Château de Versailles

Today we went to our most touristy (and most expensive!) attraction so far – the Palace of Versailles.  We woke up early to catch the train (which takes an hour from where we are staying) because we had read that it gets busier as the day goes on.  When we got the Palace at 10:30, there was already a line-up of over a hundred people at the entrance and another 80 or so at the ticket office!  Fortunately we had read a very useful tip to skip the line-up for tickets by walking through the crowd at the doorway and going to the back of the ticket office where there are automated machines that most people don’t know about.  The only catch is these machines only accept pin-chip credit cards and you can only buy the adult-priced full day pass, which gives entrance to the Palace, the grounds, the Trianon Palaces and Marie-Antoinette’s Estate for 20 euros (if you want to just visit the Palace it’s only 13.50 euros and there are student and senior discounts for all passes, but you have to purchase these tickets from a cashier). 

To maximize our line-up efficiency, we split up and Paul went to get tickets while I lined up for entrance.  The line at the entrance actually moved really quickly because lots of people didn’t realize they had to buy tickets at the ticket office to the left, so when they got to the front they had to move to the side while someone from their party went and lined up for tickets!  By the time Paul got the tickets and came back, we only had to wait another 15 minutes to get in!

Starting in 1669,  King Louis XIV transformed Versailles from a royal hunting lodge into a magnificent (and huge!) palace where he resided and held court.  There are 700 rooms and many are open to the public for viewing, so it actually takes a lot of time to walk through the Palace, especially if you want to read the signs to learn what each room was for. My favourite was the Hall of Mirrors, a 200 foot long ballroom lined with giant mirrors, and I really liked the ceilings in the rooms, many of which are painted with frescoes of Greek gods.

We thought 4 hours at Versailles would be enough, but by the time we finished going through the Palace (and we rushed through a lot of it!), we didn’t have much time left to explore the gardens and check out Marie-Antoinette’s Estate and we had to completely skip the Trianon Palaces because Paul had to get back to the hotel for work.  We actually lost a bit of time because we found a cell phone as we were walking through the gardens and decided to redial the last number dialed in order to track down the owner to give the phone back.  The problem was the people who answered (who were with the owner) only spoke French so we couldn’t explain where we were!  It was amazingly difficult to find someone who spoke French to help us, but we finally found a nice trio from Quebec who was able to tell the owner where we were.  They said we could leave the phone with them and they would wait for the owner to come get it, but as we were walking away the guy who owned the phone showed up and ran after us to thank us and offer a few euro coins in appreciation.  We declined the money and went on our way – this will just be our good deed for the month

Overall, I would say that Versailles was a worth-while daytrip, although it’s probably better to visit mid-week or during off-peak season, when there aren’t as many crowds.  I wish we had been able to spend a full day there so that we could have spent more time in the gardens, rented a row-boat in the pond, and seen the Trianon Palaces.  Also, Marie-Antoinette’s Estate is quite pretty and worth a look, but take note of the fact that it’s far from the Palace and the grounds are very poorly labeled (it took us almost an hour to find!).  If you can afford it, rent one of the golf carts that they offer to get around the gardens(I think it was 20 euro per hour).