Photo : Jebulon / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
Château de Chantilly
The Château de Chantilly, in the Oise, is reflected in its sheets of water. A medieval fortress already stood there in the fourteenth century; the Montmorency family acquired it in 1484, then the princes of Condé made it their main residence from 1643 to 1830. Louis II de Bourbon-Condé, the Grand Condé, had the estate laid out there after 1659 and entrusted the gardens to André Le Nôtre, who notably designed the Grand Canal, 2.5 kilometres long. Writers such as La Fontaine and Bossuet were received there.
The Revolution destroyed the Grand Château between 1793 and 1799. The Duke of Aumale, who inherited the estate in 1830, had it rebuilt by the architect Honoré Daumet between 1876 and 1882, to house his art collection. In 1897, he bequeathed the whole to the Institut de France on condition that the place become a museum and that the works not be moved: this is the origin of the Musée Condé, whose paintings, drawings, manuscripts and works of art remain hung as in the nineteenth century.
The estate covers 115 hectares of gardens and includes the Grandes Écuries, 186 metres long, which house the Living Horse Museum. The visit combines interiors, collections and a walk in the park.
