Chalet de la Caverne des Brigands

The Caverne des Brigands has a better origin story than most forest restaurants. In 1844, Claude-François Denecourt — the man who invented the marked trails of Fontainebleau — paid the keeper of a small forest buvette to dig a cave into the rock. He then invented a gang of brigands to go with it, adding a frisson of danger to his guided excursions for wealthy Parisian and English tourists. The cave outlasted the fiction. The buvette grew into a restaurant, the brigands faded into legend, and the chalet has been feeding hikers, climbers, and day-trippers ever since.