On the road to Orléans, just outside Fontainebleau, an unassuming gate marks the entrance to the Grand Parquet. There is nothing to suggest what lies beyond it 26 hectares of tracks, stables and grandstands, nor that the venue hosts 380,000 spectators a year. It is the second most popular attraction in the town after the castle.
What a horseman sees there, what a walker sees there
The main pitch, which gave the site its name, is 12,000 square metres of grass and its stands have 1,125 seats, including 17 for people with reduced mobility. Surrounding it, seven other sand tracks bear names that sound like a forest map: the Petit Parquet, the Carrière des Princes, O’Delant, the Puits du Cormier, Diane, the Spring Garden and the Rond d’Havrincourt. The stables field 237 permanent boxes. To a rider, it is a state-of-the-art training facility that met Olympic standards and served as a training centre for the 2024 Games. To a passer-by, it is above all horses, open space, and the Forest of Fontainebleau which starts at the far end of the car park.
Around thirty events a year, often free of charge
This is what residents are most often unaware of: You can watch a good number of the competitions without paying. You can spend a Sunday in October watching an eventing competition – from pony club level right through to the professional level – without spending a single euro. The calendar runs from Spring Equestrian Sports from April’s Grande Semaine de l’élevage to the end of August, including the show jumping events. The upcoming dates are listed at the bottom of this page.
The horse isn’t kept every weekend
The site also rents out its spaces for all sorts of other purposes. The exhibitors’ village area, 10,000 square metres Capable of accommodating five restaurants and over one hundred and fifty stalls, it has already hosted autumn flea markets, a plant and garden fair, a beach rugby tournament on artificial sand, exhibitions and canicross races. For families from Bellifontaine, this is often the easiest opportunity to visit the site.
Six rooms and a terrace overlooking the main pitch
For business purposes, the Grand Parquet offers five meeting rooms ranging from 25 to 69 square metres and a 200-square-metre plenary hall, with an adjoining professional kitchen and a 165-square-metre terrace overlooking the main pitch. A restaurant is open on site on event days. For a seminar just forty minutes from Paris, the selling point isn’t the venue itself, but the view from the window.
Getting there and parking
The site is on the RN 152, the Orléans road, in the same corridor as Fontainebleau Golf Club and not far from the Solle racecourse. Parking is never a problem here, which is quite a change from the city centre: the Salamandre car park can accommodate 1,500 vehicles, the Polygone car park 400, and the Montmorillon car park, 500 metres away, has up to 5,000 spaces on busy days. If you’re heading straight on to the city centre, our guide to parking in Fontainebleau takes over. Riders travelling from afar often stay in town, for example in the La Carpe d’Or hotel, a ten-minute drive away.
Opening hours and contact
Open Monday to Sunday from 8.30 am to 5 pm, with extended opening hours on competition days. Free admission to most events; disabled access to the stands and auditoriums.
RN 152, Route d’Orléans, 77300 Fontainebleau. Telephone: 01 64 23 42 87. Email: [email protected].
