FRANCE | Château de Chantilly

Every year my boyfriend Sam and I gift each other a weekend away as a birthday gift. This year my birthday in September was during our Cruise to the Norwegian Fjords, thus my boyfriend decided to plan my ‘birthday present trip‘ in the month of December 2024. While first looking at Germany and some of its Christmas markets, often hotels where really busy and in the end we stumbled upon a nice getaway in Chantilly, France.

As we were staying at the nearby Mercure Chantilly we of course had to visit the castle and it’s grounds. Being one of the more known castles of France and of course the birthplace of the famous ‘crème de Chantilly’ this was a no-brainer.

The castle is located in a spectacular location with a moat surrounding it, making it very picturesque.

We had the luck that we enjoyed a private tour of the private princely apartments as no one else was booked in the same tour, enabling us to access spaces they normally didn’t visit due to the constrained size.

We had a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide that taught us lots about the history of the castle and the rooms. We also learned that the last owner gifted the property to the Institut de France after his death (as he had no heirs) and that it should be kept at the exact condition it was, without any changes. This lead to a very nice time capsule of how life was at the castle in the 1880’s.

The main part of the castle is used to house the extensive art collections collected by the last owner Henry of Orléans, Count of Condé.

As it was December they also decorated the castle in a festive style, making it extra magical.

The entrance ticket also gives access to the gigantic grounds, of which we only walked a short stretch, due to the cold and grim weather.

We would also have been able to visit the stables and museum across the street at the Grandes Ecuries, but we didn’t go there due to time constraints.