Tour Denecourt

Saturday
A frustrating day today, looking for a new living room suite, but without success. I would not have chosen to try and replace our current one in France, but it is on its last legs, creaking and groaning whenever you sit on it or get up - the three-seater settee at any rate, the two- seater and the armchair aren't quite as bad. By the time we returned home and had a cup of tea, it was late in the afternoon, but we both wanted to get out for at least a bit of exercise, so we drove to the Croix de Toulouse and went for a walk up to Tour Denecourt. Here's a bit of information about it:
"Built in 1851 by C. F. Denecourt , the tower was inaugurated on 23 November 1853 by Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie . It collapsed in 1878 following an earthquake, and was rebuilt by Claude-Charles Colinet through public subscription. Back in the early 1800s, the few printed tourist guides for the Forest of Fontainebleau area focused on the Royal Chateau of Fontainebleau, treating the forest and nearby village of Barbizon as afterthoughts. Denecourt was to change all that, by writing a number of illustrated tourist books and self-guided walking maps that appealed to the Parisian masses hoping to escape the hot and crowded city for a day. He then progressed to not only writing about the area but laying out himself paths in the forest, which he marked with blue arrows painted on trees and boulders. At his death, there were 150 km of well marked trails throughout the forest, which remain to this day, still bearing the blue markers, and bearing the name "Denecourt - Colinet ", Colinet (1839-1905), being Denecourt's successor."