Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille 2019

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“The superfluous is very necessary!” said Voltaire, the French philosopher and writer. And nowhere is this more evident than amongst the splendour and historic grandeur of the Château de Chantilly, rebuilt after the French Revolution by Henri d’Orleans duc d’Aumale in the late 1870s to the new design of Honore Daumet on the site of the original dating back to 1484!

But for the car lover even more importantly it is the home of Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille. There cannot be many better settings than the gardens of the Grand Château in which to display a selection of some of the most artistic automobiles of all time. Very apt as an Italian tribunal in Bologna recently ruled that a car indeed can be classified legally as a “work of art”.

Invited guests were fêted and pampered to the very point of incredulity – a welcome champagne dinner on the lawns; a rally to Louis XV’s Château de Compiègne; a gala black-tie dinner in the aforementioned stables where horses galloped and danced in the aisles and five-star chefs presented an outlandish haute cuisine extravaganza accompanied by the finest wines; a super-buffet in the castle itself under the watchful gaze of paintings by Poussin, Gerard, Delacroix et al, all the while being supported by the bubbles of a seemingly never-ending stream of Champagne Castelnau Réserve. No wonder the aristocracy lost their heads in this part of the world.

But there is no such thing as a free lunch and as a member of the jury as well as enjoying the immense hospitality there was ‘work’ to be done. Along with chief class judge, historic lady racer Nicola von Donhoff from Germany, and the highly respected specialist and raconteur, Adrian Hamilton (son of legendary Jaguar C-Type and D-Type driver and 1953 Le Mans 24 Hour winner Duncan Hamilton), on a stiflingly hot day we undertook the process of determining the best in class from a bevy of open Bentleys celebrating the British marques extraordinary 100 years. Old Number 3, the Bentley Speed Six which crashed at Le Mans in 1930 being our eventual pick after much consideration and deliberation from a very strong field.

The next morning a slight breeze helped the combined group of judges to determine the Best of Show, both pre- and post-war, from the 17 different class winners. At a tense jury meeting and after a couple of count-backs the incredible 1931 Bentley 8 Litre Foursome Coupé came out victorious as Best of Show Pre-War by the narrowest of margins over the gorgeous 1935 Voisin C25 Clairière, the creation of Gabriel Voisin, an aircraft manufacturer who in 1919 founded the Avions-Voisin automobile company.

Artists; automobiles; picnics; balloon and boat rides; car clubs; merry-go-rounds; musicians; acrobats; pony rides and petanque: Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille.

Words and photographs by James Nicholls.

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