Events & Activities

The plants growing at the foot of the walls all have names. Spend an afternoon with a professional botanist, learning to recognise them whilst having fun.

Short stories, songs and finger plays for toddlers, one Wednesday morning a month. Free, booking required.

INSEAD kicks off its lecture series with the former Director-General of the WTO. A free event, with no booking required, to explore whether global trade is really unravelling.

A day to help students at the Damesme campus find their feet: services, societies, partners, and everything they need to get the academic year off to a good start.

The Word-Lovers’ Club, for 8 to 12-year-olds. It’s a place to share your favourite books and find inspiration when you’re stuck for something to read.

Seven free activities on 19 September, ranging from yoga to Nordic'Fit, at the Martinel sports centre and then in the forest. Register by email by 16 September.

The monthly shopkeepers’ flea market returns to Place Napoléon Bonaparte, from 9am to 5pm. Antique and vintage furniture and art objects, just a stone’s throw from the castle.

Seven flat races, open stables, pedal-powered sulkies for children and free entry. La Solle Racecourse is holding an open day.

A requiem that speaks not of the dead but of those left behind, performed at 5 pm beneath the vaults of Saint-Louis. Free for under-18s.

An hour and a half with a chef from Bellifontaine to turn that forgotten bread crust into something you’ll actually want to eat. Free, eight places available.

Schubert, Janáček and Beethoven performed by the Kairi Quartet, at 7 pm at the Protestant church. Free admission: chamber music of the highest standard, with no ticket required.

Two collections at the Butte Montceau at the weekend, from 10.30 am to 3.30 pm. The time slot that puts an end to the ‘weekday’ excuse.

Second edition, between the Municipal Theatre and the Aigle Noir. Nearly forty authors signing copies, fifteen talks, and €4 for access to all the events throughout the day.

Whether it’s Franco-Belgian comics, graphic novels, comics or manga: the media centre’s comics club welcomes both enthusiasts and those who don’t know where to start.

A one-to-one session to ask all the questions you no longer dare to ask your children. Smartphones, online procedures, email. Free of charge.

A year spent discovering the joy of life, and just one man on stage to tell the story. Michaël Hirsch kicks off the season at 8.30 pm.

One of France’s finest string ensembles, free of charge, at the Municipal Theatre. Booking is essential, and places are snapped up quickly.

The FLC is hosting Luigi Cuna to discuss *Voci libere*, his book on Italian singer-songwriters. The event will be followed by a book-signing; admission is free.

1870, London. A bankrupt art dealer meets a painter whose work nobody buys. Christelle Reboul and Christophe de Mareuil explain how Impressionism almost never came into being.

The FLC and the Hôtel Victoria are launching their ‘drinks and talks’ series with Philippe Jacquet. First question: was the Middle Ages really so ‘medieval’?

An hour of their time, in the town hall’s finest reception room, and enough to treat several people. One Wednesday a month, by appointment.

Stories for 3–6-year-olds, and a session devoted to wordplay. Playing with language – authors love it, and so do children.

A sense of meaning lost, dissatisfaction at work, damaged trust. CNRS research director Bruno Palier is coming to speak on these topics in Fontainebleau – free of charge and no booking required.

A poem found at the foot of a lamppost, and two artists from Bellifontaine who have turned it into a show. End-of-residency performance at 8.30 pm, from €2.50.

A sneak preview of new releases, literary news discussed over a coffee, and a Saturday morning that couldn’t get off to a better start than with a spot of shopping.

The monthly shopkeepers’ flea market returns to Place Napoléon Bonaparte, from 9am to 5pm. Antique and vintage furniture and art objects, just a stone’s throw from the castle.

The eleventh edition, with a brand-new format: following the fires, the race has moved out of the forest to a circuit of loops around the stadium. Fewer kilometres of scenic running, but a better atmosphere.

A selection of board games to give you a fright, for ages 12 and over. Free, but booking required.

Two days of free admission and unusual tours, from the construction site of the Galerie de Diane to the tapestry workshops, from the media library’s heritage collection to jazz in the ballroom. This year’s event is themed around the heritage of photography.

Eight days to see what the media library usually keeps under lock and key: tours of the heritage collection, two talks on Marie-Antoinette and a children’s workshop.

Three weekends in September to discover a menagerie of rogues, monsters and humans caught red-handed. Paintings and sculptures on Rue de la Cloche, set against the backdrop of the Compagnons du Devoir.

Two performances of a Brel song recital in Fontainebleau’s smallest venue. Seventy-two seats – in other words, the voice reaches the audience directly.

This is the eighth edition, and the forest is in great need of it after the summer. Join us on Sunday 27 September from 9am to 12 noon on the D607, which will be closed to traffic for the occasion. Please bring gloves and a jacket.

L'Esquisse is hosting a new exhibition dedicated to Edmond Verstraeten (1870–1956), a Flemish Luminist painter. A journey into the light and landscapes of Flanders – free admission.

Two days to come away with a pile of books at very reasonable prices. The shelves in the libraries are being restocked, which is great news for our own bookshelves.

Six actors in a 72-seat theatre recount the final months of a writer who set out to seek healing from a spiritual master. Just two performances.

Four days of open-entry show jumping, ranging from pony classes to CSI2*, organised by the Bost family of Barbizon. A world champion is at the helm.

Foxes, badgers, wolves, wildcats, bats: the ANVL transforms the theatre into a sensory immersion experience to help us understand how these animals perceive and inhabit the world.

The best-selling book about a man and his Bernese Mountain Dog, adapted for the stage as a one-woman show by Marie-Hélène Goudet. Two performances at L’Âne Vert – enough to leave you in tears without feeling ashamed.

Four days of free competitions, organised by a school based in the former hunting stables of François I. One hundred soldiers, two hundred horses.

Health and fitness activities, workshops, tours, walks and a tea dance: the two CCAS organisations are joining forces for the 75th ‘Semaine bleue’. Everything is free.

Brass bands in Fontainebleau, free of charge, over two days. Concerts, masterclasses and introductory workshops for this inaugural event. Limited places available.

Four days of dressage, cross-country and show jumping, culminating in French championship titles. Free entry to the Grand Parquet.

Three concerts in the Ballroom, followed by two weekends of musical strolls through the castle’s rooms. Hengelbrock is returning for a residency, and there are few more beautiful places to hear him.

Madeleine Béjart and Jean-Baptiste Poquelin in their later years, a troublesome family secret, and a dialogue that *La Montagne* described as «lively and very funny».

Three days of competition over the All Saints’ Day bank holiday, featuring everything from beginner ponies to professional riders. Free entry, and the perfect long weekend to take the children to see the horses.

Eleven stage costumes designed by Christian Lacroix, inspired by Marie-Antoinette, will be on display throughout the château’s tour route all summer. Included in the admission price.

Red sandstone grafted with dead wood collected in the forest: an installation featuring a video projection and shadow play. A free exhibition running for seven weeks.

A relaxing 35-minute stroll through the château's legendary gardens. Audioguide in 7 languages and breathtaking views of the Grand Parterre and the Grand Canal.

How Louis XVI reclaimed the image of the good King Henry IV on the eve of the Revolution. A special exhibition in the Saint-Louis rooms, included in the castle’s admission ticket.

Over 120 works, on loan from Versailles, the Louvre and the BnF, recounting the royal couple’s seven stays right here. The exhibition of the year, included in the price of admission to the château.