Saturday 10 May 2014

007 Travel story: Paris (FRANCE) 2013, days 6-7/7: Château de Chantilly & returning to Finland


In order to read this 007 travel story from day 1, please click here


Thursday 17th of November 2013

Breakfast at the EST hotel Paris (49 Boulevard Magenta, 400.00 euros / 4 nights, no breakfast included, reserved via booking.com. This hotel charged a city tax of 1 EUR / person / night) again and after that we walked to Gare du Nord. On the way we took our postcards to post office. Then we traveled by train to Chantilly (round trip for three people was 15,50 EUR and return journey was five euros more for some reason). We went to pick up some brochures from Chantilly tourist information office and we studied a map a bit.




We continued walking towards the Château de Chantilly.



"The Château de Chantilly (pronounced: [ʃɑ.to də ʃɑ̃.ti.ji]) is a historic château located in the town of Chantilly, France. The site comprises two attached buildings: the Petit Château built around 1560 for Anne de Montmorency, and the Grand Château, which was destroyed during the French Revolution and rebuilt in the 1870s. Owned by the Institut de France, the château houses the Musée Condé, which is one of the finest art galleries in France and is open to the public." (Wikipedia)

Bond and Tibbet arrive at Zorin's château by Rolls Royce
Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq LLC

We took shots of the horse track and grandstand, since Max Zorin meets KGB's General Gogol here in the same movie.



"The château and the Great Stables were featured in the 1985 James Bond movie "A View to a Kill", as the home of villainous Max Zorin (played by Christopher Walken) which was being infiltrated by Bond (played for the last time by Roger Moore) in his quest to find out more about Zorin, who had already aroused suspicions of MI6 with various business activities, and ultimately eliminate him." (Wikipedia)



Max Zorin meets General Gogol in horse race track's grandstand
Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq LLC


We went to the horse museum (Musée du Cheval), where daughter took some great pictures. Pirita had read an article "Give the camera to a child on holiday" on an airplane. And it was true, there comes the whole new perspective to the pictures through the eyes of a child.

Mika @ Musée du Cheval

This photo by: 7-year-old daughter




Bond on his way to auction in the "A View to a Kill"
Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq LLC

When entering the château courtyard, we noticed a train transportation, which toured around the château parks. We were the only passengers on a journey that took 30 minutes and cost was five euros / adult. Keolis Company's driver gave the daughter to go for a ride for free. Then we went to explore the château itself and found several shooting locations from "A View to a Kill"







Grand Staircase

Bond and Jenny Flex (Alison Doody) in château's Grand Staircase
Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq LLC


Mika inside Château de Chantilly

Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts) and Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) on the same spot
Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq LLC

After this, we went to the château restaurant La Capitainerie for a lunch and after that we hurried to Le Grandes Ecuries horse show. We already had advance tickets bought on the internet (price was 28 euros / adult and 17 euros / child). The ticket price included the horse show, entrance to the museum and also to the château itself. The duration of the horse show was about one and half hours. Mika and Pirita were very sleepy, but the show was good enough for the daughter. We were not allowed to take pictures or video of the show, but we were able to purchase a DVD from museum store if we wanted to. Show had plenty of skill and humor, but somehow the action was missing. Only some jumps were inspiring and interesting. Show advertised itself as a spectacle, but we thought it was not really a spectacle. In addition, Pirita got some allergy symptoms despite of medication she took before the show, so it was good that we were able to get back to fresh air after the show.




We walked to nearby gas station, where we took plenty of photos, because James Bond's sidekick Tibbet is killed there by May Day in the movie "A View to a Kill".

Little Agent Traveler with her mother Pirita

Bond and Tibbet in Château's main gate
Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq LLC
Tibbet (Patrick Macnee) going for a car wash
Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq LLC











                                                 BP Gas Station du Parc Aumontin


BP Gas Station du Parc Aumontin, where May Day strangles Tibbet, while he has a car wash
Photo © EON, United Artists, Danjaq LLC

We walked back to the Chantilly train station and traveled back to the Gare du Nord and from there to the hotel. Then we took a taxi and drove to restaurant Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit, where we and a table reservation made already when we were in Finland. Bond eats in this restaurant in the John Pearson book "James Bond, the Authorized Biography of 007". We got a table number three, good food and fine service. During the dinner we were able hear someone playing beautiful songs with a grand piano near us. After dinner taxi was called for us and we returned to our hotel.



Pirita @ Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit
"During that Paris spring-time they went everywhere together – to see the horses run at Longchamp (where he was bored), to watch the twenty-four-hour race at Le Mans (where he wanted to drive) and to the latest show at Le Boeuf sur le Toit (where, for the first time in her life, she felt jealous)."
 John Pearson: "James Bond, The Authorized Biography of 007"


Friday 18th of October 2013



Hotel´s early breakfast was arranged just for us by Paul, who was really friendly as well. I addition, he had negotiated with three different taxi companies to be able to organize us transportation to Charles de Gaulle airport. Taxi transportations to airport were very popular and were sold out fast. After check out we traveled to the airport by taxi. It was a bigger taxi, where was already other people when we got in and also some more people were picked up after us. Driver seemed to be very sleepy and we were afraid that he will fall asleep during the trip. Fortunately, he didn't.

Terminals were far apart from each other. We traveled in the early morning, but we had to wait one and half hours on the plane due to weather conditions, before take-off. In the end, we reached Copenhagen, where we had to find out when the connecting flight leaves. However, we were able to reach Helsinki´s flight without problems. Other flights were smooth, but during this last part, there was some turbulence during the flight. After landing in Helsinki, we got our luggage among the first people. We found out that winter had come to Finland in the meantime. Again another successful trip done!



See the list of 007 LOCATIONS (visited), excluding 007 HOTELS (visited) and
007 RESTAURANTS (visited), which have sections of their own, please follow the links.


Souvenirs:


























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