The construction of the Jeu de Paume of the Château de Chantilly began in 1756 under the supervision of the architect Claude Billard de Bellicard for Prince Louis Joseph de Bourbon Condé (1736 - 1818), a keen player of "Jeu de Paume" (real tennis). It was one of the last Jeu de Paumes built in France. Constructed in freestone and roofed with slate, it has sculptured ornamentation by Henri Nicolas Cousinet and an elegant balcony in forged iron by the wrought iron craftsman Aubry. The Prince first played there on the 26th October 1757. He conserved its interior volume, comprising two distinct parts, the Salle du Jeu de Paume (real tennis room) itself and, facing the Château, the "dépouille" (changing rooms), which contained rooms for the players to change or rest in. The Prince de Condé stayed to lunch there with his guests after playing tennis. In the 19th century, the Salle de Jeu de Paume was transformed by the Duc d'Aumale into a museum room, where he installed large paintings that could not fit into the museum. Some of these still remain: Italian paintings from the Renaissance such as L'Ange Gabriel (The Angel Gabriel) by Annibal Carrache or Les Adieux du Christ à sa Mère (Christ bidding farewell to his mother) by Baroche, Algerian souvenirs such as La Prise de La Smalah d'Abdel Kader (The Taking of La Smalah) by Alfred Decaen after Horace Vernet, or 19th century Italian landscapes (Rome and Naples) by Ponthus-Cinier and Simon Joseph Denis.

New for Autumn, 2007: the Jeu de Paume room will be open to the public and will be displaying a 5 x 2.7 metre model of the Chantilly estate. It is accompanied by an audio commentary which will enable you to better understand the history of this domain of princes.