Whoever does not visit Paris regularly will never really be elegant.
 – Honoré de Balzac, French novelist and playwright

It’s difficult to enjoy Day 16 of a family vacation when Day 16 is the last day. It was on my mind when I woke up in Versailles that morning and throughout the day, though I did my best to live in the moment. We were originally slated to drive from Versailles to Senlis, where we were going to spend the night because it was only 15 miles from Charles de Gaulle Airport, where we needed to drop off the Hertz rental car and would be flying out of. But I was hoping I could somehow get to Paris and get these “butterfly” earrings that I was coveting our last night in Paris (but the shop was closed before its listed close time). After a “discussion,” David said we’d drive through Paris to Senlis, which is something he didn’t want to suffer through – Paris traffic. But that’s what we did. It was not without drama, as on the way into Paris, a road-raged motorcyclist tried to speed ahead of our car as David merged. He slapped the side-view mirror on David’s side of the car before speeding off, but then we saw him slow down in our lane and force the two cars ahead of us to pass him. To my horror, he slowed down to my side of the car and slammed the side-view mirror in. Thankfully, he drove off. At any rate, we drove to the shop in Île Saint-Louis, I hopped out in front of the shop and purchased the earrings, and we drove off.

From Paris, after a difficult time getting out of Paris, thanks to our GPS’s bad directions, we drove straight to Domaine de Chantilly. This would be our seventh and final château to visit, if you’re counting Versailles as a château and not a palace – and the Château de Chantilly was a fitting end to our run of French châteaux.

Château de Chantilly, which was built during the Middle Ages by various owners, is a beautiful castle. “Anne de Montmorency, constable of king François I, inherited the Château de Chantilly and transformed the building, located on a rocky outcrop, into a Renaissance-style château. The Condé dynasty subsequently extended the domain, commissioned the French-style garden from Le Nôtre, had the Great Stables built, and made the domain a place of cultural and gastronimcal festivity.”

Château de Chantilly was destroyed during the Revolution. Henri d’Orléans Duke of Aumale, who was heir of the last of the Condés and son of king Louis-Philippe, the last of the French kings, spent 23 years in exile in England, where he acquired a massive collection of paintings, furniture, books, manuscripts, and decorative arts. When he returned to France, he rebuilt the château to house his collections. The duke has a singular vision that ruled his life – to “embellish and restore Chantilly.” He created the Condé museum within the heart of the château specifically for his treasures. The museum houses 550 works presented on dark red walls. There are three Raphael paintings and a Delacroix painting in this collection. The library and reading room house nearly 19,000 works, including 1,500 manuscripts.

“With no direct heir, he decided to bequeath the Domaine de Chantilly and its treasures to the Institut de France, which groups the five Academies, in his 1884 testament.” His will stated that his paintings – hanging on several levels in the 19^th century fashion – had to be maintained and could not be loaned out of Chantilly. “He sought to make the Domaine de Chantilly a place of exception open to the public.”

Before we ventured out on the very warm day, we had lunch outdoors in the château’s La Capitainerie Restaurant. I savored my last glass of wine with lunch and my last French lunch.

After lunch, we ventured to some of the gardens, but we missed much of the sprawling grounds. We did not step down past the château to the French-style garden, which is somewhat reminiscent of the garden at Château de Chambord and designed by André Le Nôtre,  French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV. We missed the numerous fountains, water features, and collection of statues. We also missed the Anglo-Chinese garden, which was designed in 1773, and the Petit Parc, which was created in the early 18^th century.

We did venture to the English garden, which sits on a plot that was left vacant from a part of Le Nôtre’s gardens that were destroyed during the Revolution. There were quaint bridges, park benches by the stream, fountains, and ponds thick with water lilies. As we made our way across this garden, we captured beautiful photographs of Château de Chantilly with the water in the foreground. I have to say that there were so many memorable views of the château.

We made our way to the Great Stables, which were built in the 18^th century and were considered a horses’ palace. Originally dedicated to hunting, they were converted to barracks during the Revolution. They were converted back to stables in 1815. Isabella was in heaven going through the Museum of the Horse, which was inaugurated in 2013 in the 15 rooms of the Cour des Remises in the Great Stables. She got to see some beautiful horses and we bought her a pair of stirrup earrings to commemorate her time at Domaine de Chantilly.

As we made our way back to our car, we savored our walk around the château and more views of this beautiful estate. Three different wedding parties were having their photography session on the grounds. I couldn’t think of a grander place for such an event. While tourists roamed the grounds, the château was never crowded, and we made our way without encountering any congestion.

We drove to Senlis and had another challenging drive to our hotel for our last night. La Villa Camille is a charming rustic hotel, but the road it was on was under construction, so we were stuck and David had to back out on the very narrow roads. We ended up calling our host and he came out to direct us where to park. Then we encountered another problem – his booking streams weren’t synched up, and he had not room for us. But he came up with a solution, and we ended up with his room in the attic. It’s a very roomy attic with beds for everyone. We had a lovely view of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Senlis, which was constructed beginning in 1153.

Feeling bad about the mix-up, though in the end everything was fine, our host at La Villa Camille made reservations for us for dinner at La Scaramouche (4 Place Notre Dame, 60300 Senlis), which is across from Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Senlis. It was a Saturday evening, a wedding had taken place, and so we didn’t get an outdoor table. We ate inside, and though the food was magical, we were sweating inside because it was so warm and the restaurant had no air conditioning! But would I trade our evening for just any restaurant with air conditioning? Non! The wine was heavenly, the food gastronomically satisfying, and the dessert sinful. Fitting for our last meal in France. It was also Jacob’s last glass of French wine. Sigh.

After dinner, we stayed up for a drink with our La Villa Camille host in the hotel’s whimsical garden. We talked politics, similarities between France and California (our host felt there were similarities), and his family history (he showed us framed letters that his forebears received from Napoleon and WWII dignitaries). His home was decorated with so much family history. I wish we had more time to appreciate La Villa Camille. We would have loved to have stayed longer, but repacking beckoned us, as well as a very early departure. It was nice, however, to have spent our last night with a drink and congenial conversation. Bonne nuit and au revoir!