Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1897-11-18
In The Forest OF fontaluebleau.
PARIS. Der. 30. 1897.

miles southeast OF Paris. 1t Is famous
for its palace or chateau. which for
hundreds of years has been the favor
tie resort of the French kings and
their courts. It's memories are of
the gayest and most tragic events
mingled. There the famous beauties
Mesdames de Montespan and Du Barry
held undisputed sway over dissolute
court, here the Secretary Monaldeschi
was murdered, and here Napoleon i'm
prisoned the Pope for two years. The
chateau also witnessed the abdication
]. of Napoleon in 1914.
The chateau is, think, more beau
tiful than the one at Versailles, though
not so large 1t is in the midst OF an
immense forest covering an extent of
81 square miles. This forest has
been left undisturbed except by a.
partial clearing of the underbrush,
and the making of broad, straight
roads and avenues in all directions
through it. No words can describe
the beauty of its scenery on clear,
sunshiny day such as we had for our
visit. The leaves just beginning to
turn, showed glints of golden brown,
yellow and dull green. The alleys
leading through the forest were COW
4 cred with brown leaves, while the
broader avenues had a narrow white
!. strip in the middle which the leaves
had not yet covered. A golden mist
yelled everything. 1t does not seem
real as l recall it now. have seen
many French pictures in which just
such effects were depicted, but all fall
short of the reality.
A rather odd thing about the forest
of Fontainebleau is that there are no
birds in it. 1t is said that birds do
not like beech trees, and the trees in
this forest are mostly beech. We
were inclined to doubt the correctness
of our information as to the absence
I'll UlE0S al tulo IOLCobs dhh VIC AOOhON
and listened long to catch sight or
sound of bird, but in vain; but right
in the heart of the forest we came
across little inn, which seemed to
! be trying to make up for the absence
of the feathered songsters by its title,
1.-The Singing Bird"
From Fontainebleau we drove
through the forest few miles to the
village of Bi, pronounced Bee. Here
Rosa Bonheur, the famous animal
painter, has a summer home. We
had hoped to catch a glimpse of the
q world-renowned little lady as we had
understood that she spent much of her
time in out door sketching. But as
she was no where to be seen we mus
tered courage to ring the door bell of
& her home. The doorkeeper informed
US that she was in Paris and that we
could not see her studio as she car
ried the KEYS with her, neither could
we explore house or grounds as it was
against orders. But we had seen
something worth remembering al
= ready. We had noticed that the
house was large and somewhat ging
er-bready in style of architecture re-
sembling in its general plan a Swiss
chalet. The grounds adjacent are en-
closed in high wall with an iron
barred grating in the gateway.
Through this we caught glimpses OF
large parrot or cock-a-too swinging
in cage, and two large handsome
dogs, one a collie. the other a hound.
The last thing we saw as we drove
away was the face and fore-paws of
the hound poked through the gate
and he looked after Us with large,
melancholy eyes.
The village of Ri consists OF only
one street, and that short one. with
but five or six houses. 1t is beautiful,
however, in its surroundings. con-
sisting chiefly OF woods and vine
yards, the latter enclosed with high
brick walls covered with a pinkish
Ayellow plaster, and latticed with
ri lgs and branches on which the
grape-vines were twined. Through |
openings in these walls you can catch
tempting glimpses of gardens. vine
yards and vine-covered cottages.
We drove back to Fontainebleau |
and beyond to Barbizon, another viii /
lsge with but single street, but with |
three or four times as many cottages
bordering it as at the village Of Bi. |
One of them is a pretty modern struc-