I am so tired tonight; I ache all over; "Knackered," as my sister would say. We walked about seven miles today, and that is a lot for me. Plus, jet lag.
Our first day in France, 2019. My husband and I flew overnight from Minneapolis to Charles de Gaulle airport, picked up a car (an Alfa Romeo SUV!!) and drove to Chantilly, about 30 minutes north of Paris. Once there, we headed off to Chantilly's #1 attraction, the château de Chantilly, for lunch, art appreciation and exploration of its gardens. It rained on and off, all day, but we spent most of it outside. Our hotel room would not be ready for us until after 3 PM so we had to keep moving.
I had hoped to have lunch at Le Captainerie, but was unable to get a reservation, so instead we wandered out to the restaurant in Chantilly's charming hameau--a rustic village in miniature--and had a very pleasant meal of duck confit and creme de chantilly on an apple tart.
We admired the fantastic art collection, full of treasures. I spent the most time in one gallery lined with grisaille windows telling the story of Cupid and Psyche. These were done for Écouen in 1544, and transferred to Chantilly. The library had an extraordinary display of illuminated manuscripts.
Finally, we walked back to our hotel, checked in and crashed. An excellent first day, in any case.
My phone was low on power so I took only a few photos.
Image 1: The view from my plane window at dawn. France was covered in clouds.
Image 2: The Great Stables in front of a huge cumulonimbus storm cloud. Built between 1719-1740 for the 7th Prince de Condé, the stables--a palace for horses--astonish me. Imagine spending so much on stables for horses!! According to legend, the Prince believed he would be reincarnated as a horse and wanted stables befitting his rank; hardly an explanation. In his day, the stables housed 240 horses and 500 dogs grouped into the different packs needed for the daily hunts. Today it is a museum of Horses with daily horse shows.
Image 3: The chateau seen across its lake. The lower building is the petite château, the only part of the château spared by the Revolution. Most of what we tour today was built in the 19th century.
Image 4, 5 & 6: The mill at the hameau, the interior of the restaurant, the hameau in its setting. The hameau, hamlet, originally consisted of seven rustic thatched cottages with luxurious interiors, and was evidently the inspiration for Marie Antoinette's better known hameau at Versailles. Set in a garden, each cottage served to entertain--a kitchen, a dining room, a parlour, a billiards room, a reading room. The luxurious interiors and two of the cottages did not survive the Revolution, but the rest were restored by the Duke Aumale when he returned to Chantilly in 1870. He celebrated holidays here.
Image 7: The lake. Everything is quite golden right now, in full fall colors. My camera has not done the colors justice.
Image 8: The art gallery. When the Duke Aumale died in 1879, his estate was left to the Institute de France on condition that the art galleries be left as he had arranged them. So this gallery takes us back to 19th century practice.
Image 9: the Cupid and Psyche gallery. These windows are worth taking time to appreciate so subtle and yet so complex.
Image 10: costumes for little visitors to better appreciate the site.