Sentiers
The Forest of Fontainebleau is the second largest national forest in France and was a source of inspiration for many famous French Impressionist painters during the mid-nineteenth century and some of the earliest known landscape photographs. A portion of the forest was set aside specifically for artists in 1861 as the first nature preserve in history.
The Forest of Fontainebleau's trails, or "sentiers," were the world’s first marked hiking paths, crafted by Claude-François Denecourt. These sinuous routes offer more than just a walk through nature; they provide a curated visual experience. Denecourt’s work, from guidebooks to constructed monuments and underground passages, was a manipulation of the landscape designed to appear "natural," marking the birth of nature tourism. This blending of the natural with the constructed, the seen with the sensed, captivates me and fuels my desire to delve deeper into the layers of this enchanting and historically rich forest.