Travel Tips

We live at 15 kilometers from the Versailles Castle and we go regularly.

The best months are :
- January : to visit the Castle because there are few tourists. Only one group by room, even so. I can also park the car out of the parking place to avoid to spend 2 Euros per hour.
- May to August : to see the Gardens (800 hectars) which are marvellous and ... free.

The castle is too large to be visited in one time. There are several entrances which are shown on this map.

I recommend :

- Entrance C : the King's Apartment
- Entrance A : the Hall of Mirrors, the Queen's Apartment

Ask me the map by mail if it is too small. The digital image is fully readable.

From the window, a great view on the garden and the man-made lack.

The West frontage in June.

The large courtyard of the Versailles Palace.

A mini train allows to visit the garden without walking too much.

It is the good way to leave the Castle to go to the Grand Trianon (King's private lodging) and to the Petit Trianon and the Queen's Hamlet where Marie-Antoinette (Louis 16's wife who was beheaded during the Revolution) plaid the shepherdess.

The price is different according the season and the stop from which you start.

In a film called "Si Versailles m'était conté", Sacha GUITRY (an author and movie maker) said :

"One says the Kings took our money without taking our advices. But when they built Versailles they made savings with our money". (The Guitry's style is untranslatable)

Look at this view point to see this idea is right.

The Queen slept sitting and not laying down. If not the bed is too short.

I hope Fersen was not too tall.

La Galerie des Glaces.

The most beautiful of Louis XIV's flat. He received his guest here.

Nice, isn't it ?

Each time I see the floor of the Palace of Versailles, I think to my 2 ancestors (father and son) who were "Polishers of the King's Floors" ("Frotteurs des Planchers du Roy").The King was Louis XV (1715 - 1774).

I am not sure they worked so hard because they have a clothes shops in the city and may be,they paid somebody else to do their task. The duty of King's servant was personal and they kept it even they sent a substitute.