Visit Versailles Palace - Full day from Paris

THE VISIT TO THE CASTLE OF VERSAILLES, THE LITTLE TRIANON AND THE GRAND TRIANON

This visit will allow you to appreciate several rooms and the most essential places of the castle and its domain:

• The King's Grand Apartments, this prestigious seven-room area was meant to serve as a parade apartment, that is, as a venue for the sovereign's official acts. Therefore it was sumptuously decorated according to the model of former Italian palaces.
• The Hall of Mirrors or "the Grande Galerie", as it was called in the 17th century, was used daily as a place of passage, and a waiting and meeting space for the courtesans and the visiting nobles.
• The Grand Trianon: in 1687, Jules Hardouin Mansart built the Grand Trianon, probably the most refined group of buildings anywhere in the domain of Versailles, on the site of the "Porcelain Trianon", which Louis XIV had constructed in 1670 to escape the pomp and rigid formality of court life with his mistress Madame de Montespan.
• The "Petit" Trianon, a place where Marie-Antoinette made her life far from the main chateau...

OPTIONS SELECTED BY FRANCE TOURISME

THE GARDENS OF VERSAILLES

Enjoy your free time to stroll the magnificent French gardens designed by Le Nôtre: nature is tamed, flowerbeds are geometric and the aisles are structured. The gardens are adorned with more than 400 marble, bronze and led statues and the fountains, ponds and terraces obey the laws of optical illusion, so the Grand Canal seems closer when standing at the foot of the castle.

If you rather not walk too much, visit the domain with the mini train. You can get off the train at any stop for a visit and get on the next train.

FOUNTAINS SHOW AND MUSICAL GARDENS

From April to October, the fountains come to life and you can watch the fabulous spectacle of the great waters set to baroque music. The "Grandes Eaux de Versailles" show takes place on saturdays and sundays, the "Jardins Musicaux de Versailles" takes place from Tuesday to Friday (compulsory extra charge +10€).

VERSAILLES HISTORY...

When the Versailles Palace was built, the city of Versailles was a country village; today it is a suburb, some twenty kilometers southwest of Paris. The court of Versailles was the center of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the "Ancient Régime" in France.

Discover the Versailles Palace