A visit to Chateau de Versailles makes for a delightful day trip from Paris. The Chateau is huge, so plan to spend much of the day there. We first visited years ago when our daughter was in junior high school; she had been studying Versailles in her history class and knew much about the palace as we wandered through. As a side note, we visited in April and arrived right as it was opening for the day, so we had the place mostly to ourselves.
The palace is vast and amazing, but since we love being outside, and it was a nice spring day, we spent most of our time visiting the gardens and other surrounding buildings.
The view of the the pool and fountains as you exit the palace is spectacular. We rented bikes which is a quick way to get around the expansive gardens and grounds.
The Estate of the Trianon was built as an “intimate” get away from the huge palace. Construction began in 1687 and took many years to complete.
The Queen’s Hamlet was built for Marie Antionette in the late 1700s as a private meeting place for the queen and her friends.
My husband and daughter rented a row boat, another fun way to see the grounds.
Versailles is about a 45 minute train ride from Paris, and the palace is a short walk from the train station. There are guided tours available, and self guided tours with headsets as well. It is expensive to visit the interior, but well worth the cost if you are a history buff. Visiting just the gardens is far les expensive. I recommend visiting in the off season and during the week rather than on the weekend, unless you enjoy crowds.
There is much more to share about Versailles, but I hope this quick overview gives you a few ideas about planning your visit there. As always, please leave a comment with your thoughts and suggestions about visiting Versailles,
Travels Through My Lens 