Le Petit Château de Barbizon au Bois du Mée

Set on the Chemin de Barbizon à Samois — the old forest road heading north out of the village — Le Petit Château sits at the boundary between the cultivated village and the wilder edges of the Fontainebleau forest. The name is apt: it is a proper château, small in the French tradition, with the ivy and red shutters and the slightly improbable facilities that make it feel like a discovery. Opening the shutters in the morning onto meadows and trees, as one guest put it, is like stepping into a Monet canvas.