Chantilly, France: Two palaces - one for people and one for horses

Once again I am continuing my travelogue about my trip to France from last September. The last full day we were in Paris, I wanted to visit a palace. Most Americans I know would have suggested visiting Versailles for that purpose, but I chose Chantilly instead.

Chantilly is an hour north of Paris and to get there without a car, you must use the train system. That meant we had to plan our day carefully by studying the various schedules. We took the RER and traveled to Gare du Nord, there we had to find the Grande Ligne level (upstairs) and purchase tickets to the RER Line D to Chantilly/Gouvieux station.

After wandering aimlessly around the station for a little bit, we found where we needed to be in time to make our connection without having to wait too long. Once we arrived in the train station in Gouvieux we walked to the grounds at Chantilly. It took us about half an hour to get to the park, but we timed ourselves to know how much time we should allot for our return walk to the train station later that day.

One of the reasons I chose Chantilly over Versailles, was not only the idea of not having to fight enormous crowds of tourists, but this palace is also a premier tourist attraction for equestrians.

There are horses throughout my story, so I liked the idea of visiting the Musée Vivant du Cheval.




According to Chantilly's website:

The architect Jean Aubert was commissioned by Louis-Henri de Bourbon, 7th Prince of Condé, to build the grand stables. Legend has it that the prince thought he would be reincarnated as a horse, so he wanted stables that would reflect the majesty of his rank. Thanks to him, France boasts an architectural masterpiece of the 18th century.

That means there was also palace built for horses, and it is impressive. Here you can see the distance between the two palaces, separated by a dense clump of trees and a pond. It may have been constructed that way to avoid the smell of hundreds of horses nearby (and the accompanying amount of manure.)



Here is the horse "barn" itself. The picture was taken from a distance in order for its magnitude to be comprehended. To the left you can see the white plumes of tents where a riding competition was taking place that day.



To see the layout of the horse museum, you can find that here.

The courtyard rivaled the one we saw at the Louvre.


Inside is a staging area where the horses are brought out and shown to the public. Our timing was bad that day and we did not catch one of the demonstrations, but it still was incredible to see where they performed.



Overlooking the round, you can see the grand dedication to the man who had this edifice created, Louis Henri de Bourbon, the seventh prince of Condé.


Given the amount of material wealth concentrated not only in the palatial estate, but the horse compound, it is understandable why this was attacked by the peasants during the French Revolution. If I had been struggling to survive, I would feel offended by the opulence displayed at the Chateau de Chantilly.

In the horse museum you not only see stalls filled with beautiful animals, but art exhibits dedicated to all things related to horses. There are rooms filled with horses from carousels, saddles and spurs, as well as paintings and drawings of horses.

I even found examples of Bayardo, the legendary horse in the Matters of France owned by Rinaldo.

These paintings are by Robert Ladou. Here you can see a bay colored horse nudging four warriors. That in and of itself does not conclusively say that it must be Bayardo, but ...



This painting shows all four brothers on the horse's back. That is part of the mythology of Bayardo in the story Quarte Fils d'Aymon (the Four Sons of Aymon.)



Bayardo would magically expand in order to accommodate all four brothers: Rinaldo, Alardo, Guicciardo and Ricciardo (AKA Ricciardetto).

I was thrilled to find this painting and it happened to be the one of the few representations I found during my trip to France depicting showing the legends of Charlemagne. I saw books on the legends of Arthur, but precious little about the legends of Charlemagne. I found that curious and disappointing.

The museum also had some models of warriors on horseback. Here is their Charlemagne.


And here is Clovis. (I apologize for the fuzziness, but the lighting was not as optimal as I would have liked.)


In the same room was a drawing of Joan of Arc. (One again, I apologize for the light but this was the best I could capture.)


After we finished our tour of the , we were famished. There are a few restaurants to choose from at Chantilly and after looking at the various menus, we settled on La Table des Lions which is a bit of a walk outside the park proper.

The food was wonderful. The best meal we had in Paris, even though technically we were not in Paris.

Scott remembers having French onion soup and trout. I had beef with a wine reduction sauce.

Then I remember splurging on dessert. Knowing my preferences, it was probably something chocolate. It was also the first time that I succumbed to temptation and had wine with lunch, even though my husband had done that since the first day we arrived in France. This food deserved having the accompaniment of wine for its flavors to be fully appreciated.

After a grand lunch, we set out to see the chateau itself.

The day was cool and overcast, which is something we had become accustomed to in Paris. I was glad I had worn a sweater and brought my jacket for we were walking outdoors for most of the day. Here you can an equestrian statue prominently displayed between the chateau and its extensive gardens.



Here is another view of the chateau.



Here are the manicured gardens behind the chateau.


Inside the chateau is an art gallery which has an extensive collection including three paintings by Raphael.



After touring the parts of the chateau that were open to the public, we were soon checking our watches to determine when should head back to town and catch our train. It had been a long wonderful day.

Here I am next to a sphinx, feeling a bit tired, and squinting into the hazy sunlight. That leg of our journey was almost over and the next day we would be headed towards the sunny south of France.

Bonne Chance France en Coupe du Monde de Rugby!

Before the game begins, I wanted to go on the record and wish the French national team good luck in their match today against Argentina in the second to last match in the Rugby World Cup.

I will admit that I do not understand much about the game of Rugby, but after being in France during September I was surrounded by Rugby Fever.

We were in Paris the night of the first match which was France versus Argentina in Saint Dennis at the Stade de France. The energy was palpable. We heard horns blaring from rugby fans as France scored, and later we did not hear any more cheering. I took that as an ominous silence.

After returning to our hotel room we caught the end of the game and realized why we had not heard any more jubilant cheers. France was behind. They never caught up. The first game that opened the Rugby World Cup had the host country France losing.

I found that to be sad.

During my stay in France I had the opportunity to watch many of the rugby games and found it far more exciting than American football games. It is brutal, the game hardly ever stops, and no one wears padding or helmets.

I watched in amazement to see multiple passes, tackles followed by multiple passes and more tackles without the game being stopped. There would be pauses in the play, but definitely not like American football where there is more time waiting for the play to happen than the plays happening. American football constantly is stopped with each tackle or incompleted pass with officials regularly coming out to the field and measuring whether or not sufficient yardage was achieved. Rugby you just keep playing. To me, that is far more exciting and I wish that the game were played more in the U.S. than it is.

One thing that I do not understand are the fouls. The game itself looks so violent that it was surprising when no fouls seemed to be called due to physical contact that in at least basketball would be considered a personal foul. Later when a foul was called I could not recognize what had happened that was necessitated its being called that had not been needed before.

I can understand the appeal to watching rugby as a sport more than I can soccer (also known as non-American football.) That game is not as appealing since the scores are so low. I do not find it as exciting to just watch people run around the field. In rugby, they are not only running, they are tackling.

As I watched the French team, my eyes were drawn to one player. Whenever he was on the field I watched him and not the ball. That player? Sebastian Chabal.

He may not be the best rugby player, for he does not seem to have the stamina to play for the entire eighty minutes of the game, but he is the most captivating. I could almost smell the pheromones rolling off of him.

I watched him score in the game against Namibia and he simply would not allow himself to be tackled by his opponents. He plowed through them as if they were children and not full grown men.

He was amazing.

I was not alone in finding him irresistable. Some of the television commentators gushed about Chabal and said that he was a national hero. They also showed how YouTube videos were now springing up paying homage to the him.

Here are a couple of examples of Chabal in action on YouTube.
My current favorite

Example Two
and example three


His shoulder length hair, full beard, and fierce demeanor led commentators to spend a lot of their discussion about Chabal's looks. One said something about his dreadlocks.

Umm, no. He does not have dread locks. He has sweat locks. In other words, his hair may only look like they are fasioned in dread locks but that is due to his sweat.

He was also refered to as a Gallic caveman. There are even T-shirts for sale with Chabal as a Caveman.






I am sorry, but I categorically disavow using the Cave Man Icon to describe Sebastian Chabal.

No, no, noooooooo.

Think tribal chieftain, or my personal preference is Frankish warrior.

I knew that going to France would help me to finish my novel, but I did not expect that watching a sporting event would cause me to rethink my characterizations. My mental image of Orlando is now Sebastian Chabal.

I would not be surprised if Chabal is cast in upcoming movies, because he is so eye catching. Hollywood? Give him a call. He speaks English and contrary to what sports commentators would like you to believe, he's sounds intelligent as well as a fierce athlete.

The other aspect of my story was influenced by my physiologic response I felt in watching him. I realize now that after a major victory in war that women might respond similarly to those who proved themselves worthy on the field of battle. I am not talking about conquered women, but instead the women who were on the side of the victorious army. This led me to rethink a scene that I had written with Rinaldo and I added a chamber maid wanting to show her gratitude and avail herself of his powerful energy.

It changed what to me had been just a transitional scene into one that revealing character and human nature. It also shows once again that the image of the Chivalric Ideal is something few if any warriors ever lived up to, if they even tried. The scene has now come alive in ways I would not have expected.

Thank you Chabal, and bonne chance France!



Edited to Add: Unfortunately Argentina won again 34-10. :Hangs head in sorrow.:

Yes, I am officially a Francophile.