Day 3: Chantilly

After another yummy Hotel Ibis breakfast, on Wednesday we headed home. Our only stop was the Château de Chantilly in Chantilly, France. It's comprised of two adjacent buildings. The Grand Château was destroyed in the Revolution and rebuilt in the 1870s, and the Petit Château was built around 1560. It was very charming--we liked it even more than Versailles because it wasn't nearly as touristy. There was hardly anyone there that day besides our group.
Despite the looming clouds, it was actually a beautiful day.

The separate stables, home to hundreds of horses and even a horse museum!
This is a mosaic from Pompeii, 1st century AD. It's very rare because most of them aren't in color. Cool, huh? Some of this stuff they lend out to museums, but the Duke that lived here brought all kinds of stuff here and requested that none of it leave after he died.
The chandeliers were gorgeous.
The "singerie," or monkey room, one of only five such rooms left in the world. Apparently they were all the rage back in the day when people loved anything exotic. Like the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry that we saw at the Cluny Museum, it portrays the five senses. Our tour guide was super nice...he pretty much risked his job by letting us chill in this room. They usually don't let people stop here. And he didn't speak English, so I felt important translating for people who couldn't understand.
More of the monkey room.
A beautiful bedroom with beautiful chairs.

This harp is "very precious," our tour guide told us. You can say that again! Not only is it b's old, it's covered in real gold leaf!
A big hall with paintings of military victories, similar to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, but with paintings instead of mirrors...and smaller.
We spent quite a while walking around the gardens and grounds. They're beautiful, and huge!
The Island of Love...there was also a cute gazebo with a statue in the middle but it was covered.

With Sarah and Rochelle, Emma's roommate. I felt very tall in this picture. :)
Looking out over the gardens.
Yay for horse statues!

Yay for dog statues! There were lots of those, and paintings of hunting dogs attacking, too. And of guys with their dogs. I thought of you, Dad. But it is a hunting lodge, after all. There's a room called the stag room that puts Gaston to shame. They use antlers in all of their decorating!
I know this is like the 50th picture of the outside, but I saw this one that someone else took on Facebook and had to include it. I also distinctly remember taking pictures of the library but they disappeared. It was really cool...two levels with chairs up top, coats of arms all around the ceiling...more Beauty and the Beast flashbacks. :) I spent a while in there drooling over the 13,000 books and 700 manuscripts, including a copy of the Duke of Berry's Book of Hours, and listening to Dr. Welch expound on the teachings of St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, whose works were featured prominently. Very cool castle! It was my favorite stop on our trip.
I added some pictures to the last two posts if you're interested. Also happy birthday to Robby and welcome home, Doris!