Chantilly
Chantilly is a commune in Oise, France. We recently visited, but mostly for the Chantilly Castle and its gardens. Last year I read in the newspaper that they invested 6 million EUR in restoring the gardens… pretty good incentive for visiting.
General Impressions:
The castle itself was not 100% worth visiting. The ticket was 12eur and we just saw a small part of the castle, the one with paintings. They paintings gallery was great, but not enough. The apartments were closed and could only be visited through a guided tour (for which I suppose you have to pay extra).
The gardens on the other hand were impressive, the view was beautiful. Only thing missing were benches. There are 3 large gardens, one of them even has a few kangaroos, a donation made to the Estates. Close to the castle there is a large Hippodrome, Chantilly is famous for its horse races. You can get another ticket and see the horse stables also.
Even after seeing Chantilly I would still choose Fontainebleau as the most romantic visit.
How to get there:
From Gare du Nord you can take either the train or RER line D (30-45min trip). Station you arrive at is Chantilly-Gouvieux. Ticket is ~10eur/pers round trip.
By train you’ll maybe arrive 15min sooner, but RER is more frequent. RER is tricky if you buy the ticket from the vending machine; because the station is not listed (it’s outside Ile de France region). Maybe the best is to ask at the information desk.
When you arrive in Chantilly, outside the train station you’ll see a sign with the direction to the castle. Next to it there’s a Tourist Information Desk which is very helpful; they give you a map of Chantilly and they explain how to get to the castle.
La Capitainerie:
This restaurant is on the ground floor of the castle, in the Vatel’s kitchens. It’s interesting first of all because it looks unique and second because they serve the food as buffet. The cheapest menu/formule is 15 EUR.
Useful tips:
If you use Google maps as reference, note that there’s an error: Chantilly Gouvieux station is called Orry la Ville which is actually the one before Chantilly. It confused us a lot as we thought that’s our stop.
