Chateau and Ecuries jewels in Chantilly's forested crown

There are plenty of ways to approach Chantilly by rail and car but, for my money, the final woodland leg on the road up from Paris gives the best introduction to the 'Princely City'.

From Montgresin the drive is a straight carve through the Forest of Chantilly before the vista unexpectedly opens out to reveal the racecourse, the Chateau and, dead ahead, the Grandes Ecuries (Royal Stables).

The effect can be even more startling on an early autumn morning, when the mist rises off the lake in front of the Chateau des Princes de Conde. The two sandstone edifices sit in 115 hectares of pristine French landscaping, including geometric terraces and lakes designed by Andre Le Notre.

The Chateau de Chantilly reflected in one of Andre Le Notre's signature lakesCredit: Domaine de Chantilly / Heumann-Renoult Associates

Louis XIV’s favourite gardener had already got his eye in at Versailles by the time Louis II de Bourbon-Condé commissioned him to turn the park into formal grounds fit for a prince and Le Notre gave full rein to his penchant for water features.

The Princes of Condé enjoyed a rollercoaster ride politically over the next two hundred years, not always finding favour with their relatives on the Bourbon throne and twice forced into exile by the French Revolutions of 1789 and 1848.