Sentier de la Cavalière des Brigands

Legend has it that the Caverne des Brigands sheltered thieves under Louis XV. In fact it was Claude-François Denecourt who had it dug in the mid-1840s and invented the legend to give Parisian walkers a romantic thrill. Denecourt understood before anyone else that the Fontainebleau forest could be told as much as walked, and he shaped it accordingly: marking trails, imagining stories, naming rocks. The trail, which follows a cavalière along a rocky ridge, remains one of the most pleasant in the Barbizon sector, with its timber and sandstone erosion works and its views over the platières.