Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [273]
Enviably situated 48km north of Paris, this elegant old town (population 11,200) is small, select and spoilt. Its chateau sits in a sea of parkland, gardens, lakes and forest packed with walking opportunities; its race track is one of those prestigious hat-and-frock addresses in Europe; and that deliciously sweetened thick crème called Chantilly was created here. Given its large and lively English community (the town has its own Anglican church, vicar, tearoom, cricket club etc), it’s thoroughly apt that Chantilly is twinned with the horse-racing town of Epsom in Surrey.
Château de Chantilly ( 03 44 27 31 80; www.chateaudechantilly.com; adult/under 18yr €9/free; chateau 10am-6pm Wed-Mon Mar-Oct, 10.30am-5pm Wed-Mon Nov-Mar, park 10am-6pm Wed-Mon), left in a shambles after the Revolution, is of interest mainly because of its beautiful gardens and collection of superb paintings. It consists of two attached buildings, entered through the same vestibule. Admission includes unlimited strolling around the chateau’s vast gardens and a visit of the chateau interior, richly adorned with paintings (look out for the Raphaël and Delacroix), 16th-century stained glass, porcelain, lace and tapestries. Pricier combination tickets, available April to November, include a boat or mini-train ride adult/under 18 years (€14/3) or both (€19/6); a ticket covering just park and ride costs adult/under 18 years €10/3.
The Petit Château was built around 1560 for Anne de Montmorency (1493–1567), who served six French kings as connétable (high constable), diplomat and soldier and died while fighting Protestants during the Counter-Reformation. The highlight of a visit is the Cabinet des Livres in the Appartements des Princes (Princes’ Suites), a repository of 700 manuscripts and over 30,000 volumes, including a Gutenberg Bible and a facsimile of the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, an illuminated manuscript dating from the 15th century that illustrates the calendar year for both the peasantry and the nobility. The chapel, to the left as you walk into the vestibule, has woodwork and stained-glass windows dating from the mid-16th century and was assembled by the duke of Aumale in 1882.
The attached Renaissance-style Grand Château, completely demolished during the Revolution, was rebuilt by the duke of Aumale, son of King Louis-Philippe, from 1875 to 1885. It forms the Musée Condé, a series of unremarkable 19th-century rooms adorned with paintings and sculptures haphazardly arranged according to the whims of the duke – he donated the chateau to the Institut de France on the condition the exhibits were not reorganised and would be open to the public. The most remarkable works, hidden in the Sanctuaire, include paintings by Raphael, Filippino Lippi and Jean Fouquet.
The chateau’s stunning but long-neglected gardens were once among France’s most spectacular. The formal Jardin Français (French Garden), whose flowerbeds, lakes and Grand Canal were laid out by Le Nôtre in the mid-17th century, is northeast of the main building. To the west, the ‘wilder’ Jardin Anglais (English Garden) was begun in 1817. East of the Jardin Français is the rustic Jardin Anglo-Chinois (Anglo-Chinese Garden), created in the 1770s. Its foliage and silted-up waterways surround the Hameau, a mock village dating from 1774 whose mill and half-timbered buildings inspired the Hameau de la Reine at Versailles.
The chateau’s Grandes Écuries (Grand Stables), built between 1719 and 1740 to house 240 horses and over 400 hounds, are next to Chantilly’s famous Hippodrome (racecourse), inaugurated in 1834. Today the stables house the Musée Vivant du Cheval ( 03 44 27 31 80; www.museevivantducheval.fr; Grandes Écuries, rue du Connétable; adult/4-17yr €9/7; 10.30am-6.30pm Mon & Wed-Fri, 10.30am-7pm Sat & Sun Apr-Oct, 2-6pm Mon & Wed-Fri, 10.30am-6.30pm Sat & Sun Nov-Mar), whose 30 pampered and spoiled equines live in luxurious wooden stalls built by Louis-Henri de Bourbon, the seventh Prince de Condé, who was convinced he would be reincarnated as a horse (hence the