand amateur
41:39de théâtre.
41:41Il n'aime pas l'opéra.
41:42L'impératrice
41:43n'est pas non plus
41:44une grande experte
41:45en matière de théâtre.
41:48Donc c'est plutĂ´t
41:48cette dimension
41:49de divertissement
41:53de la cour
41:54et en mĂŞme temps
41:56de montrer
41:56effectivement
41:57la majesté,
41:59la magnificence
42:00du second empire.
42:02But the second empire
42:08only lasted
42:09for 18 years.
42:11In 1870,
42:13Napoléon III
42:14was captured
42:15during the Franco-Prussian War
42:17and France
42:18declared itself
42:19a republic once more.
42:20Napoléon III
42:22Ă©tait le dernier
42:24souverain,
42:26le dernier empereur
42:27Ă habiter
42:27Ă Fontainebleau.
42:29Normalement,
42:30après Napoléon III,
42:32le château
42:33n'accueille plus
42:34de personnages
42:36qui est au pouvoir.
42:37Le château de Fontainebleau
42:40a été ouvert
42:41au public
42:41comme un museum
42:42depuis 1927.
42:45BĂ©loved
42:45par les kings
42:46et les empereurs,
42:47demi-million
42:48de visiteurs
42:49par an
42:49a eu
42:49come to explore
42:50the 1500 rooms
42:52and immerse
42:53themselves
42:53in 8 centuries
42:54of French history.
42:59Le château de Fontainebleau
43:00est une ancienne
43:03résidence royale
43:04et impériale
43:06qui a été
43:08habité
43:10par les souverains,
43:12par les rois,
43:12par les empereurs
43:13depuis le Moyen-Ă‚ge
43:15et qui a conservé
43:17de toutes les périodes
43:19de son existence,
43:20des traces
43:21dans son architecture,
43:23dans ses décors,
43:24dans son ameublement.
43:26Ce qui fait que
43:27le château de Fontainebleau
43:28peut être considéré
43:29comme une sorte
43:30de résumé
43:32de l'histoire de France
43:34depuis la période médiévale
43:35jusqu'au 19e
43:37ou au 20e siècle.
43:39Napoléon
43:40s'appelle Fontainebleau
43:41« the true home of kings »
43:42et je pense que
43:43c'est ce qui est spécial.
43:44C'est magnifique,
43:45c'est incroyable.
43:45Vous voyez
43:46toute la histoire
43:47de la France
43:47mais vous voyez
43:48the rise
43:49and fall
43:49of kings,
43:50how fragile
43:51monarchy
43:51can be.
43:52Sous-titrage
43:56Sous-titrage
43:57Sous-titrage
44:02Sous-titrage