Forest leisure space, public-owned but high-quality space cannot be privately purchased (this is the case for the state-owned forests round Paris, Fontainebleau for example). But this space is threatened by overcrowding and by its being opened to all social categories. The elite which is the biggest consumer of space has attempted to use all kinds of strategies and tactic to retain the privilege of the use of these woods. These tactics and their appearance in a given historical context, the link between the social practice of the most elitist users of these woods and the conception the bodies whose rôle is to organize and plan leisure have of their task are the subjects of this study. The Forest of Fontainebleau attracted our attention particularly because it is typical of the ideal of the Leisure-Forest in the Paris area.
