Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Buried treasure | 17 May 2018

Forty kilometres from Paris, the Musée Condé also boasts splendid grounds, formal gardens, and a singerie

issue 19 May 2018

Imagine a French museum that’s second only to the Louvre when it comes to paintings, with an eye-watering collection of manuscripts. Add to that a grand château with a turbulent history going back to the 16th century. Plus period kitchens (one tragic chef committed suicide when it seemed that the delivery of fish for the court’s Friday dinner would not arrive in time. It did arrive but only after he’d thrown himself on his kitchen knife).

Imagine, too, that it’s in splendid grounds, with formal gardens and naturalistic landscape beyond. Then throw in the biggest, grandest stables in Europe, housing a museum all about horses — from their history to their equipage — plus actual horses, from dear little Shetlands to an enormous shire, which perform in a historic mini-amphitheatre. Add to that the equivalent of the Ascot racecourse next door. Plus, for greedy pigs, a food product that you would actually travel to eat, in a bucolic setting.

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