It happened on 18 September
The man who looked after the castle
Albert Bray was born in Moret-sur-Loing on 24 March 1884. He entered the service of the Palace of Fontainebleau in 1919, He became chief architect in 1922, then curator of the national estate in 1930. He died in Fontainebleau on 18 September 1959.
During the Occupation, Day after day, he kept a diary of what was happening at the castle. It is held at the Seine-et-Marne Archives.
Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, the castle will be open free of charge as part of Heritage Days. We visit monuments. We rarely think about the people who keep them standing between visits.
The day Scotland narrowly said ‘no’
On 18 September 2014, the Scottish people answered a short question: «Should Scotland be an independent country?»
No to 55.3 %, yes to 44.7 %. With a turnout of 84.6 %, the highest ever recorded in Scotland for a national election since women were granted the right to vote in 1918.
The ‘no’ vote wins in twenty-eight of the thirty-two local authorities of the country.
Napoleon establishes the Paris Fire Brigade
On 18 September 1811, An imperial decree establishes the Paris Fire Brigade, the direct predecessor of today’s brigade.
Until then, the capital had relied on civilian fire brigade volunteers.
Two centuries later, It is always members of the armed forces who put out the fires in Paris.
Every FridayA week a hundred years ago
Every Friday, we feature the issue that local residents were reading exactly one hundred years ago.
According to The Fontainebleau Bee, a weekly magazine founded in 1835.
Issue of Friday 17 September 1926
We were talking about the sub-prefecture; the court is moving to
The week before, The Fontainebleau Bee ran the headline, followed by a question mark: «Is the Fontainebleau Court to be abolished?» Seven days later, the same newspaper had the answer, and reported it without comment.
«The decrees reducing the number of courts and sub-prefectures have just been published.”. The court and the sub-prefecture of Fontainebleau have been officially abolished. »Three lines of local news, squeezed in between a report on a discount on tickets for the horse show and the list of new deputy justices of the peace.".
The whole town had fought for the sub-prefecture. The town council had passed a resolution at an extraordinary meeting, the newspaper had campaigned vigorously, and local shopkeepers had been concerned. No one had mentioned the court. It was issued on the same day, as part of the same batch of decrees, and is mentioned in just a single sentence.
Fontainebleau is not alone. In Seine-et-Marne, Coulommiers is also losing its sub-prefecture. Throughout France, Two hundred and twenty-seven district courts are being abolished all at once, in the name of the economies.
Justice will be served soon: The Acts of 1929 and 1930 re-established almost all the courts that had been abolished in 1926. As for the borough, it would have to wait until 1988.
One digital sign per hotel, and there you have the traffic updates
The Tourist Information Office met on 10 September and adopted a proposal: in every hotel in the town, a blackboard near the till. Tourists would note down sections of road in poor condition; hoteliers would report these on a weekly basis; and the Tourist Board would keep an up-to-date road map on display outside its information office. Road information provided by users and updated every week. In chalk.
At the Grand Parquet, the forest lends its name to the events
The horse show takes centre stage Friday 17th, Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th September at the Grand Parquet racecourse, with a number of entries that the newspaper considers particularly high this year. The races are called the Prix de la Croix d’Augas, the Prix du Mont-Ussy and the Prix de la Table du Roi: the programme reads like a map of the forest. A coach leaves from Place Denecourt at 1.30 pm; there is only one departure. General admission: 2 francs. Military personnel: 1 franc.