Chantilly

This past Saturday, my friend Lauren & I went to a charming town called Chantilly, a little bit further south- known for horseracing, lace, porcelain, whipped cream and their château- adorable, right?
It was sunny and 70 degrees out. Glorious!

We took the train in the morning and played some Rummy to pass time. Recently, we have been on a kick and usually have an ongoing tournament to play. I lost this one. I usually lose. Yeah, I'm working on it.

We arrived at around 11am and walked along this little dirt trail that led to the racetrack, l'hippodrome de Chantilly. The first horse race here took place in 1834. Also, apparently a James Bond movie shot a horse racing scene here. Voilà.
When we went up to get a ticket to see the premises, we get told that we are being given a complimentary wine glass. We think, "hey that is kind of odd, isn't it?" As it turns out, there is a three day wine festival going on inside with specialties from all over France. We go in and act as serious as we can muster while trying the wines. We enjoy wine but we know practically nothing! Well, we tried a bunch of different sips of things and loved it. Everyone was getting a kick out of us and it probably showed that we had no idea that this wine thing even existed until 10 minutes before. We also bought cherry nougat, which was delicious.

We then proceeded to have a photo shoot with the contraptions that the horses start in to race.

After that, we continued to the château. It is surrounded by a forest and everything was so green and pretty. The château from the outside was wonderful, with these silver roofs looking like snake skins in the sun. We went inside and appreciated some history and then meandered through the French and English gardens. Then- we found a fabulous nook with a perfect view. We sat on the steps of a small house on the property and classical music was coming out of the windows. We each ate a clementine and took a moment. The sun shining. Me in my prescription Ray-Ban sunglasses. Hearing classical music and people speaking French in the distance.
dreamy.

On our way back to the train, we bought fresh raspberries and ate those while people watching.