Chantilly day 4 : Apotheosis

Or « The Grand Final » …

Goooooooood morning (yes yes I know it’s a looooonnnng one as I’m in a great mood today!) and welcome back for the final part of my long Easter week-end in Chantilly and its neighborhood. It’s day 4 and the Horse Show in Chantilly was planned for 3.00PM so there was little to do in the morning. But, as the weather was great, I decided to go for a walk in the small village of Apremont where we were staying. A few minutes in the woods and then I entered the very small village and finally reached the « local » polo club.

A very crowded place as it was the start of the Rallye d’Aumale (if you remember correctly the Duke of Aumale was the owner of the Castle of Chantilly). I decided to take some pictures quickly with my iPhone and then went back to the house to get all the family to let them discover this other show as well! Below some pictures of Apremont and its Polo Club.

These pictures below are more related to another kind of « horse power » 🙂 (to be 100% honest with you the first 3 pictures are not mine but I wanted to illustrate the concept of their rally in this beautiful region. In fact it’s not a race at all (even if there’s a small challenge by finding secrets logos along the roads and answer some questions) but a discovery of the local places and also a discovery for the hundreds (if not thousands) of people like me to see beautiful old and sport cars. There were many animations for young and less young people and a polo tournament of course!

We could not stay the whole day so we went for a quick lunch in Chantilly (nothing special, a common Italian restaurant) and then walked to the Great Stables of Chantilly (did you know that they are the largest in Europe?). It’s mandatory to be there in time to see the show and as we are very organized we arrived soon enough to visit their museum (a horse museum of course!) as well! We were also able to enjoy the preparation of the show with the latest part of the training. And then it was time to enter the stables, wait a little bit and then take place in a beautiful spectacle room. It was funny to see everyone looking for the best spot.

Unfortunately, and this is probably the biggest disappointment of this trip, it was not allowed to film or even take pictures during the show! And they were very strict about that as several people from the organisation were in the room, in contact with control, and quickly moved to warn anyone trying to take a picture, even without any flash! So what you’ll see below is a collection of pictures I was able to take before and during the initial minutes of the spectacle and some I grabbed from public communication they are making about this show. I can understand that light is very annoying for the artists and the horses but today cameras are able to take great pictures without annoying anyone and few years ago when I went for the first time to the Great Stables there was not such « ban ».

And the spectacle itself? Well to say the truth it’s not the best we have seen! Last year in Normandy (if you don’t remember click here:Easter trip in Normandy the show at the Haras du Pin was better (and kids agree!). Here in Chantilly it is very professional, the musicians and singers are awesome (really I mean awesome!), but what is demonstrated with the horses is/was very limited. The star of the show was the acrobat, brilliant and spectacular, but we had expected something a little different. I also think that, over time, we are becoming more and more demanding!

It was time for us to drive back home, our heads filled with beautiful memories, and before leaving you as well, temporarily of course, here is the long waited high heel gallery! Enjoy, have a great day and read you soon!

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