The lady wife and I are on our usual summer holiday in Burgundy right now. We drove down from England on Thursday and Friday, and on the way I paid my first visit to Golf de Fontainebleau, one of France's elite clubs. About an hour south of Paris, the Fontainebleau club dates from 1909 and is located in the former royal forest (now owned by the French state). Tom Simpson built the overwhelming majority of today's course, though three holes were added by Fred Hawtree in the 1960s. It has been remarkably little changed; you can see the outlines of Simpson's original bunker shapes, though they are very eroded.
I have a few photos of the first four holes, before my battery packed up, and will add them when I can (internet access is sketchy here). The place has a fairly severe (extremely severe in some places) tree problem, which is tough to fix as the club officially needs permission from the national park authorities to cut any of them down, especially the old oaks (there are trees with plaques on them indicating their age and the name of the king reigning at that time -- one, for example, says it dates from 1590, the reign on Henri IV, the Huguenot king who converted to Catholicism in order to ascend the throne, saying 'Paris vaut bien une messe' - Paris is well worth a mass). It is too close to the right of one hole. But even I wouldn't argue for the felling of a 430 year old tree in these circumstances!
I had heard from various sources in French golf that Fontainebleau was top class, in need of TLC perhaps, but clearly the greatest opportunity in French golf. But I wasn't prepared for how good it was. The first hole is a 300 metre par four, with beautiful original carry bunkers cut into a rise, not really in play now but still spectacular. The fairway contours are as humpy as a great links, and the green has wondrous contours. The second, a great par three. The great holes continue.
It's magnificent, though not in the best of condition -- there are quite a lot of fairway areas lacking in grass, though this is partly because they have turned off the water in an attempt to start a species transition -- they are slit seeding fescue into fairways.
My list of top European courses starts with Morfontaine to be followed by Royal Hague. I may have to change that list -- Fontainebleau is that good.