10/29/2014
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| Chateau de Chantilly |
I knew I wanted to go to Chateau de Chantilly...I just didn't want to figure out how to get there, as it seemed really complicated, based on what other ppl were saying online. We put it off on Monday, then found out that it was closed on Tuesdays...so today was basically do or die.
So, we did.
Both the RER (D line) and the TER Picardie train goes to Chantilly. The RER sounded simpler, as we could just hop on from our vacation rental stop of Chatelet Les Halles and get off at Chantilly Grouvieux. However, after Aeroport Charles de Gaulle, the RER zones tap out. Anything after the CDG stop is out of the tariff zone, so we had no idea how to pay for the damn ticket.
The TER Picardie (France's regional train) starts at Gare du Nord, which meant we had to pay for the metro ticket to Gare du Nord, then purchase the regional train tickets. It's 8.40 euro/person/one-way, and it's only 2 stops away from Paris...though it's a loooong two stops. The journey takes 25 minutes and the train seats were pretty nice. I thought we were in first class, until Angel saw a sign that said it was 2nd class:
We drew out a map of how to walk to the chateau from the train station. People online said there's a bus, but it's unmarked so you'll have to figure out how to get on the bus. Some people shared taxis over to the chateau, but we decided to make the 30 minute trek through the countryside. The weather report said highs were going to be 60 degrees, with showers.
Of course, that didn't happen.
We dressed according to the weather report, in peacoats, scarves and mittens, and had our umbrellas with us. LOL the weather forecast was so wrong. As we were walking, Angel kept complaining how hot it was. She had to take off her overcoat, then her regular coat, then the hat came off. She was not a happy camper.
The scenery was very pretty though:
The walk takes you through the Chantilly Hippodrome (horse racetracks):
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| Where's the rain??? |
After clearing the forest and trees, you can see the Musee du Cheval (Chantilly's Horse Museum):
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| Musee du Cheval |
The Horse Museum, of course, was in the back of the Chantilly estate. Go figure. Every time we're in Europe, we somehow always manage to take the back way into the attractions. :T
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| The back of Chateau de Chantilly |
We had to buy the tickets in order to get into the Chantilly park. It's a vast estate, much like Versailles. It does have a hamlet, though it's converted to a restaurant now, not preserved like Marie Antoinette's.
Chateau de Chantilly served as a hunting lodge for royalty, so you can see a lot of hunting gear, artwork and statues in the castle. The entryway, for example, is guarded by dogs:
Angel: If you look closely you can see 3! =)
We were surprised on our walk over that we didn't encounter too many tourists. Off-tourist season? we guessed. But upon turning to the main entrance, you can see the big tour buses and lots of people walking in the distance. Haha we were just on the wrong side of the castle, I guess.
As we were admiring the castle's moat, a French guy passed us and asked if we wanted a picture together. So nice! It's a rarity that we have pictures together, as we haven't figured out the selfies system with our arms, and don't have that nifty rod all the Asian tourists are carrying around that extends the camera away from you, allowing you to take selfies effortlessly.
When we entered the castle (14 euros/person for entrance to the castle and parks, more if you want to see the special exhibits or Horse Museum), we found out that the audioguide was free. Seriously, peepz, take advantage. There were people walking around the castle without the audioguide--why wouldn't you take advantage of this free resource? The audioguide was entertaining and chock full of history--we learned so much in the 3.5 hours we were in the castle. The audioguide has a fast version and a more in-depth version, depending on what you want.
After you enter through the foyer (and what a lovely foyer it is, too--full of carved columns, capitals and gilded fleur de lys), you go into a small reception room where there's a lot of cabinets holding precious objects. Angel liked this jade column, an Oriental piece:
Off to one side of the reception room is the library. The castle has the largest private collection of books and artworks in France, aside from the Louvre. The last owner of the castle, the Duc d'Aumale, was a huge bibliophile. He loved books. He went all over Europe, going to auctions to obtain rare books of historical value. There were books from the 15th, 16th centuries in here, and one of the books here is considered to be the most beautiful manuscript of illuminations, the Tres Riches Heures.
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| The Library |
The duc d'Aumale had a very large collection of Illuminations (remember what the monks did at Mont St. Michel?):
Look how tiny this book is! It's smaller than Angel's pinkie!
One of the first rooms on the tour is completely gilded. My kind of room!
The duc d'Aumale loved to receive visitors here so that he could show off his vast collection of artwork. The way the audioguide tour is designed, it takes you through the rooms much as the Duc would have a hundred years ago. You start in the gilded room above, pass some other rooms of similar varieties, to enter the Battle Room, one of his favorite rooms. Upon his death, he bequeathed Chantilly to the government with the request that none of the artwork could be lended out and none of the artwork could be rearranged. So, the way the paintings are hung up now are exactly how they would have been displayed in the Duc's time.
The Battle Room:
Large portraits adorn the Battle Room, depicting victorious battle scenes, mostly of the House of Conde. The last prince of Conde was the duc d'Aumale's godfather, and when Conde died, he bequeathed Chateau de Chantilly and a large fortune to the young Duc. In today's money, the duc inherited over 200 million dollars!
So, the duc wanted to honor his godfather's family. One of his godfather's ancestors was the Great Conde, a prince of Conde (who owned Chantilly during his lifetime) who was renowned for his military prowess on the battlefield. He won victories for King Louis XIV, though later he sided against France in a war with Spain. When Spain was defeated, Louis XIV originally marked the Great Conde for death. However, he was later pardoned, and as a conciliatory gesture, the Great Conde commissioned this painting:
In the blue coat is the Great Conde himself, and the one wearing the white feather hat is King Louis XIV. The Great Conde faces away from us, to show his humbleness in the face of the king. Smart man. Suck up and get your life back.
In later life, he was plagued with gout. Sounds familiar? ^.^
I noticed one chair in particular:
I loved the damask fabric:
Turns out, this set of chairs was commissioned by Marie Antoinette, originally to be placed in Versailles. Who knows how it ended up here, but a lot of royal furniture has found its way to Chantilly.
Here's Angel, so enthralled with the audioguide that she put it on repeat:
Why, you may ask? Because she's a petty little child.
The story that had her so enthralled involved the majordomo to the Great Conde, Francois Vatel. The Great Conde had just regained favor with King Louis XIV, so he wanted to throw a huge party in honor of the king. Vatel was in charge of preparations. However, a string of mishaps occurred during the party:
On the first day, too many people came (unexpected guests, aka party crashers), so there wasn't enough roast to go around.
On the second day, a cloud covered the fireworks--and remember, fireworks were a big deal during this time, a recent transport from Italy that had the nobility enthralled.
On the third day, Vatel went to the kitchen to inventory the fish. But there was no fish in the kitchens. A storm on the coast had delayed shipments, though Vatel did not know this. Humiliated, Vatel went up to his room, wedged his sword through the door...and ran himself through the sword. His body was discovered when someone came upstairs to inform him that the fish had arrived. He became France's patron saint of cooks.
Angel: What honor. What pride in one's work. I don't see Jen making a move for the swords when her pastries go wrong. If she were in Vatel's place, she probably would've served the royal guests some pigeons she found outside. Dead, alive, half-eaten by scavengers...whatever.
Jen: Hey, pigeons were a status symbol cuz meat was rare...different decade, but still...
The room above is the dining hall where the Duc would eat and entertain his guests. Empress Sisi dined here when she was a guest. They used to do service a la Francais, which was a bitch, cuz you needed 3 servants/guest. The food would be on chafers at the center of the table, already ready for you once you enter the dining hall. Glasses, pitchers, mugs weren't allowed on the table, so whenever you wanted to drink something, you wave your hand and a servant would bring you a glass. You drink it, they take the cup away to be washed. The next time you want to drink something, a new glass would be brought.
Toward the end of the Duc's life, the fashionable service became a la Russe (Russian), where everyone is served at the same time, which is how restaurants serve you today.
Then we entered the gallery, where the Duc proudly displayed his art collection:
Here's one by Nicolas Proussin, the Massacre of Innocents:
Poussin painted this early in his career, as a way to gain attention. He went against popular methods of the time, and chose to use only 3 primary colors to paint this. The mother, with her mouth open in horror as her baby is being slaughtered, is in the center of the painting. Geometrically, her opened mouth is at the very center of the painting, and this technique is something Picasso would use some 300 years later.
One side of the gallery is covered in Italian Renaissance artwork. This is to honor the Duc's mother, who was a princess of Sicily. The other side is French artwork, to honor the Duc's father, King Louis-Philippe I.
There's Raphaels on display, like this one:
They didn't actually know this was a real Raphael, until restoration work uncovered this:
The small rectangle and the "133" actually belongs in Raphael's catalogue of works.
There was a bronze Japanese statue the duc acquired, which may have been used to heat the room or burn incense:
There are signs everywhere asking you to please not touch anything. Of course, the tour group from China ignores this, and an obasan poses beside it, kinda leaning against it with her hand, while her friend snaps away. Geesh, people. Have some respect!
The portrait room is where the Duc collected artwork of royalty, past and present (his present, not ours). There's portraits of his ancestors here, as well as Cardinal Richelieu, King Francis I, Henry III, Marie Stuart, Catherine de Medici.
...and Anne Boleyn:
Chantilly is known for its lace and whipped cream. Francois Vatel, the patron saint of cooks, is--incorrectly--credited with inventing the Creme Chantilly (French for whipped cream). Whipped cream was known at least a century before Vatel's time, just not known as Creme Chantilly. One speculation is that a baron enjoyed the whipped cream he ate at Hameau de Chantilly and he began to praise it/recommend it to people as the whipped cream of Chantilly.
They had Chantilly lace on display:
They're so fine! So intricate!
The Duc really liked Ingres works, so there's more than several dotting the castle walls. One depicts the story of a young woman who is betrothed to an old man. She falls in love with his younger brother. When her husband finds out, he runs them both through with his sword--you can see the old man pulling the curtain aside to spy on them on the right-hand side:
One of the main reasons I wanted to come here was that they were having a Botticelli exhibit. I didn't know until later that the exhibit costs extra. Turns out, a lot of the paintings in Chantilly were taken down...to be displayed in the Botticelli exhibit. Angel got a kick out of this:
All those little post-its notate that the corresponding painting was removed for the Botticelli exhibit.
Angel: As the Botticelli exhibit costs extra to enter, I am highly suspicious of the number of pieces of art missing from the regular exhibits for this "special exihbit." One would have thought they should've been included in the regular ticket, if they'd been hanging on the wall as they originally were...
When the duc d'Aumale was young, he traveled to Italy to meet his fiancee, a princess of Sicily. While there, the Italian dignitaries arranged an excavation for the young duc. You can see the picture of their excavation here:
What really happened is that some months before the duc was scheduled to arrive, they had the area dug up for artifacts. Then, when the duc came to visit, they placed the artifacts back in a way that the duc could easily find them...kinda like an Easter egg hunt for the nobility. So the artifacts lying around the picture are the artifacts the duc "dug up."
Angel: I feel like this painting (above) is the Waldo of "Where's Waldo in the French museum?" We saw it in another chateau on this trip, and Dad felt like he saw it in another museum on the previous trip.
Jen: The painting depicts King Louis-Philippe and his 5 sons riding horseback, after opening Versailles as a museum for all to enjoy. The young man on the furthest right is the young duc d'Aumale:
His father made such an impression on him with giving Versailles to the people, that he was inspired to do the same with Chantilly upon his death. Exactly one year after he died, Chantilly was opened to the public, according to his wishes, so that all may enjoy the artwork he so lovingly collected.
His father, Louis-Philippe, was forced to abdicate and go into exile in England during the Revolution of 1848. The duc d'Aumale went into exile in England as well, and stayed there for over 2 decades. His generosity to the French government finally made them concede the exile orders, and he was able to return to France for a time, though he died in Sicily. He had 7 children, 3 of which were stillborns. But all four children preceded him to death. When his first son died while abroad in Australia (the first in a royal family to ever visit Australia), his wife went into shocked depression and died shortly thereafter. The duc loved his wife and chose to remain a widower for the rest of his days. With his son's death, and him not marrying again, the title of the Prince of Conde died out too.
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| Miniature guns--Angel thought Dad would get a kick out of this |
Here's a Raphael of the Three Graces:
Angel: Jen's ogling after a (copy of the original) 9+ carat pink Duke diamond. The diamond was stolen in the 1920s by thieves, and oddly hid the diamond in an apple because they had trouble selling it off (it was too big and recognizable).
And there's even a portrait here of the assassination of the Duc of Guise:
Angel saw this painting and thought the man looked like a serial killer:
Turns out, it's a portrait of Bonaparte!
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| A lion hanging on the wall of the dining room |
The final stop of the tour is the chapel, where the hearts of duc d'Aumales' family are entombed (this is a practice dating from the Middle Ages, where they separate the heart from the body after death):
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| Lovely foyer |
There's a guided tour of the Duc's private residences (there's only one English-speaking tour every day at 3pm) that costs 3 euros/person. It was 2:55pm and I very excitedly went back to Angel to tell her this (I asked for the info from the ticket-checker lady). Angel replied: "I'd rather use the money to buy macarons." So we didn't go in.
As we exited, we saw the outside of the apartments, so I guess I saw a portion of the tour? :P
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| Exterior of the duc d'Aumale's private residence |
Baby was hungry by now (it was past 3pm), so she ate the McCafe's pistachio macaron she brought along:
Evidently, this is more important than a tour of the private residence:
The gardens and canals at Chantilly were designed by the famous Le Notre:
The Temple of Venus, in the gardens:
The English garden:
Leaving Chantilly :(
This was a very good tour and I wouldn't mind coming back one day. The train home was delayed by about 25 minutes, God knows why. Strike?
We were going to go home, but Angel wanted to go to the Bonaparte Pierre Herme to stock up for tomorrow's train ride to London. I told her I'd get off at Les Halles and go back to shower first, and she could go on to Pierre Herme, but she grabbed my arm and wouldn't let go. I told her the money we save on my metro ticket could go toward her macaron. Baby pouted and said that she'd tell Mom that I sacrificed her safety all to save 1.37 euros (the price of a carnet metro ticket). It was dark by now, but really? You little brat!
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