CNN Travel: Domaine de Chantilly: The Paris alternative to Versailles

June 24, 2019

You could call it a smaller, quieter version of the Palace of Versailles.

There's an on-site mansion, sprawling André Le Nôtre-designed gardens, Michelin-starred gastronomy and a five-star hotel.

But, crucially, no sea of tourists.

In recent years, city-weary Parisians in the know -- and in the money -- have been escaping to the Domaine de Chantilly, a retreat just 40 minutes away by train or car from the daily grind, chaos and noise of urban living in the French capital.

Surrounded by dense, green forests, it's home to one of France's lesser known châteaux, long eclipsed by its more ostentatious cousins in the Loire Valley and Versailles.

At its heart is Auberge du Jeu de Paume, a five-star hotel built specifically with Parisians in mind.

The allure? A restorative retreat where stressed-out urbanites can live like 19th-century French nobility in the bucolic countryside -- think horseback riding, polo, long forest promenades and Swiss spa treatments -- if only for a weekend.

More at https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/domaine-de-chantilly-paris/index.html