While you are in Paris, take a day trip to the Palace of Versailles, one of Europe’s largest and most spectacular royal homes, about 30 minutes from Paris.
Visiting Versailles
Versailles is easy to reach by frequent train service from the center of Paris. The fare is included on most European rail passes; otherwise a round trip costs about $8.
The palace and the grounds are a short walk from Rive Gauche station, reached by regional train (RER) rather than the metro. The town itself has a reasonable selection of bars, restaurants and shops, as well as a lively market in the town square several days a week. Some choose to stay in the town rather than Paris itself, as accommodation is generally cheaper than in Paris and the journey into Paris is so easy. It is strange to see the contrast between the town of Versailles, with its typical provincial main street, and the spectacular palace which dominates one end of the town. Don't miss it.
If you visit, try to avoid weekends and holidays, when the place can get packed with crowds of French schoolchildren, and arrive early in the day as you need to allow a full day to see everything. I visited on a Sunday afternoon in summer, and literally could not move for the crowds. Admission to Versailles only gets you into the palace itself – there are separate admission charges for the gardens, the stables and the Trianons, so you really have to decide what is worth seeing. The highlights are the palace itself, and if you have extra time, the gardens. You can tour the main building on your own, or pay extra to join one of several guided tours.
Apart from the usual selection of restaurants and souvenir shops, Versailles tries to make visiting easy – the palace boasts several ATMs and places where you can leave luggage. Today, restoration still continues constantly at the huge palace, and you may find some areas are temporarily sealed off when you visit. A major project to restore the famous Hall of Mirrors began recently and is expected to last through 2007 – the largest cultural sponsorship program ever undertaken in France. John D Rockefeller, amongst others, contributed heavily to the restoration of the palace, during his lifetime.