Château de Chantilly

Next week's session features a May Day fancy ball hosted by the Prince and Princess de Conde and the Princesses brother, the Duke of Montmorency. (For those of you from the UK that is not a fancy dress ball. It is a normal dress ball.) The location for the activities is the Château de Chantilly located about 25 miles north of the Palace of the Louvre in the town of Chantilly. Both King Louis and Queen Anne will be attending. Of course their Majesties will be accompanied by collection of courtiers, nobles, and aristocrats. 

The players plan to use the occasion to finally put a dent in the popularity of the Prince de Conde by fouling up the festivities. In my imagination I see this as a free-for-all sandbox party setting overlaid with a set of crazy activities that combine Three Stooges slapstick, Mission Impossible clockwork planning, and Leverage like complications - "Let's go steal a ball."

To allow for a scenic location and to facilitate and open, sandbox style I created a list of activities and a map of the chateau. Well to be honest, I found, copied, and edited a map of the chateau. There are a number of maps available out on the Internet. For my purposes I wanted a map that included at least some of the grounds as a location for privacy outdoors whether for a quiet strolls in the garden, romantic assignations, or settling an affair of honor. I also wanted to clearly indicate areas of the chateau for the ball, dining for at least two different meals, an area for cards and talk, and several different areas where I could reasonably have various noble attendees stay overnight. 

This map from Wikipedia had the details I was looking for and a high enough resolution to facilitate zooming in close enough to see individual rooms, windows, and doors. It also included moats and a garden which would make a perfect location for a May Pole. And I liked the roof tiling on some of the rooms rather than a complete cutaway like this map.

I also used this map which had a map key and printing that was easier to read. Of course it was in French so I had to do some fussing about with translations. But by combining these I was able to create this map which is what I will give to the players for next week's session.Later I'll publish a follow up post with a list of May Day activities and some info on how the French celebrated the holiday in that period.