Palace of Versailles
Château de Versailles
Louis XIV's grand palace, the most magnificent in Europe, with the Hall of Mirrors, the King's apartments, 800 hectares of gardens, and the Trianon palaces. A day trip into the legacy of the Sun King, southwest of Paris.
Louis XIV began expanding the Palace of Versailles in 1661, building on his father's hunting lodge. It became the seat of the French court in 1682 and remained so until the French Revolution in 1789. It became the model that palaces across Europe rushed to imitate, and it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Highlights include the 73-meter-long Hall of Mirrors, where 17 arched windows face 357 mirrors (site of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919); the King's and Queen's apartments; the Royal Chapel; the War Room and Peace Room; the Coronation Hall; and Le Nôtre's French gardens, with the Latona Fountain, the Apollo Fountain, the Grand Canal, and geometrically clipped hedges. At the far end of the gardens, the Grand Trianon, the Petit Trianon, and Marie Antoinette's Queen's Hamlet, a pastoral retreat from court life, are worth reserving 2 hours for. Tickets: the palace costs about €21. The 'Passport' ticket, which includes the gardens and Trianon, costs about €32 (about €40 on musical fountain show days). Tickets must be booked for a time slot on the official website. Visitors under 18 enter free. From April to October, on weekends and some Tuesdays, musical fountain shows take place, and the gardens are charged separately (about €10) on those days. At other times, the gardens are free. Tip: arrive when the gates open at 9 a.m. to avoid tour groups. See the main palace first (about 2 hours), then after lunch explore the gardens and ride a bike or take the little train to Trianon. The full visit takes 6–7 hours. Getting there: from Paris, take RER C to Versailles Château Rive Gauche station (about 40 minutes, then a 10-minute walk to the gates), or take a train from Montparnasse station to Versailles Chantiers. Note: the palace is closed on Mondays. It is extremely crowded in peak season. The audio guide is available in Chinese. Bring water and comfortable shoes, as the gardens are enormous.
Opening hours
9:00 a.m.–6:30 p.m. (until 5:30 p.m. in winter; closed Mondays); gardens 8:00 a.m.–8:30 p.m.
Nearby sights
- Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye (National Archaeological Museum)
- La Défense & Grande Arche
- Fondation Louis Vuitton
- Trocadéro & Palais de Chaillot
- Arc de Triomphe
- Eiffel Tower
- Champs-Élysées
- Les Invalides