The is the second post in my series of posts about Chateau de Chaumont.  The first post focused on the outside of the chateau, and this post features photographs from the stables.

The stables at Chateau de Chaumont were designed by Paul-Ernest Sanson and were built in 1877.  At the time, they were the most modern stables in all of Europe; to me, they even looked modern for today’s standards — they were also beautiful.  The stables were divided into multiple sections — there were stalls for “half-blood” horses (carriage horses), saddle horses (full-blood horses), and ponies.  There was also a small, indoor riding arena where horses could be worked on lunge lines.  The Chateau de Chaumont website has a ton of information on the stables.

This is what the stables look like from the outside, as you approach them from the chateau.

The round “thing” to the right of the photograph below is the indoor arena.

The big, green blob in the photograph below was actually a planter.  There was water in the center of it, and the plants grew all the way around the outside.  It was truly beautiful.

The indoor arena had a second-level walkway…only certain people were allowed up on the walkway.

Stalls for the “half-blood” horses.  The carpet around the sides of the stalls was to protect the hoses from hurting themselves should they end up kicking.

The tack room was lovely — I wish I could have gotten a better picture of it, but the lighting was poor.

The doors, below, led to the stables for the higher-strung saddle (full-blood) horses.