As with excitement about vacations, my notes start to run down and run thin as we near the end. We’ve gotten to the point where we are talking about the kids more than what we are going to do in the city, so it’s time to escape someplace away from the crowds and noise. We head for Gare du Norde then off to Chantilly. This 16th century castle is much smaller, much quieter and much more relaxing than Versaille. The castle was burnt down during the French revolution, but rebuilt in 1875–1881 by Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale (1822–1897) to the designs of Honore Daumet. The duke clearly loved his hounds and his house and it shows in his statues and private art collection.
The Duke's dogs were a huge highlight for us.
The Duke's art collection was impressive and worth the trip.
The Chateau is a long 2 km walk from the train station, but through a lovely park and quite nice with good weather. There is a hippodrome you can walk along behind rather than taking the long way down the road.
After returning to Paris, we head for Le Marais, the Jewish Quarter, for dinner. It turns out, five days later, we’ve found an area just down the way from where we are staying that is the best area for finding small, inexpensive and fun restaurants. And for our last two nights we wandered back to this fun neighborhood.
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