Chateau de Chaumont – Sarah Richter Photography

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.

Continue reading →

After we finished up at Château de Chenonceau, we headed over to Château de Chaumont. At Château de Chaumont, we bought tickets for both the chateau and the International Garden Festival (which is adjacent to the chateau).

Château de Chaumont is located in Chaumont-sur-Loire, a small commune in France’s Loire Valley. According to Wikipedia, the chateau was founded in the 10th century by Odo I, Count of Blois. In 1560, the chateau was acquired by Catherine de Medici. When her husband, Henry II died, Catherine made her husband’s mistress, Diane de Portiers, give her Chateau de Chenonceau in exchange Chateau de Chaumont. In 1840 the French Ministry of Culture classified Chaumont as a historical monument. Marie-Charlotte Say purchased the chateau in 1875. She restored the chateau and planted gardens, and her husband commissioned the stables. The donated Chateau de Chaumont to the French government in 1938.

I’m planning on creating several posts with photographs from Chateau de Chaumont. This post will feature photographs from the outside of the chateau. A second post will feature photographs of the chateau’s beautiful stables. A third post will feature photographs from the International Garden Festival (that one may actually require two posts).

The buildings that we passed as we made our way to the chateau were lovely! This building, covered in beautiful, red and white roses, caught my eye.

The grounds around the chateau were beautifully landscaped. I was particularly excited to see these entirely white foxglove. I planted one foxglove in my garden a few years ago, and it did well that year, but it never came back.