Paris Daytrip: Versailles

King Louis XIV, the Sun King, moved his court from the Louvre to Versailles to manage them, protect his reign, and prove to the world that France was the world leader.

It took decades to build and cost about half of France’s annual GDP. The result is spectacular. We have visited many castles in Europe but Versailles is the granddaddy of them all. But, for all its glory, Versailles was home to only three French kings, ending with the execution of Louis XVI during the French Revolution.

Getting To and Into Versailles

Versailles is an easy daytrip from Paris. You need to take the RER train (a metro ticket does not work for this trip). From our base in the Marais, we needed to take the Metro to Gare d’Austerlitz to pick up the train to the Versaille Rive Gauche station. The Metro map shows where the Metro intersects with these trains so depending on where you are, you may pick up the RER at another station. In fact, because of disruptions caused by protesters, the RER train did not come to Gare d’Austerlitz. So, we took another Metro line to the Javel station and caught the RER there.

As per usual, we had not bought advance tickets. But this doesn’t really matter at Versailles because the line that matters is the security line to get into the palace. We bought our tickets at the Tourist Information (TI) office where there were only a handful of people in line ahead of us. There is a ticket office right near the train station but they closed at 1:00 on Saturday. You will find the TI on your way to the palace from the station. We bought the all access ticket which would get us into all three parts of Versailles – the palace, the gardens, and the Queen’s estate.

When we arrived at Versailles, the security line was about ninety minutes long. Since there is no security line to get into the gardens, we decided to start there and hope that the line would shrink when we were ready to go in. It was, we only waited about twenty minutes when we entered the security line at around 3:00. Versailles closes at 6:00 on Saturdays so we had time to see everything inside.

Versailles Gardens

The gardens are immense. There is a little tram that will take you around the estate or you can rent a golf cart. Being September, the flowers were past their prime but still beautiful. Much of the estate is wooded groves so it was easy to imagine how secret plots could have been hatched or lovers’ trysts arranged. There are numerous fountains. However, when we were there only one was continually running while others were set to spout on timers. It was really hot out the day we went so we did not venture too far in the gardens.

The Palace

Our tickets gave us each an audio guide to help us learn about the rooms of the palace as we went through at our own pace. We preferred this to joining a guided tour as it allowed us to linger in rooms after the tour groups exited them. There are so many people going through the palace that sometimes it’s hard to fully appreciate (and sometimes hard to find the number to enter into the audio guide).

The palace is sumptuous. Every square inch is decorated – no plain white walls – or ceilings – here! Walls are made of marble from around the world in various colors and marbling patterns. One room alone was made of four different types of marble. The chandeliers are huge, crystal creations. The sheer magnitude of the luxurious decor was jaw dropping. It is even more impressive when you consider that Versailles was ransacked after the French Revolution so it took years to find and restore the furnishings that originated here.

The Hall of Mirrors is the star of the tour and was where we lingered the longest. When Versailles was built, mirrors were very expensive so having so many mirrors in one room made a real statement about the wealth of France and its King. Speaking of, King Louis XIV was all about self promotion. Nearly every room had a portrait (sometimes more than one) or a bust of the King.

After you get through the King’s and Queen’s rooms, there are a few rooms on the reign of Napolean. A replica of the ‘Coronation of Napolean’ painting is here along with portraits of heroes from the revolution.

Summary

In summary, it really takes an entire day to see everything at Versailles. Because we did not get there until early afternoon, we missed out on the Queen’s Estate entirely. That plus the heat limited our willingness to fully explore the gardens. Even so, we felt like we saw the best of Versailles.