Chantilly Castle Part 1 - The Chateaus and gardens

The end of our river cruise was getting very near when our river ship reached the medieval town of Conflans, so named because it is at the confluence of two rivers - the Seine and the Oise rivers. 

This is a town known for all the river barges berthed along the banks of the Seine river. After going up and down this river on barges all their lives, many river men cannot settle on land, so simply live on their now retired barges.

But we did not explore the town. Some passengers chose to travel to Auvers-sur-Oise to see Vincent van Gogh’s room and learn about the life and tragic death of this famous artist. The rest of us chose to visit Chateau de Chantilly (or Chantilly Castle). I am so glad I did, as apart from all of its other interesting features, it is claimed to have one of the best collections of art in France. This turned out to be very fortuitous for me, given I was too unwell to visit Le Louvre and other art galleries when back in Paris.

There are actually two chateaus on site, the Petit Chateau and the Grand Chateau, which are both built in Renaissance style and are joined. The story behind them is very interesting. The first mansion on the site was built by the Montmorency family in 1528-1531. The Petit Chateau was built about 30 years later. The first mansion was then destroyed during the French revolution and eventually replaced by the present Grand Chateau.

Around the palaces there is a moat and a French formal garden as well as a large French landscape garden. The estate is next to the Chantilly racecourse and has very valuable stables, known as the Great Stables, which house a large number of horses. The reason for the stables being so beautifully designed and built, though we did not have time to see them ourselves, was that one of the later owners of the estate, who had the stables built, believed he would be reincarnated as a horse! 

When you look at the photos, those of you who are James Bond fans might recognise the Grand Chateau as the castle featured in the 1985 movie “A View to a Kill’, the last Bond movie starring Roger Moore. In the movie, the castle is the home of the villain Max Zorin.

In this post I have included photos of the chateaus and gardens, as well as a couple of early morning views along the Seine river as we reached Conflans. In the next two posts you will see photos taken inside the two chateaus. 

Two house-barges along the Seine river near Conflans on perfectly still river. 

Just a bit further along the river.

Drawing into Conflans.

At the entrance to the two chateaus. The Petit Chateau is the small chateau on the left; the Grand Chateau is behind it with the spire. It goes right the way back behind the Petit Chateau. 

There were statues of lions on the walls of the moat.

One of the owners must have loved dogs because there were superb sculptures of dogs both outside and inside the Grand Chateau.

The front corner of the Grand Chateau. The moat is in front of it and the French landscape gardens in the distance behind it. 

This large statue stood guard over the two chateaus. 

The use of lions and a crown over the gate showed the presence of royalty. 

Two sphinxes showing an Egyptian influence.

The French formal garden viewed from an upper room inside the Grand Chateau.

Part of the French formal garden viewed from outside a back door.

View of the back of the Grand Chateau from the French formal garden.

Giverny - the viIlage where Monet lived

I have not mentioned the village in which Monet's house and garden were located. This is the gorgeous little village called Giverny. 

To reach there, our river ship left Caudebec-en-Caux and travelled to a village called Vernon. That river journey was picturesque, all the more so early in the morning when it was very misty. 

Most of us then travelled by coach to Giverny. Some rode there by bike instead, though that would have been a very hot, tiring ride. 

My companions and I did not walk up to the village church to view the graves of Monet and his family, which was way up the other end from his house. Instead we visited the Impressionists Museum in the heart of the village. Unfortunately there was not enough time to view its exhibition, but we did have a productive time in its gift shop - doing our bit to contribute to the local economy, you understand. The range of Monet souvenirs was amazing.

And, getting down to basics, one has to be practical.  Wherever we tour, after getting off the coach we all first head for a loo . . . the museum met that requirement too. 

We later found an even bigger souvenir shop at the exit of Monet's house - you had to walk through it to leave the site. That's the price you pay everywhere. 

We also strolled along the cobbled main street taking photos of the small number of villas and tea rooms on the way. One little shop had ‘Monet umbrellas’ hanging outside, and a machine blowing soap bubbles out into the street to catch your attention.

All in all, our visit to Giverny and Monet’s house and garden was simply delightful - a most memorable day.

The first five photos were taken along the river as we travelled to Vernon. The sixth photo was of a little stream in Giverny. The photo after that was taken out the front of the Impressionist Museum. The remaining photos were taken in the village of Giverny. 

Monet's House

We had to stand in a very long queue in the hot sun to see Monet’s house, but it was well worth it to explore this charming, quite small but very famous cottage with its spectacular view over the garden.

I gather that when Monet saw this cottage, it was just what he wanted so he was determined to have it. He was able to pay for it by simply selling a couple of his paintings, such was their value even then.

The cottage was full of what I should imagine were reproductions, but I daresay that when he lived in it, it was full of his work. It was interesting to see so many Chinese paintings on the walls, and to see a painting by his artist friend Renoir hanging over his bed. I love that painting - those days men thought fuller figures were beautiful! 

Our guide told us that Monet actually had bad cataracts and so could not see very well, which to me explains his more ethereal paintings. Until I had my cataracts removed last year, I thought the world was a misty, foggy place, which I put down to air pollution. When your sight slowly deteriorates, you don’t realise it is happening. When the eye pads came off, I reeled back with the brightness of colours, the sharp borders around everything and the rich textures. It was a completely new and wonderful world!  A world that sadly, Monet saw no more. I wonder what transformation would have occurred in his art if he had been able to have the same surgery . . .

I will not caption these photos. Just walk up to then around the cottage with me, starting at a little drawing room then a small lounge, then upstairs to Monet's bedroom, through the door to his wife’s bedroom, with what looked like her wedding posy preserved in a glass dome, through to his daughter’s room (if I recall correctly), then downstairs to the dining room-kitchen area. Not every single room is shown. But it looked like his favourite colours were blue and yellow. They were the dominant colours in the garden too.

Monet's Garden

This is a special day for me. It is exactly five months today since I left Melbourne and set out on my long adventure. I still vividly remember a group of my lovely, generous friends who got up extra early and braved the cold early morning air to wave me off, complete with a banner, at Southern Cross Station as I headed for Sydney and my first ship. It was the Queen Mary 2 - a fabulous ship on which I spent 61 days and met some very special, wonderful people with whom I am still in contact. 

This morning I was delighted to visit the Tuscany region in Italy again, this time in summer, and now I am delighted to tell you about Monet's garden in France, which I always dreamed of seeing after the spectacular exhibition of some of his paintings and his house and garden at the National Gallery of Victoria a couple of years ago. (Soon I will be able to catch you up with this current cruise.) 

Of course, crowds of people were waiting to see Monet's garden too, so we wandered around the village of Giverny where he lived until eventually it was our group’s allocated time, which was still shared by a number of other groups. 

The garden was very beautiful in an ethereal kind of way, though smaller than I had imagined. We joined the long line walking slowly around the path that took us by the narrow stream and then around the artificial lake to the path leading up to the house. It was a real challenge to obtain images that were not full of people from many different tour groups, and yet keep up with my group. I do not have the facility to edit photos on this computer, so as is the case with all my posts, what you see is my original ‘raw’ unaltered images. I hope you enjoy them. In my next post I will show you Monet’s house. 

A walk around Monet's garden: