Royal Palaces and Parks of France Part 25

Before the celebrated ecuries is a green, velvety _pelouse_ which gives an admirable approach. The architecture of the ecuries is of a heavy order and the sculptured decorations actually of little esthetic worth, representing as they do hunting trophies and the like. Before the great fountain one deciphers a graven plaque which reads as follows:

Louis Henri de Bourbon Prince de Conde Fut Construire Cette ecurie 1701-1784.

Within the two wings may be stabled nearly two hundred horses. The Grand ecuries at Chantilly are a.s.suredly one of the finest examples extant of that luxuriant art of the eighteenth century French builder. Luxurious, excessively ornate and overpowering it is, and, for that reason, open to question. The work of the period knew not the discreet middle road. It was of Chantilly that it was said that the live stock was better lodged than its masters. The architect of this portion of the chateau was Jean Aubert, one of the collaborators of Jules Hardouin Mansart.

The characteristics of Chantilly, take it as a whole, the chateau, the park and the forest, are chiefly theatrical, but with an all-abiding regard for the proprieties, for beyond a certain heaviness of architectural style in parts of the chateau everything is of the finely focussed relative order of which the French architect and landscape gardener have for ages been past masters.

The real French garden is here to be seen almost at its best, its squares and ovals of gra.s.sy green apportioned off from the ma.s.s by gravelled walks and ornamented waters. The "_tapis d'orient_" effect, so frequently quoted by the French in writing of such works, is hardly excelled elsewhere.

All this shocked the mid-eighteenth century English traveller, but it was because he did not, perhaps could not, understand. Rigby, "the Norwich alderman" as the French rather contemptuously referred to this fine old English gentleman, said frankly of Chantilly: "All this has cost dear and produced a result far from pleasing." He would have been better pleased doubtless with a privet or box hedge and an imitation plaster rockery, things which have never agreed with French taste, but which were the rule in pretentious English gardens of the same period.

Rigby must indeed have been a "_grincheau_," as the French called him, for this same up-country gentleman said of Versailles: "Lovely surrounding country but palace and park badly designed." Versailles is not that, whatever else its faults may be.

Chantilly is more than a palace, it is a museum of nature, a hermitage of art and of history. The fantasy of its _tourelles_, its _lucarnes_ and its _pignons_ are something one may hardly see elsewhere in such profusion, and the fact that they are modern is forgotten in the impression of the general silhouette.

The adventurer who first built a donjon on the Rocher de Chantilly little knew with what seigneurial splendour the site was ultimately to be graced. From a bare outpost it was transformed, as if by magic, into a Renaissance palace of a supreme beauty. The Duc d'Aumale said in his "Acte de Donation de Chantilly": "It stands complete and varied, a monument of French art in all its branches, a history of the best epochs of our glory."

Among all the palatial riches neighbouring upon Paris, not forgetting Versailles, Compiegne, Fontainebleau, Pierrefonds and Rambouillet, Chantilly, by the remarkable splendour of its surroundings, its situation and the artistic treasures which it possesses, is in a cla.s.s by itself. It is a cla.s.s more clearly defined by the historic souvenirs which surround it than any other contemporary structure of this part of France.

Its corridors and gravelled walks and the long alleys of the park and forest may not take on the fete-like aspect which they knew in the eighteenth century, but they are not solitary like those of Fontainebleau and Rambouillet, nor noisily overrun like those of Versailles or Saint Germain.

The ornamental waters which surround the Chateau de Chantilly are of a grand and nearly unique beauty. It is a question if they are not finer than the waters of Versailles, indeed they preceded them and may even have inspired them.

The Chatelet, the chateau proper and the chapel form a group quite distinct from the ecuries. The Cour d'Honneur is really splendid and one hardly realizes the juxtaposition of modernity. The pavilion attributed to Jean Bullant, the western facade, the ancient Pet.i.t Chateau, the Grand Vestibule, the Grand Escalier and the Gallerie des Cerfs and a dozen other apartments are of a rare and imposing beauty, though losing somewhat their distinctive aspect by reason of the _objets de musee_ distributed about their walls and floors.

One of the landscape gems of Chantilly is the _Pelouse_, a vast esplanade of greensward now forming, in part, the celebrated race track of Chantilly. Sport ever formed a part of the outdoor program at Chantilly, but that of to-day is just a bit more horsey than that of old, a good deal less picturesque and a.s.suredly more vulgarly ba.n.a.l as to its _cachet_ than the hunts, the tourneys and courses of the romantic age.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Chateau de Chantilly_]

Thousands come to Chantilly to wager their coin on scrubs and dark horses ridden by third-rate "warned-off" jockeys from other lands, but probably not ten in ten thousand of the lookers on at the Grand Prix du Jockey Club in May ever make the occasion of the spring meeting an opportunity for visiting the fine old historic monument of the Condes.

The "Races" of Chantilly may be given a further word in that they are an outgrowth of a foundation by the Duc d'Orleans in 1832. The track forms a circuit of two thousand metres, and occupies quite the best half of the Pelouse, closed in on one side by the thick-grown Foret de Chantilly and flanked, in part, on the other by the historic ecuries, with the Tribune, or grand stand, just to the south.

Many tourists arrive at Chantilly by auto, stop brusquely before the Grande Grille, rush through the galleries of the chateau, do "_cent pas_" in the park, give a cursory glance at the stables and are off; but more, many more, with slower steps and saner minds, drink in the charms which are offered on all sides and consider the time well spent even if they have paid "Boulevard Prices" at the Restaurant du Grand Conde for their _dejeuner_.

It has been said that a museum is a reunion of _objets d'art_ brought about by a methodical grouping, either chronologically or categorically.

The Duc d'Aumale's Musee de Chantilly is more an expression of personal taste. He collected what he wished and he arranged his collections as suited his fancy.

The famous Musee de Chantilly, which is the lodestone which draws most folk thither, so admirably housed, was a gift of the Duc d'Aumale who, for the glory of his ancestors, and the admiration of the world, to say nothing of his own personal satisfaction, here gathered together an eclectic collection of curious and artistic treasures, certainly not the least interesting or valuable among the great public collections in France. The effect produced is sometimes startling, a Messonier is cheek by jowl with a Baron Gros, a Decamps _vis a vis_ to a Veronese, and a Lancret is bolstered on either hand by a Poussin and a Nattier. Amid all this disorder there is, however, an undeniable, inexplicable charm.

There are three distinct apartments worth, more than all the others, the glance of the hurried visitor to the Musee Conde at Chantilly. In the first, the Santuario, is the Livre d'Heures of Etienne Chevalier, by Jean Fouquet, considered as the most important relic of primitive French art extant.

The Cabinet des Gemmes comes second, and here is the celebrated "Diamant Rose," called the Grand Conde.

Finally there is the Galerie de Psyche, with forty-four coloured gla.s.s windows, executed for the Connetable de Montmorency in 1541-1542.

The great collection of historical and artistic treasures stowed away within the walls of Chantilly the Duc d'Aumale selected himself in order to a.s.sociate his own name with the glorious memory of the Condes, who were so intimately connected with the chateau.

The Duc sought to recover such of the former furnis.h.i.+ngs of the chateau as had been dissipated during the Revolution whenever they could be heard of and could be had at public or private sale.

In this connection a word on Chantilly lace may not be found inapropos.

The Chantilly lace of to-day, it is well to recall, is a mechanically produced article of commerce, turned out by the running mile from Nottingham, England, though in the days when Chantilly's porcelains rivalled those of Sevres it was purely a local product. One may well argue therefore that the bulk of the Chantilly lace sold in the shops of Chantilly to-day is not on a par with the admirable examples to be seen in the gla.s.s cases of the museum.

A wooded alley leading to the great park runs between the main edifice and the Chateau d'Enghien, a gentle incline descending again to the sunken gardens in a monumental stairway of easy slope, the whole a quintessence of much that is best of the art of the landscape gardener of the time.

To the left extends the vast Jardin Anglais--a veritable French Jardin Anglais. Let not one overlook the distinction: On conventional lines it is pretty, dainty and pleasing, but the species lacks the dignified formality of the Italian garden or the ingenious arrangement of the French. Its curves and ovals and circles are annoying after the _lignes droites_ and the right angles and the _broderies_ of the French variety.

The Foret de Chantilly covers two thousand four hundred and forty-nine hectares and extends from the Bois de Herivaux on one side to the Foret de Senlis on the other. The _rendezvous-de-cha.s.se_ was, in the old days, and is to-day on rare occasions, at the Rond Point, to which a dozen magnificent forest roads lead from all directions, that from the town being paved with Belgian blocks, the dread of automobilists, but delightful to ride over in muddy weather. The Route de Connetable, so called, is well-nigh ideal of its kind. It launches forth opposite the chateau and at its entrance are two flanking stone lions. It is of a soft soil suitable for horseback riding, but entirely unsuited for wheeled traffic of any kind.

Another of the great forest roads leads to the Chateau de la Reine Blanche, a diminutive edifice in the pointed style, with a pair of svelte towers coiffed candle-snuffer fas.h.i.+on. Tradition, and very ancient and somewhat dubious tradition, attributes the edifice as having belonged to Blanche de Navarre, the wife of Philippe de Valois. Again it is thought to have been a sort of royal attachment to the Abbaye de Royaumont, built near by, by Saint Louis. This quaintly charming manor of minute dimensions was a tangible, habitable abode in 1333, but for generations after appears to have fallen into desuetude. A mill grew up on the site, and again the walls of a chateau obliterated the more mundane, work-a-day mill. The Duc de Bourbon restored the whole place in 1826 that it might serve him and his n.o.ble friends as a hunting-lodge.

CHAPTER XXI

COMPIeGNE AND ITS FOREST

One of the most talked of and the least visited of the minor French palaces is that of Compiegne. The archeologists coming to Compiegne first notice that all its churches are "_malorientees_." It is a minor point with most folk, but when one notes that its five churches have their high altars turned to all points of the compa.s.s, instead of to the east, it is a.s.suredly a fact to be noticed, even if one is more romantically inclined than devout.

Through and through, Compiegne, its palace, its hotel-de-ville, its forest, is delightful. Old and new huddle close together, and the _art nouveau_ decorations of a branch of a great Parisian department store flank a butcher's stall which looks as though it might have come down from the times when all trading was done in the open air.

Compiegne's origin goes back to the antique. It was originally Compendium, a Roman station situated on the highway between Soissons and Beauvais. A square tower, Caesar's Tower, gave a military aspect to the walled and fortified station, and evidences are not wanting to-day to suggest with what strength its fortifications were endowed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Compiegne]

It was here that the first Frankish kings built their dwelling, and here that Pepin-le-Bref received the gracious gift of an organ from the Emperor Constantine, and here, in 833, that an a.s.sembly of bishops and n.o.bles deposed Louis-le-Debonnaire.

Charles-le-Chauve received Pope Jean VIII in great pomp in the palace at Compiegne, and it was this Pope who gave absolution to Louis-le-Begue, who died here but a year after, 879. The last of the Carlovingians, Louis V (le-Faineant), died also at Compiegne in 987.

The city is thus shown to have been a favourite place of sojourn for the kings of the Franks, and those of the first and second races. As was but obvious many churchly councils were held here, fourteen were recorded in five centuries, but none of great ecclesiastical or civil purport.

The city first got its charter in 1153, but the Merovingian city having fallen into a sort of galloping decay Saint Louis gave it to the Dominicans in 1260, who here founded, by the orders of the king, a Hotel Dieu which, in part, is the same edifice which performs its original functions to-day.

The first great love of Compiegne was expressed by Charles V, who rebuilt the palace of Charles-le-Chauve in a manner which was far from making it a monumental or artistically disposed edifice. It was originally called the Louvre, from the Latin word _opus_ (_l'oeuvre_), a word which was applied to all the chateaux-forts of these parts. The same monarch did better with the country-houses which he afterwards built at Saint Germain and Vincennes; perhaps by this time he had grown wise in his dealings with architects.

Like all the little towns of the Valois, Compiegne abounds in souvenirs of the Guerre de Cent Ans, Jeanne d'Arc, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Napoleon I and Napoleon III, and as its monuments attest this glory, so its forest, one of the finest in France, awakens almost as many historical memories.

Wars and rumors of war kept Compiegne in a turmoil for centuries, but the most theatrical episode was the famous "_sortie_" made by Jeanne d'Arc when she was attempting to defend the city against the combined English and Burgundian troops. It was an episode in which faint heart, perhaps treason, played an unwelcome part, for while the gallant maid was taking all manner of chances outside the gates the military governor, Guillaume de Flavy, ordered the barriers of the great portal closed behind her and her men.

Near the end of the Pont de Saint Louis Jeanne d'Arc fell into the hands of the besiegers. An archer from Picardy captured her single handed, and, for a round sum in silver or in kind, turned her over to her torturer, Jean de Luxembourg. A statue of the maid is found on the public "Place," and the Tour Jeanne d'Arc, a great circular donjon of the thirteenth century, is near by. Another souvenir is to be found in the ancient Hotel de Boeuf, at No. 9 Rue de Paris, where the maid lodged from the eighteenth to the twenty-third of August, 1429, awaiting the entry of Charles VII.

With the era of Francis I that gallant and fastidious monarch came to take up his residence at Compiegne. He here received his "friend and enemy," Charles V, but strangely enough there is no monument in Compiegne to-day which is intimately a.s.sociated with the stay here of the art-loving Francis. He preferred, after all, his royal manor at Villers-Cotterets near by. There was more privacy there, and it formed an admirable retreat for such moments when the king did not wish to bask in publicity, and these moments were many, though one might not at first think so when reading of his affairs of state. There were also affairs of the heart which, to him, in many instances, were quite as important.

This should not be forgotten.

In 1624 a treaty was signed at Compiegne which a.s.sured the alliance of Louis XIII with the United Provinces, and during this reign the court was frequently in residence here. In 1631 Marie de Medici, then a prisoner in the palace, made a notable escape and fled, doomed ever afterwards to a vagabond existence, a terrible fall for her once proud glory, to her death in a Cologne garret ten years later.

In 1635 the Grand Chancellor of Sweden signed a treaty here which enabled France to mingle in the affairs of the Thirty Years' War.