What to Do in Chantilly

I suspect this post will be Part One out of Two to talk about what to do in Chantilly because we plan to go back with the children. I will give you a pictorial tour of the two places we visited this time around, and mention a few more that we plan to see next time we go. That way you won’t miss a thing!

First, there’s the Domaine de Chantilly, which includes the 115 hectare park, the château, and the Grandes Ecuries – the large stables, which are now a huge equestrian museum.

It was raining when we visited, and between that, and getting sidetracked in the annual Journée des Plantes, we did not visit the park, which has French, English and Chinese gardens.

I didn’t realise what this was when we went, but this wall and gate here house the equestrian museum.

Here is the view of the gate connected to the equestrian museum from inside the city

And here is the back entrance to the equestrian museum, which was as far as we got. We’ll return and see the interior – hopefully along with one of its famous equestrian performances – when we return with the children.

But let’s take a look at the château, which we did see. The Petit Château (a portion of the whole) was constructed in the 16th century.

The rest of the château was built in the 19th century for the fifth son of the reigning King Louis-Philippe 1 (the last king of France) – Henri d’Orleans, Duke of Aumale.

Here’s a look inside the Petit Château portion.

Its more impressive feature (to me) is the library. The duke was a well-read man.

With an expensive (tiny) religious relic held under protective glass.

Here’s standing on the landing of the stairwell, whose railing you’re asked not to touch. I wonder why …

When we go up, I think we’re in the dining room directly, if my memory serves me correctly.

The table is very low, showing just how much we’ve gotten taller over the centuries.

Now, I’m not sure exactly where the old château ends and the reconstruction begins, but to the right is the art gallery, with the oldest paintings in France, apart from the Louvre.

There are the Grand Apartments – the gilded public rooms,

such as the music room

and the monkey room. (Apparently, that’s a thing)

There’s also a stained glass gallery, which we saw across the courtyard when eating at La Capitainne.

Finally, there are the private bedrooms, where you see family portraits, and paintings of the Duke’s exploits in Algeria.

(I took this picture because I’m studying up on the Regency period – I want to write a novel set in that time period and his dress was just perfect. He’s even got the knee breeches and would be allowed entry into Almack’s).

So that’s the château. I didn’t put up all the photos – you can thank me for that – but that’s only because I also wanted to share with you the Potager des Princes which is within walking distance of the château, nestled inside the town of Chantilly. This is the perfect place to bring kids.

Potager is pronounced poe-tah-jay and means “vegetable garden.” This park was bought in 2000 by the Biennaimé family and was restored without government subvention and opened for the public. Here are some of the gems.

There’s the chicken symphony.

The chickens peck grains on drums and cymbals to the tune of a loud classical arrangement. The kids can touch the chickens afterwards.

There are also the races. A place where a horse race is held is called a hippodrome. So what do you do when the race is for rabbits instead of horses?

You have a lapinodrome!

And the kids can pet the rabbits too.

There are peacocks, swans and duck, goats that the kids can feed …

And then there are the gardens.

One of the things the family did was to restore the old theatre, which is where Molière played Tartuffe (considered too risquée for the general population).

It looks unassuming, but this little piece of perfection holds puppet shows and sundry other shows throughout the year.

Come with your kids, or come because you love gardens.

“The garden is the purest form of art created for human pleasure.”

And that’s it. A visit to the château and the potager, with the determination to come back and visit the horse museum, the hamlet that inspired Marie Antoinette’s in Versailles, the lace museum, and I think I remember reading that you could take a mini river cruise on the Nonette, which rejoins the Seine. Not sure about the latter. But this should give you plenty of ideas for visiting Chantilly, whether it’s with the entire family, or en amoreux.

If you’d like to know where to eat and sleep while in Chantilly, check out my post here where I talk about just that. If you’re visit coincides with the Journée des Plantes each October, you can also read more about that here.

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