Versailles 

Overview: 

Engulfed in his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance, the best of Baroque archi­tec­ture and stun­ning lav­ish beau­ty, the palace of Ver­sailles stands not only as the jew­el of France but as a pow­er­ful sym­bol of the pow­er, extrav­a­gance and indul­gence of roy­al mon­archs that would lead to the French rev­o­lu­tion that would see this stun­ning won­der of the world for­ev­er change the course and face of his­to­ry.  

Set across 815 acres of lush green grounds, and cur­rent­ly made up of more than 2,300 rooms – includ­ing libraries, art gal­leries, state apart­ments and chapels, the palace of Ver­sailles is tru­ly Europe’s grand­est cas­tle, and has evolved through his­to­ry as a sym­bol of pow­er to a liv­ing his­tor­i­cal muse­um, with the palace hav­ing its ori­gins as a sim­ple hunt­ing lodge belong­ing to the father of King Louis XIV – which accord­ing to leg­end served as his secret gate­way to enter­tain his mis­tress in the mid 17th cen­tu­ry.  

His­to­ry: Yet so stun­ning were the grounds around this hunt­ing lodge and so entrenched was Louis XIV’s belief that he had a divine right to rule as a ‘Sun king’ he soon decid­ed that Ver­sailles should be both a palace fit for a king and should serve as a place to house Nobel and gov­ern­men­tal rebels away from Paris, with Louis XIV set­ting out on a no expens­es spared rev­o­lu­tion and cre­at­ing the stun­ning palace we know today.

So grand was this rev­o­lu­tion of Ver­sailles that the Palace expand­ed from the hum­ble hunt­ing lodge to become a palace capa­ble of host­ing more than 5,000 roy­al fam­i­lies – along with a  fur­ther 5,000 mem­bers of their staff – with the thou­sands of rooms with­in their palace and their inte­ri­or re-designed over the course of a hun­dred years for an esti­mat­ed cost of what would be in todays mon­ey as almost a third of a tril­lion dol­lars, with Louis XIV re-imag­in­ing the palace as his tem­ple wor­thy of him­self as the sun god.  

Unsur­pris­ing­ly the indul­gence – and high cost of the palace – bought France to the point of bank­rupt­cy, with the palace of Ver­sailles serv­ing as the cat­a­lyst and sym­bol of the French rev­o­lu­tion that would see Louis XIV forced to flee his archi­tec­tur­al won­der and his even­tu­al down­fall. Fol­low­ing the French rev­o­lu­tion in 1789, Ver­sailles would nev­er again serve as a Roy­al Res­i­dence and fell into a state of dis­re­pair, before King Louis-Phillipe would order it to become the Muse­um of the France and serve the pub­lic as a reminder of France’s his­to­ry in the 19th Cen­tu­ry.  

From here Ver­sailles once again found its pur­pose and would shine as both a liv­ing and stand­ing trib­ute to France’s his­to­ry, with the thou­sands of rooms being expand­ed to not only dis­play France’s his­to­ry across more than 100 libraries, but house thou­sands of pieces of the best of French Art – includ­ing at one time the Mona Lisa – and more than three thou­sand sculp­tures, with the palace trans­formed into a stun­ning dis­play of his­to­ry and art set in a tru­ly daz­zling archi­tec­tur­al won­der.  

While pieces of art and the hun­dreds of thou­sands of books con­tained with­in the libraries would find home else­where across France would even­tu­al­ly find homes else­where, Ver­sailles would con­tin­ue to play an essen­tial and promi­nent part in his­to­ry, first­ly when it served as the place in 1871 where Ger­many would declare its Empire, and then again in the 1919 when it would serve as the stage for the sign­ing of First World War armistice treaty in 1919, whose terms which would arguably set the world on course for the Sec­ond World War.  

Explore: A palace full of beau­ty and his­to­ry, and one that has undoubt­ed­ly served as the stage for some of the most con­se­quen­tial and world chang­ing events of his­to­ry, the stun­ning won­der of the palace of Ver­sailles, and the thou­sands of archi­tec­tur­al stun­ning rooms, gar­dens and art col­lec­tions found with­in the stun­ning 815 acres of this palace lying con­ve­nient­ly just 45 min­utes from the French cap­i­tal of Paris, mak­ing it a tru­ly dream won­der for trav­el­ers to explore.  

Upon arrival, the grand and ele­gant palace gates will greet you (which are sad­ly a copy with the orig­i­nal gates being destroyed in the French rev­o­lu­tion) with these Gold­en Gates guid­ing you through the gar­dens of Ver­sailles through to the main entrance of the Palace itself.  

Upon step­ping foot into the palace, you’ll be able to explore ful­ly restored rooms of the Palace as Louis XIV would have lived with­in it, as well as the muse­um and art con­tained with­in daz­zling rooms that still remain, and we’d rec­om­mend mak­ing  sure you take in the daz­zling hall of mir­rors, with the vast space with­in this room illu­mi­nat­ed by the sil­very mir­rors that reflect both pieces of gold and the incred­i­ble ceil­ing art work, which would once pro­vide the per­fect back­drop for the glam­orous balls of Louis XIV. With it being in this immense room that the 1919 Armistice was signed and it being tru­ly pos­si­ble to absorb and feel the immense his­to­ry that has tak­en place in this incred­i­ble room.  

Mov­ing fur­ther through the palace and you can pass through both the kings and queens state apart­ments, with these grand rooms expert­ly restored to their for­mer glo­ry, includ­ing the paint­ings and jew­el­ry cab­i­net that was once the favorite of Marie-Antoinette and who was known to spend the major­i­ty of her days with­in the queens apart­ment (not eat­ing cake !).  

After explor­ing these apart­ments and under­stand­ing their role and influ­ence with­in the French Rev­o­lu­tion, we’d then encour­age you to move to the chateau, where you can find some of the best of thou­sands of pieces of art in Ver­sailles, includ­ing more than 30 wall paint­ings the depict French His­to­ry. From here you can then head to the  Roy­al Chapel whose ceil­ing soars some 144 foot high and with­in which you can again feel the incred­i­ble his­to­ry of this palace, tak­ing in a mas­ter organ, stun­ning art and wit­ness­ing a tru­ly his­tor­i­cal stage – with it being here that Marie-Antoinette would mar­ry Louis XVI in the 18th cen­tu­ry.  

A chapel well explored from two dif­fer­ent lev­els, and that lends itself to some stun­ning pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties, you can fol­low the chape through to the Roy­al Opera House, which was added to the Palace in 1770 as France deterred on the brink of Finan­cial Ruin. While the Opera House at the time become the grand­est in Europe, it would also be one of the key trig­gers of the ire of the French pub­lic, and while this stun­ning opera house con­tin­ues to host world class per­for­mances today, it’s worth explor­ing and reflect­ing on the impact that its con­struc­tion has on trans­form­ing French His­to­ry.  

For those who want to dive deep­er into the beau­ty of Ver­sailles after explor­ing the palace, then we’d encour­age you to make sure you vis­it Grand & Petit Tri­anon Palaces – which served as Louis XIV palaces away from Ver­sailles – and where he would come for alone time (and for fur­ther time with his mis­tress­es), with each palace again being extrav­a­gant­ly dec­o­rat­ed and offer­ing a fas­ci­nat­ing insight into the indul­gence and waste of Louis XIV that led to the French Rev­o­lu­tion.  

Beyond the inte­ri­or of all three Palaces, and you’ll find an exquis­ite gar­den filled with stun­ning path­ways, a grand canal that elo­quent­ly cuts through the green land­scapes and the Ver­sailles Park, which is free to vis­it and which serves as a major green space for locals – and which makes for a great place to kick back and relax while tak­ing in the stun­ning exte­ri­or of the palace of Ver­sailles and reflect­ing on this stun­ning won­der of the world.  

It’s also with­in these gar­dens that you’ll find the foun­tains of Ver­sailles – again at the design of Louis XIV and it’s here that is undoubt­ed­ly the best spot to head to in the evening as you enjoy the incred­i­ble musi­cal foun­tains night show, with the serene foun­tains com­ing alive to the sound of clas­si­cal music – as they have done since the Palace’s incep­tion – with those tru­ly charmed by the palace even hav­ing the option to spend (an expen­sive night) with­in the palace itself.  

A grand and indul­gent palace – that has been at the fore­front and inspi­ra­tion for his­to­ry since the 17th cen­tu­ry, the Palace of Ver­sailles is both a liv­ing and his­tor­i­cal archi­tec­tur­al mas­ter­piece that allows explor­ers to tru­ly absorb and expe­ri­ence some of the most deci­sive and world chang­ing events, and as you chart your way through the thou­sands of rooms adorned with the best of French and Euro­pean art and wan­der through the vast lav­ish gar­dens of this jew­el of France, you’ll be left in lit­tle doubt that the stun­ning extrav­a­gant palace of Ver­sailles is an undoubt­ed won­der of the world.   

Where:

A palace at the heart of French and glob­al his­to­ry and awash with stun­ning archi­tec­ture, daz­zling halls and lush green gar­dens, Louis XIV help­ful­ly built the palace of Ver­sailles close to Paris – with mod­ern infra­struc­ture mean­ing that this palace lies less than an hour away from Paris by car or train – mak­ing this jew­el of France and true won­der of the world incred­i­bly acces­si­ble.  

In fact, the palace itself lies just 10 miles west of the south-west of Paris with­in the Île-de-France région, in the city of Ver­sailles at the Place d’Armes — with the 815 acres of the Palace act­ing as both a pub­lic estab­lish­ment and state, gov­ern­men­tal venue and pub­lic scenic park, mak­ing it not just a won­der of the world, but the focal point around which the city of Ver­sailles is built around.  

A won­der that lends itself to one of the best day trips on the plan­et, the build­ing of the Palace of Ver­sailles so close to Paris com­bined with the fan­tas­tic and mul­ti­ple trav­el options avail­able to explor­ers makes the Palace of Ver­sailles incred­i­bly easy to get to.  

Getting There: 

One of the best day trips on the plan­et – the Palace of Ver­sailles is incred­i­bly acces­si­ble, with explor­ers spoiled for choice as to how to reach this stun­ning palace with there being not only a range of tour options leav­ing from across France to Ver­sailles, but there also being self-dri­ve, train, bus and even cycling options from both Paris and across France that allow you to get to this stun­ning palace.  

For starters for get­ting there you’ll need to get your­self to France – and with the Palace of Ver­sailles lying only 12 miles out­side of south­ern Paris – we’d rec­om­mend mak­ing Paris your base for your explo­ration of this won­der of the world – with ini­tial access into Paris again being incred­i­bly acces­si­ble as the main two air­ports of Charles De Gaulle and Orly being well served by flights from across Europe, the Amer­i­c­as region and Asia.  

Hav­ing got your­self to the bright lights and romance of Paris (where we’d encour­age you to check out anoth­er won­der of the world in the Eif­fel Tow­er) you can then set aside a day or two to vis­it Ver­sailles – and first up for get­ting there is to take a tour to reach Ver­sailles and explore the grounds of the palace.  

 Ver­sailles by Tour:

Avail­able in a range of explo­ration ways (on foot, by bike, by horse) a tour of Ver­sailles through a com­pa­ny is a great option for those who want to ensure they cov­er and under­stand all of the grounds of this palace with a guide and who want to opt for the stress free and easy way to get to the palace.  

With a range of com­pa­nies offer­ing guid­ed tours from Paris, we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend whichev­er tour you opt for to ensure it includes fast track entrance into the grounds of the palace – as giv­en the pop­u­lar­i­ty of the palace and the num­ber of tours, those who do not opt for this option will find them­selves stuck in large queues around Ver­sailles – which will real­ly take the edge off your expe­ri­ence at the palace.  

For those who do opt for a guid­ed tour and who are trav­el­ling to Ver­sailles dur­ing the sum­mer months, we’d also encour­age you to ensure your jour­ney there includes stay­ing to watch the evening foun­tain dis­play.  

To ensure you do get to watch this stun­ning dis­play we’d advise opt­ing for a train tour rather than a coach tour – with a coach tour see­ing you col­lect­ed in a com­fort­able coach from Paris and dropped off and picked up from Ver­sailles at designed times, while a train jour­ney will see you giv­en tick­ets on the train to Ver­sailles and a fast track entrance with no set time to arrive and depart – giv­ing you much more free­dom to explore Ver­sailles.  

A great way to explore Ver­sailles stress free – you’ll also find a range of dif­fer­ent tours avail­able for explo­ration, includ­ing by bike and horse and there is tru­ly a tour to meet the needs and wish­es of every­one, so ensur­ing you’ve done your research and got the pri­or­i­ty pass it should be a sim­ple mat­ter of jump­ing on your trans­port and head­ing to Ver­sailles to explore this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

Versailles by Car:

An option that we’d rec­om­mend only for locals famil­iar with the roads in Paris, get­ting to Ver­sailles by car can put you in full con­trol of your jour­ney to Ver­sailles, and is also a great option for those who hap­pen to be local and are seek­ing to explore their beau­ti­ful coun­try on a pub­lic hol­i­day, when pub­lic trans­port can be lim­it­ed.  

 Start­ing from across Paris, you’ll need to head south and pick up the A86 road that will take you out of the city cen­tre and Paris itself and towards Ver­sailles, with the palace being well sign­post­ed once you head towards Rungis.  

For those set on trav­el­ling by Car from Paris you can pick up a rental car at the air­port when you arrive, and if self-dri­ving there is on your itin­er­ary we’d rec­om­mend dri­ving down the night before to Ver­sailles from Paris and spend­ing the evening with­in the palace itself or in the town and then head­ing for your explo­ration of the palace’s grounds in the morn­ing.  

Yet even with the avail­abil­i­ty of car hire and trav­el­ling in the evening, self-dri­ving is a chal­leng­ing option con­sid­er­ing the roads you’ll have to nav­i­gate and con­sid­er­ing that you will have to pay for park­ing like­ly in both Ver­sailles and Paris — which com­bined can cost more than a day trip –  it’s an option that we would only rec­om­mend for those already based in Paris and with their own car.  

Versailles by Bus:

With an explo­ration of the great halls, chateaus and gal­leries of Ver­sailles lend­ing itself as one of the best day trips on the plan­et, and in con­sid­er­a­tion of the dif­fi­cul­ties of nav­i­gat­ing Paris and French roads, explor­ing Ver­sailles on a day trip from Paris using pub­lic trans­port is undoubt­ed­ly the best and most enjoy­able way of get­ting to this stun­ning won­der.  

There’s two options when it comes to get­ting to Ver­sailles by pub­lic trans­port, train and bus – and con­sid­er­ing bus first you’ll need to get your­self from Paris to the bus stop close to Ver­sailles – which is the Ver­sailles Rive Gauche bus sta­tion – from where you can either walk or Uber your way to Ver­sailles.  

To reach this bus stop from Paris, first take the metro from across Paris to your start­ing point bus sta­tion in Paris – the Pont de Sèvres sta­tion – and then it’s a sim­ple mat­ter of look­ing for the direct bus num­ber 171 labelled with Ver­sailles. Be sure to check the bus times and route in advance and with the dri­ver of the bus and some­times the 171 has been known to fol­low its own sched­ule. Get­ting back should be as sim­ple as return­ing to the bus stop on the oppo­site side of the road and board­ing the same bus bound for Paris – and then tak­ing to metro back to your hotel – to com­plete a smooth jour­ney on the bus to Ver­sailles.  

For those tak­ing the bus, you should bud­get around 45 min­utes to get to Ver­sailles (less if you set off around 6am) and be sure to come pre­pared with change and small bills to allow for an easy and smooth jour­ney to Ver­sailles – in what is a great way to get to this won­der.  

Versailles by Train:

The most pop­u­lar and rec­om­mend­ed option for get­ting to Ver­sailles on a day trip, the train sys­tem in France and par­tic­u­lar­ly from Paris to Ver­sailles is both reli­able, afford­able and incred­i­bly com­fort­able – mak­ing for a great way to get from the cap­i­tal of France to the won­der of the world.  

You can bud­get around a half an hour to get from Paris to Ver­sailles by train and while there are three pos­si­ble routes by train to Ver­sailles – the RER C train, the train line L and the train TER N – we’d real­ly rec­om­mend get­ting the RER C train, which is the yel­low line that runs from across Paris and fol­lows the riv­er Seine straight to the gates of Ver­sailles.  

To pick up the yel­low line and the RER C train (RER Line C) sim­ply locate the Metro sta­tion clos­est to you and trans­fer over – with the yel­low line also con­ve­nient­ly stop­ping at the Eif­fel Tow­er and the Saint Michel (Notre Dame) and you can sim­ply find your­self a win­dow seat and relax as you watch the beau­ty of Paris and the Seine Riv­er pass you by as you head to the end of the line and the stop of Ver­sailles Chateau – which will drop you off just 10 min­utes’ walk from the entrance of Ver­sailles.  

A great, easy and afford­able option (a one way tick­et costs 7 euros) to get to Ver­sailles – the train line runs from 5:40 am to 10:30 PM – giv­ing you a great chance to plan your jour­ney to be at Ver­sailles from it’s open­ing time at 9am – and to give you enough time to catch the foun­tains and still make it com­fort­ably back to Paris in the evening – round­ing out what is an incred­i­ble train day trip – made easy and stress free by tak­ing the train to vis­it the stun­ning won­der of the world of the Palace of Ver­sailles.  

Best time to Visit: 

The qual­i­ty and enjoy­ment of any explo­ration of the sto­ried, beau­ti­ful and daz­zling Palace of Ver­sailles will be defined by the time of year and day you choose to vis­it. With it being essen­tial that you time your vis­it to both coin­cide with the best chance of great weath­er, the peri­od when the foun­tain dis­play is run­ning – and most impor­tant­ly avoid the crowds which takeover Ver­sailles dur­ing the sum­mer months, which can see any vis­it to Ver­sailles turn into hours of queu­ing and descend into an unen­joy­able and for­get­table expe­ri­ence.  

So in order to get the absolute best expe­ri­ence — regard­less of the time of year you go the most impor­tant ele­ment of a trip to Ver­sailles is that you first­ly buy a skip the line tick­et – to cut out large swathes of entrance queue­ing, and then arrive as ear­ly as you can. With the palace open from 9am – 5:30pm dur­ing the low sea­son (Novem­ber to March) and 9am – 6pm dur­ing the high sea­son (April to Octo­ber) – we’d encour­age you to arrive a the open­ing time to ensure you min­imise queu­ing and get as much time as pos­si­ble in this stun­ning palace.  

For those vis­it­ing dur­ing the high sea­son it’s also essen­tial that you bud­get in time not only for an ear­ly start, but for a late evening – with the crowds dis­ap­pear­ing towards dusk and it being at this time when the stun­ning gar­dens are at their most serene, with every Sat­ur­day evening fea­tur­ing an increi­d­ble foun­tain and fire­work show – which is a fan­tas­tic way to round off any day at this stun­ning won­der.  

For those who aren’t a fan of crowds and aren’t inter­est­ed in explor­ing the gar­dens at dusk and are pre­pared to risk a trip to Ver­sailles being accom­pa­nied with a bit of rain – then vis­it­ing dur­ing the low sea­son is the best option. While the Palace will be open for an hour short­er in the evening – clos­ing at 5:30pm – the parks will still be open, and vis­it­ing dur­ing this sea­son will see you vis­it­ing when crowds are at a min­i­mal – which can real­ly add to your over­all enjoy­ment – just be warned that there will be no foun­tains dur­ing this peri­od. For those who opt to vis­it dur­ing the off sea­son – we’d strong­ly encour­age you to check the weath­er fore­cast before set­ting off to Ver­sailles and come pre­pared for rain which can start at any time.  

For those who wish to enjoy Ver­sailles – both the city and the Palace —  at its absolute best, then vis­it­ing dur­ing the spring and sum­mer months (April — Octo­ber) is undoubt­ed­ly the best time – but be sure to arrive ear­ly dur­ing these months and expect queues. Offer­ing you the best chance to enjoy Ver­sailles under­neath the sun – which makes a huge dif­fer­ence in your enjoy­ment when explor­ing the gar­dens – it’s essen­tial for those vis­it­ing in the high sea­son to come pre­pared with plen­ty of water and a skip the line tick­et as well to help your explo­ration of Ver­sailles to be as enjoy­able as pos­si­ble.  

As well as giv­ing you the best of the French weath­er, vis­it­ing dur­ing the high sea­son also affords you the chance to see the Ver­sailles gar­dens in full flow – with evening Baroque music and free flow­ing foun­tains – and for those who want a tru­ly mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence at Ver­sailles con­sid­er vis­it­ing on a Sat­ur­day between June and Sep­tem­ber and head for the night­ly fount­ian show – where 32 foun­tains come to life in sync with clas­si­cal music before a fire­work dis­play.  

A fan­tas­tic won­der to vis­it which is open all year – aside for those who want to wit­ness the foun­tains show we’d encour­age you to vis­it Ver­sailles dur­ing the week­days regard­less of the sea­son, as this is when you’ll find crowds at a min­i­mum. With it being essen­tial that what­ev­er sea­son you vis­it that you arrive ear­ly, have a skip the line tick­et, check the weath­er fore­cast and come pre­pared with plen­ty of water to ensure you get the absolute best expe­ri­ence at this increi­d­ble won­der of the world. 

How long to stay:

Ver­sailles lends itself as one of the world’s great­est day trips  — and we’d rec­om­mend bud­get­ing a full day to explore this incred­i­ble won­der whilst bas­ing your­self in the French cap­i­tal of Paris. 

For those based in Paris, you’ll find Ver­sailles incred­i­bly acces­si­ble – with there being a range of day tours – which include not only trav­el and guid­ed tour but can also fea­ture horse rid­ing and bicy­cling – and a range of options to take a self-guid­ed tour to Ver­sailles includ­ing both bus and train which can take you from Paris to Ver­sailles in an hour.  

How­ev­er, regard­less of how you trav­el to Ver­sailles it’s essen­tial that you find a tour or trans­port that gets you to the palace as close as pos­si­ble to 9am (open­ing time) so that your time queu­ing, pass­ing secu­ri­ty and with large crowds can be min­i­mized. For those who arrive dur­ing the sum­mer months dur­ing the day expect secu­ri­ty to take at least an hour to pass.  

Once inside you can bud­get around 4 hours to cov­er the best of the palace, includ­ing the daz­zling hall of mir­rors, the state apart­ments, the chapel, the opera house and the twin palaces of the Grand Tri­anon and Petit Tri­anon. 

After a busy morn­ing inside we’d then encour­age you to take a late lunch and spend the rest of the after­noon and evening explor­ing the serene gar­dens, grand canal and foun­tains – before stay­ing to watch either the foun­tain dis­play and fire­work show or the gold­en sun­set which lights up Ver­sailles – with both events rep­re­sent­ing an incred­i­ble way to cap off your day and giv­ing you plen­ty of time to enjoy the gar­dens and parks before they close at 8:30pm.  

For those on a large bud­get, it’s also pos­si­ble to extend your stay in Ver­sailles and sleep overnight in the cas­tle – with rooms start­ing from $2,000 a night and includ­ing a per­son­al but­ler, a spa and out of hours access to Ver­sailles – for a tru­ly unique and spe­cial way to explore this won­der that lets you trav­el back in time – and live, at least for a day – as Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette once did.  

So for those on a high bud­get who want a more inti­mate expe­ri­ence at Ver­sailles it’s well worth extend­ing your stay at Ver­sailles for an extra night to ful­ly explore this incred­i­bly won­der – yet for those on a more rea­son­able bud­get, Ver­sailles is absolute per­fect for a one day explo­ration.  

Top Tip:

The jew­el of France, the grand halls, rooms and gar­dens of Ver­sailles are awash with his­to­ry, baroque archi­tec­ture, extrav­a­gance and ele­gance, with an explo­ration of this palace allow­ing explor­ers to stand not only in liv­ing his­to­ry but step back through time to under­stand the indul­gence of past mon­archs that led to the French Rev­o­lu­tion and the polit­i­cal ideals that would lead to both world wars.  

Along­side this his­tor­i­cal jour­ney, Ver­sailles offers a chance to explore thou­sands of pieces of art, sculp­tures, mar­vel at knowl­edge con­tained with­in mul­ti­ple libraries and even take in incred­i­ble art per­for­mances in the Ver­sailles Opera House. Cou­ple this with the exquis­ite gar­dens, grand canal and the night­ly Ver­sailles foun­tain show, and this great palace allows explor­ers to unique­ly and tru­ly immerse them­selves in fas­ci­nat­ing beau­ty and his­to­ry.  

Yet as a result of the stun­ning beau­ty and the his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance of this great palace — Ver­sailles is often awash with vis­i­tors, which com­bined with the sum­mer heat and sheer size of the grounds of Ver­sailles — it’s pos­si­ble for a trip to the palace of Ver­sailles to become over­whelm­ing and for explor­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly on a day trip to not expe­ri­ence the absolute best of this unique won­der.  

So, to help ensure your trip to the Palace of Ver­sailles is as spe­cial as pos­si­ble, we’ve round­ed out our top tips when vis­it­ing this incred­i­ble won­der of the world: 

- Time your vis­it & expect crowds:  Owing to the immense beau­ty and sto­ried his­to­ry com­bined with its close prox­im­i­ty to Paris, the Palace of Ver­sailles is awash with vis­i­tors – with more than 10 mil­lion peo­ple a year head­ing to the ele­gant gar­dens and stun­ning cas­tle of Ver­sailles.  

Because of this you can expect crowds all year round at Ver­sailles – which while poten­tial­ly adding to the atmos­phere, can seri­ous­ly reduce your enjoy­ment explor­ing the cas­tle and the grounds and take the edge of your jour­ney through this incred­i­ble palace.  

To com­bat this, we’d first­ly rec­om­mend ensur­ing that any vis­it to Ver­sailles is done inde­pen­dent­ly – as opposed to on a tour – with an inde­pen­dent vis­it first­ly allow­ing you to break free from the crowds and fol­low your own explo­ration of the palace – mean­ing you can skip or return to areas tak­en over by the crowds and most impor­tant­ly define your own times for arriv­ing and leav­ing.  

The abil­i­ty to define your own times is essen­tial to enjoy Ver­sailles – with it being our top tip that you arrive ear­ly – to avoid the bus loads of tourists who will dis­em­bark into Ver­sailles – and stay late – and stay late to get the best out of Ver­sailles.  

Arriv­ing ear­ly will give you a head start first­ly on the secu­ri­ty queue – which can last as long as 3 hours in peak sea­son – and in explor­ing the key rooms in Ver­sailles includ­ing the daz­zling hall or mir­rors and the sto­ried Kings and Queens apart­ments – adding not only to your enjoy­ment when explor­ing Ver­sailles but ensur­ing you have more time and space to soak in the mag­ic of this won­der and grab daz­zling pho­to shots. Do note that entry into Ver­sailles in the sum­mer months is in timed slots – so it’s essen­tial that your trav­el syncs up with the timed slot you’ve booked.  

Fur­ther stay­ing late will also give you the best of Ver­sailles – with the palace emp­ty­ing around 4pm as those on des­ig­nat­ed tours depart back to Paris, with the gar­dens at their best towards dusk and the range of foun­tain shows ‑includ­ing the spec­tac­u­lar Sat­ur­day show also hap­pen­ing after the Gold­en Hour has passed. With arriv­ing ear­ly and leav­ing late being absolute­ly essen­tial for an enjoy­able day at Ver­sailles.  

Plot your own course through Ver­sailles – As well as ensur­ing you arrive ear­ly and leave late – and know­ing that you have to book slots to enter into Ver­sailles., it’s essen­tial that you come to the palace with an organ­ised and detailed plan as to which rooms across the palace you want to see and in what order.  

Com­ing with an overview and under­stand­ing of your route through the palace will add to your enjoy­ment as it will mean you hit the best spots first before the crowds arrive and the rooms are too packed to soak in their his­to­ry and tru­ly enjoy them. For those who do arrive lat­er in the day – we’d encour­age you to adjust your itin­er­ary at Ver­sailles to ensure you do not fol­low the crowds – and vis­it­ing the less­er crowd­ed rooms first before cir­cling back to take in the grand high­lights of this palace. With a prop­er plan and itin­er­ary being essen­tial to max­imise your time and enjoy­ment inside the incred­i­ble palace of Ver­sailles.   

Buy a Skip the line tick­et: As well as account­ing for the crowds buy tim­ing your vis­it to Ver­sailles on the right day and at the right time, we’d also strong­ly advise you to shell out a few extra Euro’s for the skip the line pass – which is essen­tial to both max­imise your time with­in Ver­sailles and your enjoy­ment – as you avoid the long queues and lines that form out­side both the Palace itself and the rooms with­in it.  

A worth­while invest­ment, cut­ting out the queu­ing with the skip the line pass will also max­imise your enjoy­ment across Ver­sailles as it will safe your enjoy lev­els, with queues known to stretch back hours in the bright sun dur­ing the sum­mer months – which can real­ly take out the enjoy­ment for explor­ers seek­ing to enter Ver­sailles. So, as well as arriv­ing ear­ly and stay­ing late, we’d high­ly rec­om­mend book­ing a skip the line tick­et for the best of the Palace of Ver­sailles.  

Secu­ri­ty & Come Pre­pared: Final­ly, you’ll need to come pre­pared for both the secu­ri­ty at Ver­sailles and the long day. From a secu­ri­ty per­spec­tive only, small back­packs are allowed into the palace itself — and these will be checked before­hand – with self­ie-sticks, pets, umbrel­las all not allowed into the palace – and those in pos­ses­sion of food and back­packs expect­ed to store them in a cloak­room before pro­ceed­ing into the palace. Do be warned that secu­ri­ty checks have been known to take up to 3 hours – so it’s essen­tial to arrive ear­ly to beat the queue ! 

While giv­ing up your bag can be an incon­ve­nience, we’d still encour­age you to come to Ver­sailles with one – and ensure you’ve packed a pon­cho, a jumper for the cool evenings and most impor­tant­ly plen­ty of water and food to get you through the long day, with the restau­rants avail­able at Ver­sailles being on the expen­sive side – and one of the best expe­ri­ences at Ver­sailles being to relax in the ele­gant and sim­ply beau­ti­ful gar­dens dur­ing sun­set and enjoy­ing a small pic­nic and the water foun­tains – which is an incred­i­ble way to round out your day at this stun­ning won­der of the world.  

Cost:  

Avail­able as one of the worlds great­est day trips, Ver­sailles is a won­der that lends itself to an afford­able and eas­i­ly acces­si­ble explo­ration – just so long as you plan ahead to get the best our of this incred­i­ble palace! 

Get­ting there: First up on the cost front, we’d advise to get your­self to the cap­i­tal of France; Paris – and for those based around Europe this can be done on a bud­get flight for as lit­tle as $100 Usd return – with those based out­side of Europe in Asia, North or South Amer­i­ca and Aus­trala­sia advised to book flights at least 3 months in advance and bud­get­ing for around $700 — $1500 Usd depend­ing on the route you take and your depar­ture loca­tion.  

Hav­ing got your­self to Paris and it’s then time to decide on your mode of trav­el to Ver­sailles – with those opt­ing for one of the many tours that depart Paris – either by Coach, train or a bicy­cle tour look­ing at between $90 — $180 Usd depend­ing on the tour type you choose – with it being essen­tial that you pick a skip the line tick­et regard­less of the tour type you choose.  

For those who do opt for a tour, we’d encour­age you to con­sid­er opt­ing for a high­er range tour – with their being tours that depart Paris by lux­u­ry coach and see you escort­ed round the palace with a guide and then stay­ing for the night­ly foun­tain shows and fire­work dis­play – with these tours that will come in at around $180 Usd – being well worth it for the fact that you can explore Ver­sailles with­out the intense crowds and enjoy the foun­tain dis­play – which is tru­ly spe­cial.  

Get­ting in: For those who opt to go on a self-explo­ration to Ver­sailles from Paris – the first thing we’d rec­om­mend you take care of is your skip the line tick­et to Ver­sailles (which includes the palace itself and the gardnes) and you can pur­chase these online for $20 Usd on the Ver­sailles web­site (https://versaillespalace.tours/tickets/) as well as book indi­vid­ual tours – includ­ing bicy­cle and wine tours on the same site for between $120 – 140 Usd.  

Alter­na­tive­ly for those stay­ing in Paris and who are want­i­ng to explore all the incred­i­ble muse­ums in the French Cap­i­tal you can con­sid­er buy­ing the Paris Muse­um Pass – again avail­able online – with for the price of $55 Usd includes not only entrance to Ver­sailles, but across 2, 4 or 6 days grants you access to the best of Paris muse­ums and art gal­leries – includ­ing the Lou­vre, Orsay Muse­um the Sainte-Chapelle, the Pan­theon and the roof top ter­race of the Arc de Tri­umph – mak­ing the Paris Muse­um pass well worth the mon­ey.  

Do note that for both tick­ets you’ll want to reserve a slot to enter Ver­sailles – to ensure you get the most out of your time at the palace and that your expe­ri­ence through secu­ri­ty – which can take hours is as quick and effi­cient as pos­si­ble.  

For those who want an in-depth explo­ration of Ver­sailles it might be worth con­sid­er­ing hir­ing a guide – and you’ll be able to book one well in advance through a range of online tour com­pa­nies for around $20 Usd – with the tours last­ing for around 2 hours and ensur­ing you get an in-depth and true jour­ney through the beau­ty and his­to­ry of Ver­sailles.  

Hav­ing got your tick­ets and tours arranged – for those head­ing to Ver­sailles from Paris on a self-guid­ed tour you’ll then need to account for you train or bus tick­ets – and for those on a bud­get you’ll find both train and bus tick­ets both incred­i­bly afford­able – with train tick­ets cost­ing $7 usd return – and buyable both at sta­tions and online before­hand and bus tick­ets – which must be paid in cash cost­ing between $5 — $6 Usd return – mak­ing for an incred­i­ble afford­able and easy way to get to the palace of Ver­sailles from Paris.  

Accom­mo­da­tion: For those who want to extend their stay at Ver­sailles – and have a tru­ly unique and king­ly expe­ri­ence with­in this stun­ning palace, you can also spend the night with­in the palace at one of the grand apart­ments. A fas­ci­nat­ing and lux­u­ri­ous expe­ri­ence – that trans­ports you back through his­to­ry and lets you live the life of kings for a day – a night in a suite at the palace of Ver­sailles does not come cheap  — with the cheap­est room start­ing at $2,000 and ris­ing to the tens of thou­sands – with each suite com­ing with a per­son­al but­ler, a spa, a world class restau­rant and a pri­vate gar­den and giv­ing you free reign of Ver­sailles after hours – with the chance to explor­ing this stun­ning palace with the absence of tourists being tru­ly spe­cial.  

Extras: Account­ing as well for food spend­ing – which we’d high­ly encour­age you to get before set­ting off to Ver­sailles – as the restau­rants with­in the ground of the palace are incred­i­bly expen­sive and a small sou­venir – which adds an extra $15 Usd onto your day,  trip to Ver­sailles is pos­si­ble from Paris as a day trip for as lit­tle as $40 Usd – not account­ing for get­ting to Paris – for those on a bud­get, with those who choose to get pub­lic trans­port, a skip the line tick­et and food advised to bud­get around $100 Usd a day – and for those who opt for a tour advised to bud­get for around $150 Usd a day – with the prices increas­ing­ly rapid­ly if you choose to spend the night at Ver­sailles and eat at one of the restau­rants inside the palace grounds.  

There­fore, with a range of bud­get options to suit all explor­ers – from $40 – to the hun­dreds, the Palace of Ver­sailles lends itself as one of the most afford­able and acces­si­ble won­ders of the world – just be sure to book and place in advance and arrive ear­ly with a skip the line tick­et for the most enjoy­able expe­ri­ence at this stun­ning and daz­zling palace.  

Fun Fact: 

Awash with his­to­ry the Palace of Ver­sailles is undoubt­ed­ly the jew­el of France, with this stun­ning palace also have a spe­cial place and role in the shap­ing of France’s and world his­to­ry.  

Con­ceived by Louis XIV with an unlim­it­ed bud­get under his belief that he had a divine right to rule – the Palace of Ver­sailles stretch­es across 815 hectares of land and at its height was expand­ed to fea­ture thou­sands of rooms, 100’s of libraires, mar­ble stair­cas­es and enough room to con­tain Louis XIVs entire roy­al court of 500.  

Ele­gant­ly dec­o­rat­ed with only the finest French and Ital­ian fab­rics, paint­ings and art, the total cost of the palace of Ver­sailles came in at an esti­mat­ed one third of a tril­lion dol­lars, which pushed France to the edge of bank­rupt­cy and unsur­pris­ing­ly led to a French Rev­o­lu­tion which helped define the French Repub­lic as we know it today.  

While the lega­cy of this rev­o­lu­tion is found in mod­ern day France, it’s also found in a series of inter­est­ing facts across the palace, notably that the gold­en gates that vis­i­tors pass through are sad­ly repli­cas, as too are many of the books and pieces of art – with the most famous French piece of art – the Mona Lisa – find­ing a new home from Ver­sailles in the Lou­ve as well.   

While there have been upgrades to Ver­sailles since Louis XIV moved in – most notably and thank­ful­ly in both the instal­la­tion of elec­tric­i­ty and plumb­ing (with it being Louis XIV who bought the first ‘water clos­et’ to Ver­sailles) the repli­cas don’t take away from the sto­ried his­to­ry across the Palace. With an explo­ration through Ver­sailles allow­ing you to soak in, feel, sense and smell the incred­i­ble his­to­ry and beau­ty with­in this palace – which makes for an increi­d­ble expe­ri­ence at one of the world’s most stun­ning and beau­ti­ful won­ders of the world.  

Top Sights & Best photo spot: 

The grand­est Euro­pean palace – and a liv­ing muse­um that has been at the heart of French and Glob­al his­to­ry, the grand palace of Ver­sailles is a wash with incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties, with the extrav­a­gance of Louis XIV evi­dent through­out the 2,300 rooms, 815 Acres of lav­ish green gar­dens and in the stun­ning Baroque Archi­tec­ture that adorns the Opera House, Libraries, Chapel and Chateau of this stun­ning palace.  

Beyond the archi­tec­tur­al, lush gar­dens and beau­ty con­tained with­in the palace – you’ll also be able to both cap­ture and explore exquis­ite and mov­ing art with­in the Palace, with their being thou­sands of pieces of awe-inspir­ing art and more than a hun­dred sculp­tures aligned through­out the palace, and pho­to­graph and take in a unique insight into the his­to­ry con­tained with­in the palace – with the lav­ish rooms with­in the palace being a dri­ving force behind the French Rev­o­lu­tion and the Hall of Mir­rors being the site of the World War I peace treaty sign­ing.  

An incred­i­ble won­der, that lends itself to stun­ning pho­tos, both with­in the Palace and across the grounds – par­tic­u­lar­ly at sun­set where the grand canal and foun­tains of Ver­sailles light up for a stun­ning cli­max to any vis­it to the Palace – you’ll want to get to Ver­sailles either ear­ly morn­ing or late after­noon for best pho­tos to ensure you avoid the crowds on tour groups, which real­ly can take the edge off your pho­tos. 

Giv­en the vast size of this sprawl­ing palace and the estate know­ing the best spots and palaces to cap­ture the absolute best of Ver­sailles can be tricky, so it’s essen­tial that your trip  to Ver­sailles comes with a plan of your must snap pho­to loca­tions that we’d advise head­ing to first before the crowds fil up with­in them. To help you out with this – and ensure your trip to Ver­sailles is as spe­cial and mag­i­cal as pos­si­ble and that you get to cap­ture the absolute best of this incred­i­ble palace, we’ve round­ed out our top pho­to loca­tions at the stun­ning won­der of the world that is the Palace of Ver­sailles:  

The Hall of Mirrors:

Start­ing with the most his­tor­i­cal­ly impor­tant, grand­est, and undoubt­ed­ly stun­ning room with­in the Palace of Ver­sailles, the Hall of Mir­rors tru­ly lives up to its name, with the grand gold­en 73 metres of this stun­ning room con­tain­ing 17 grand sil­ver arch­es and vast quan­ti­ties of gold and crys­tal which reflect across the hall allow­ing light to shine, which com­bined with the deep paint­ed ceil­ings and sculp­tures, cre­ate an incred­i­ble extrav­a­gant hall of wealth – with the reflec­tive, sheer size and wealth reflect­ing across the room allow­ing for a stun­ning pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty.  

Best cap­tured in sequences – both as a long shot across the hall and snap­ping up close shots of the art, reflec­tions and sculp­tures across the hall, it’the Hall of Mir­rors was utilised as Louis XIV as a rep­u­ta­tion of his (ques­tion­able) mil­i­tary accom­plish­ments and his believed link to the sun god, with the hall serv­ing as a pas­sage­way and a ban­quet hall before the French Rev­o­lu­tion put paid to his plans.  

A hall that’s essen­tial to arrive at ear­ly too – before crowds arrive – in order to snap the best pho­tos, it was also here that the 1919 treaty of Ver­sailles, which saw the end of World War I – but would undoubt­ed­ly put the world on the path to World War II was signed. With any explo­ration across the gold­en and vast breath-tak­ing halls allow­ing explor­ers to both soak in and pho­to­graph not only stun­ning pieces of art, vast wealth but also the rich and deep his­to­ry con­tained with­in this room, as the more than 357 mir­rors across this great hall bring the Hall of Mir­rors and the Palace of Ver­sailles to life.  

The State apartments of the King:

After grab­bing incred­i­ble shots with­in the daz­zling hall of mir­rors, we’d then advise head­ing to the grand state apart­ment of the King – an indul­gent spec­ta­cle of Louis XIV that dis­plays just how friv­o­lous he was with the state’s mon­ey and how the Palace of Ver­sailles was a cat­a­lyst for the French Rev­o­lu­tion.  

The state apart­ments of the King are stretched over sev­en grand rooms – and served not as an offi­cial res­i­dence but as a recep­tion and hos­pi­tal­i­ty room for guests – and across each room you’ll again be greet­ed by gold­en reflec­tive arch­es and walls, stun­ning crys­tal chan­de­liers and Ital­ian fur­nish­ings – all of which are a reflec­tion of the grandeur and pomp of Louis XIV – and which make for incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

With­in this apart­ment there’s also a great chance to pho­to­graph not only the sto­ried and his­tor­i­cal rooms, but the art col­lec­tion of Louis XIV – Louis XVI – with their grand col­lec­tion of some of the most price­less, unique and awe-inspir­ing art mak­ing for great shots and expand­ing both your explo­ration of Ver­sailles and pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties to include one of the most impres­sive art gal­leries on the plan­et.  

The State apartments of the Queen:

Mov­ing from the Kings Apart­ments to the Queens – and with this being the for­mer res­i­dence of Marie-Antoinette – and being the place where she both received guests and spend the major­i­ty of her time, it should come as no sur­prise that this apart­ment is again an extrav­a­gance of great art, gold­en walls and rich indul­gence – mak­ing for stun­ning pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

Chief among these is the rich fab­ric art that lights up the four rooms of the Queen’s apart­ment, with all of the wall cov­er­ings, bed pan­els and furniture’s – as well as a series of tapes­tries – all adorned with fab­ric art, which are believed to have been painstak­ing­ly re-cre­at­ed by hand in Lyon of the favourite flo­ral designs of Marie-Antoinette.  

Along­side snap­ping incred­i­ble pho­tos of the rich tapes­tries and gold­en rooms, you’ll also find on dis­play the dia­monds and jew­ellery of Marie-Antoinette – which again offers a fas­ci­nat­ing insight into the indul­gence and wealth of the monarch – as well as a series of fam­i­ly por­traits includ­ing Emper­or Joseph II – which offer both a fas­ci­nat­ing jour­ney into the past of the French monar­chy and a chance to take in and pho­to­graph unique and rare por­traits of some of the most influ­en­tial fig­ures in French His­to­ry.  

The Royal Chapel:

Mov­ing from the apart­ments we’d then advise head­ing next to the Roy­al Chapel for pho­tos – and head­ing first­ly up to it’s upper lay­er for sweep­ing panoram­ic shots — some 144 feet up – that cap­ture the beau­ty of the paint­ed domes and ceil­ings as well as the altar of this incred­i­ble chapel.  

A place of deep his­to­ry – with it being here that Marie-Antoinette would mar­ry Louis XIV – the Roy­al Chapel is grand in spec­ta­cle, and has been re-designed and devel­oped no less than 5 times – with it’s cur­rent con­struc­tion repli­cat­ing that of the reign of Louis XIV and fea­tur­ing – along­side the paint­ed ceil­ings and domes – an impos­ing organ – designed by Clic­quot – which is a true sight to behold and which makes for a great ver­ti­cal panoram­ic pho­to­graph.  

Split into two lev­els, the sec­ond lev­el offers the great panoram­ic shot over the chapel, and was also the place where the Roy­al Fam­i­ly would attend mass – with the low­er lev­el fea­tur­ing the reli­gious art col­lec­tion, which is made up of hun­dreds of sculp­tures, paint­ings and inscrip­tions – all of which pay trib­ute to both the reli­gious beliefs of the monar­chy and served as a reminder of their divine right to rule.  

The Royal Opera House:

Con­sid­ered the final piece of the Palace of Ver­sailles by Louis XIV – who believed that despite the thou­sands of rooms, enor­mous art col­lec­tions and hun­dreds of libraries and gal­leries that no palace could be com­plete with­out an Opera House, the Roy­al Opera House of the palace of Ver­sailles serves as one of the largest and grand­est con­cert halls in Europe and as a place of deep his­to­ry.  

The recep­tion hall for a series of engage­ments – includ­ing the wed­ding of Marie Antoinette – the Roy­al opera house was com­plet­ed in 1770, and is one of the most stun­ning opera hous­es on the plan­et – with the ceil­ings and walls being dec­o­rat­ed with evoca­tive art cen­tred around Apol­lo, the ceil­ings adorned with chan­de­liers and the tiered seat­ing giv­ing explor­ers both great views across the hall and great pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

Fur­ther the opera house is blessed – thanks to its incred­i­ble design – with some of the best acoustics for an opera house on the plan­et, mak­ing it not just a stun­ning place to vis­it dur­ing the day – but for those who are lucky enough to spend an extra night at Ver­sailles – catch­ing a per­for­mance in this stun­ning opera house is not only a great chance to grab a spe­cial pic­ture but a chance to wit­ness the Palace of Ver­sailles at its artis­tic best.  

The Grand Trianon Palace:

After explor­ing the top 5 bits of the main part of the palace, it’s time to delve fur­ther into the life of Louis XIV – and head­ing to his per­son­al palace, where he spent his time after grow­ing tired of both the vol­ume of peo­ple, size and pol­i­tics of the per­son­al Ver­sailles – by explor­ing the Grand Tri­anon Palace – a palace that sits on the grounds of Ver­sailles and designed as a grand palace of Pink Mar­ble.  

Used as well for ‘meet­ings’ with his mis­tress – the Grand Tri­anon Palace offers a great pho­to shot from the out­side – tak­ing in the white pil­lars, as well as anoth­er great shot walk­ing beneath the arch­ways on the tiled floors – and although the orig­i­nal ver­sion of this place con­struct­ed in 1670 sad­ly fell apart, the restored ver­sion today is split into two long   

Although the small palace was ready for use in 1670, it rather quick­ly fell apart, as did Louis’s rela­tion­ship with his mis­tress.  The sec­ond iter­a­tion, com­plet­ed in 1688, is what you see today – with this mar­ble palace being divid­ed into two great sec­tions with floor to ceil­ing win­dows (the ori­gin of French doors) and offers both a fas­ci­nat­ing insight into Louis XIV per­son­al life – and a series of great pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of some incred­i­ble palace archi­tec­ture and views look­ing out over the gar­dens.  

 Petit Trianon Palace:

The small­er sis­ter of the Grand Tri­anon Palace, the Petit Tri­anon Palace was built by Louis XV – both for more mis­tress pur­pos­es and as a trib­ute to him­self – yet the palace is more com­mon­ly asso­ci­at­ed with Marie-Antoinette – who utilised the palace as a pri­vate sanc­tu­ary with guests only allowed in with her express per­mis­sion – until the palace was aban­doned dur­ing the French rev­o­lu­tion until its restora­tion by Napoleon who redesigned it to its mod­ern day appear­ance we see today.  

For those for­tu­nate enough to enter dur­ing Marie-Antoinette’s occu­pa­tion – and vis­i­tors today, you’ll find, along­side the inte­ri­or of the palace, an exquis­ite botan­i­cal gar­dens and botany gar­den with­in the grounds of the palace – a throw­back to Louis XIV who com­mis­sioned the best botanist in France to design his gar­dens – with their being a series of stun­ning shots avail­able in the pools and gar­dens that lie at the entrance of the palace.  

On top of this there’s also a great pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ty avail­able inside the the­atre room of the palace itself, with the grand stage of the Petit Tri­anon accom­pa­nied by a back­drop of gold­en hang­ings and ceil­ings – that makes for a fan­tas­tic illus­tra­tion of the indul­gence, extrav­a­gance and wealth that went into the cre­ation of Ver­sailles that would be a cat­a­lyst for the French Rev­o­lu­tion.  

The Gardens of the Palace of Versailles:

Adding the ele­gance, style and life to Ver­sailles, the Gar­dens of the Palace are tru­ly ele­gant and fit for a king, with the more than 2,00 acres of lush green gar­dens being designed as we know them today in 1661 by famed archi­tect André Le Nôtre into a series of grid­ded gar­dened rooms – which fea­ture the best of botany, with a range of colour­ful wild plants, charm­ing shrub­bery, wind­ing path­ways, tiered hedges, tow­er­ing stat­ues, some of the most stun­ning water foun­tains, pools and rivers of any gar­den on the plan­et – and even an out­door amphithe­atre – all of which com­bine to offer charm­ing pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties to illu­mi­nate and bring out the best of the palace of Ver­sailles. 

Care­ful­ly restored to its orig­i­nal state, the gar­dens of Ver­sailles now dou­ble as a pub­lic space and park – and giv­en the immense size of these great gar­dens you’ll find access to the most stun­ning parts avail­able by both a small train and golf carts, which can trans­fer you straight to the best pho­to spots.  

Yet we’d rec­om­mend mak­ing time to explore the gar­dens on foot or by bike – and par­tic­u­lar­ly make time for first­ly the Lime Tree Walk – which is a stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful – and immense­ly pho­to­graph­ic path­way that see’s you walk between tow­er­ing lime trees from the Ver­sailles gates to the Water­fowl reserve and walk down the Roy­al Star path­way – which can offer stun­ning views back over the full beau­ty of the gar­dens and the palace of Ver­sailles – for a pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty that will let you cap­ture the absolute best of the stun­ning won­der of Ver­sailles.  

The Grand Canal:

Found with­in the Gar­dens of Ver­sailles – the Grand Canal of Ver­sailles once served as a riv­er for mock ship bat­tles that would keep Louis XIV enter­tained – and stretch­es more than 60 metres in width thou­sands of metres in length – with this stun­ning riv­er now the focal points of the Roy­al Dri­ve – a scenic axis that sweeps through the gar­dens and which makes for an incred­i­bly pho­to spot – par­tic­u­lar­ly at sun­set when the descend­ing sun lights up the riv­er to give a glow­ing reflec­tion of Ver­sailles in its waters that stretch­es to the hori­zon.  

Designed again by Le Notre – the roy­al dri­ve which leads to the grand canal starts with a charm­ing grav­el path­way that leads to a four tired ele­gant foun­tain and then across a green car­pet of grass aligned with mar­ble stat­ues that leads to the banks of the Grand Canal – and for those who have already been through the palace of Ver­sailles and stud­ied Louis XIV you’ll see reflec­tions of  his belief that he had a divine right to rule and was the re-incar­na­tion of the god Apol­lo is also vis­i­ble across the banks of the Canal – with the pool at the basin of the canal known as the Apol­lo pool — and the walls of the riv­er dec­o­rat­ed with char­i­ot images.  

A true feat of archi­tec­ture and gar­den design – the Grand Canal offers a great place to cap­ture the best oof the Ver­sailles Gar­dens and reflec­tive shots of Ver­sailles against the Grand Canal – and is our pick as to place to be and shoot from at a stun­ning French sun­set.  

The Musical Fountains Show 

Final­ly – no explo­ration and pho­to­graph­ic jour­ney at Ver­sailles would be com­plete with­out vis­it­ing the night­ly musi­cal foun­tain shows – which take place every Sat­ur­day evening from June to Octo­ber and on Bastille Day – with it being sim­ply majes­tic to watch all 32 of the grand foun­tains light and sync up to the sound of the best of French music and wit­ness a fire­work show – that see’s the palace of Ver­sailles and the serene gar­dens lit up in a thrilling evening finale that offers both a spe­cial cli­max and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty for any vis­it to Ver­sailles.  

Orig­i­nal­ly con­ceived as a recre­ation of some of the pomp and grandeur cer­e­monies that took place at the palace under the reign of Louis XIV – and the wed­ding cel­e­bra­tion of Marie-Antoinette, we’d advise mak­ing sure you arrive around 30 min­utes before to the foun­tain area to get a good spot to wit­ness the show – and with a night-time cam­era in hand and with the mem­o­ry of a stun­ning vis­it of the palace of Ver­sailles behind you – you can sit back and enjoy the incred­i­ble show that lights up not just the calm French Sky and the ele­gant and exquis­ite gar­dens but the true jew­el of France in the Palace of Ver­sailles and caps an incred­i­ble day at this immense and stun­ning won­der of the world.