CallieVersailles, France
The Palace of Versailles was originally a hunting lodge in the quaint town of Versailles about 45 minutes outside if the city of Paris used by the kings of France. It’s most famous residents were King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette before the Revolution and their unfortunate end. The Palace itself was actually sadly in ruin and many of the magnificent belongings in ruin until John D. Rockefeller Jr visited on a family trip and visited…seeing the palace in disrepair he wrote a letter to France and sent a request for fund the rebuilding and restoration. Rockefeller essentially jump started the saving of this international historical gem and paid for the facades, roofs, gardens and gave millions to save it!
If you’re traveling to Versailles from Paris it’s about a 45 minute metro and then a train ride so check your rail line. The train drop off is about a 15 minute walk from the palace. I would advise you to have your travel advisor (me) pre purchase your tickets. This is what the line looked like to purchase tickets once you got to Versailles. We had prepurchase timed tickets so we didn’t need to stand in line for that! Make sure you also wear good walking shoes since the property has cobblestones which can be hard to walk on.
Once you get there you will go through initial security, they will check strollers but not individuals at this time. You will be able to walk up to the gate which has been fully restored. You can also enter the garden area to walk around or wait for your timed ticket entry.
Guest with timed tickets will que up at the left side of the gate where the door is marked with a sign labeled “A”. They will also change the sign with the time. People will start queuing an hour before your scheduled time so I recommend having at least one person from your party getting in line at that time. The line will start entering in the palace promptly at your scheduled ticketed time. Have your ticket ready. You will go through security and have your bags scanned in metal detectors. You will then be able to get audio guides and maps and enter the main court yard and be on your way.
We entered straight into the palace where we saw the chapel…
A peek out at the garden…..
Room after room of this….
The King’s chambers…
The famed Hall of Mirrors
Marie Antoinette’s room…
There is also a small restaurant and boulangerie at the Palace. We chose to eat at the boulangerie since we could grab something quickly without having to wait 45 minutes to be seated.
Oh and they had pasteries!
They also had soups and sandwiches. There was limited seating inside but if you exited to eat outside you could not come back inside the Palace so that’s something to keep in mind.
There was also an adorable shop downstairs which we spent way too much money in but had the cutest souvenirs and an a la cart macron cart which I recommend getting macrons from instead of at the boulangerie. I forgot to get a picture but I did get a picture of the flavors!
Versailles was definitely one of our favorite trips! We would have stayed longer if we were visiting without children but were mindful of her attention span. That being said she easily last 4-5 hours-which was amazing!
Need help planning your trip to Versailles? You can find me on Facebook at Callie at Wanderkeep Travel or on Instagram at Wanderingwithcallie or you can email me at callie@wanderkeep.com and as always my services are complimentary when you book through me!
