This was one of those things that I really wanted to do, but was kind of dreading at the same time. I had been told by so many people that it is a day of mass crowds pushing you through very hot rooms especially as this is now the heart of High Season, but I wanted to do it before it got any hotter. Therefore, as a proper Englishman I grinned and bore it.
The day didn’t go off to a great start, because the RER C double decker train (oh my God so cool) service was not running from the station I went to due to les travaux. You’ll find this a lot in summer in Paris, or maybe it’s all year round I don’t know, but they seem to be closing everything for travaux. Whilst I'm on things closing actually, the Paris Opéra doesn’t have anything on between mid July to September. What is this?!?! I was really looking forward to that!
When I got to Versailles I realized that I did not have any water with me, I know, reeeally prepared. I kept my eyes open for a supermarket on the way to the Palace, but didn't see anything. I later found out that there is a Monoprix just further down the road from the Versaille Chateau Rive Gauche station. So my advice would be to buy any sort of food or drink for the day from here where the prices are far more reasonable that actually inside the Palace. So just walk straight past the boulevard from which you can see the Palace and it will be on your Right.
I followed the advice from the website and did the gardens first and left the Palace for last. This is in fact the best way of doing things, because even though I didn't have to pay to get in I had to queue and the queue is much shorter in the afternoon.
The gardens are amazing and just as vast as the pictures suggest, maybe even bigger. The fountains are fantastic and were accompanied by 17th Century music so as you walked around you could imagine yourself as an French Aristocrat in the times of Louis XIV. (Just saying I quite fancied myself that job)
It is quite incredible that you can be amongst so many people but the grounds are so enormous that I found a place where I felt completely secluded to have my lunch. It was the first time I had been out of the city and it was lovely. turns out I quite miss the fairly rural Exeter! This is perhaps the reason why I loved Marie Antoinette's Hamlet. She too felt like a bit pressured, by the workings of the court not the city, so she order a Hamlet to be built in the style of the English Countryside. It is beautiful. It is like a magical, enchanted, hidden dwelling and no trip to Versailles is complete without seeing it!
The palace itself is amazingly grand just as you would expect and everyone was right it is packed and really hot, but definitely worth it. My favourite bit was in fact not the Galerie des Glaces, but the Galerie des Batailles. This was created by Louis-Philippe who was the first elected king of France. It displays all the great battles that have lead to modern day France and is twice the size of the Galrie des glaces.
I followed the advice from the website and did the gardens first and left the Palace for last. This is in fact the best way of doing things, because even though I didn't have to pay to get in I had to queue and the queue is much shorter in the afternoon. The gardens are amazing and just as vast as the pictures suggest, maybe even bigger. The fountains are fantastic and were accompanied by 17th Century music so as you walked around you could imagine yourself as an French Aristocrat in the times of Louis XIV. (Just saying I quite fancied myself that job)
It is quite incredible that you can be amongst so many people but the grounds are so enormous that I found a place where I felt completely secluded to have my lunch. It was the first time I had been out of the city and it was lovely. turns out I quite miss the fairly rural Exeter! This is perhaps the reason why I loved Marie Antoinette's Hamlet. She too felt like a bit pressured, by the workings of the court not the city, so she order a Hamlet to be built in the style of the English Countryside. It is beautiful. It is like a magical, enchanted, hidden dwelling and no trip to Versailles is complete without seeing it!
The palace itself is amazingly grand just as you would expect and everyone was right it is packed and really hot, but definitely worth it. My favourite bit was in fact not the Galerie des Glaces, but the Galerie des Batailles. This was created by Louis-Philippe who was the first elected king of France. It displays all the great battles that have lead to modern day France and is twice the size of the Galrie des glaces.
Overall, a very successful day and i thoroughly recommend it. A must see!
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