Today was another bucket list moment of this vacation… we’re going to Versailles!!  I had read some cynical reviews saying Versailles is overcrowded and not worth the effort to get out there, but I simply could not imagine being one hour away from Versailles and not seeing it in person.  Of course, lucky us, today’s high temperature was forecast to reach 97 degrees F, so it wasn’t the ideal day to spend walking around a palace with no air conditioning and nearly 2000 acres of gardens with limited shade, but we’d make it work!

When I was originally planning out what we would do each day of our time in Paris, I knew Versailles would need nearly a full day just for itself.  During the summer, they turn on the water in the fountains only on certain days, so I made sure to plan to be there on a “musical fountains” day (Saturdays and Sundays from April through October, plus Tuesdays from mid-May through late June).  Several guide books recommended avoiding Versailles on the weekends when the locals are more likely to visit, which meant we would be going on Tuesday.  Luckily, we were there the last Tuesday that they would be running the fountains so that worked out well for us.  There were some reviews that said to avoid Versailles on Tuesday because the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays and lots of tourists flock to Versailles, but I decided to take the risk and ignore that recommendation.  Surely, tourists can potentially find something to do in Central Paris that won’t require every single one of them to be at Versailles while we are there, right?? 

The museum pass covered our admission to the main chateau, but I knew we would need to pay an additional €9.50 per person to enter the gardens and see the fountains.  I considered buying the ticket online from the Versailles website, but decided not to after further thought.  The tickets are for a specific day and are nonrefundable.  What if it was raining that Tuesday?  What if one of us got sick or injured and couldn’t handle all of that extra walking?  It just didn’t make sense to commit to the gardens in advance because there is a ticket booth at the entrance to the gardens and we could also buy our tickets there.  Since most people either buy their tickets to the Chateau and the gardens online in advance, or at the main ticket window prior to entering the Chateau, there are rarely lines at the ticket window near the garden.  We planned to arrive early in the day and hoped to stay ahead of the crowds anyway, so it was worth the risk to have a little flexibility and wait to buy our garden ticket in person that day.

The main Chateau opens at 9am, so our goal was to arrive by 8:30am at the latest to get in line.  There is really no way to avoid waiting at some point in the process, but it’s better to arrive early, be one of the first in line, and wait a few minutes for the doors to open, as opposed to arriving later, waiting in a huge line to enter, and being in the middle of the hoards of people walking through the palace.  It takes about an hour to get to Versailles from Central Paris by train, which meant we had a very early morning today.  We woke up at 6am so we could leave the hotel by 7am.  We had to buy our breakfast pastries yesterday because none of the bakeries near our hotel would be opened that early in the morning.  Oye!  The things you do on “vacation”! haha

At the metro station, we used the electronic ticket machines to purchase 2 one-way tickets for each of us (they do not sell “round trip” tickets so you get 2 identical one-way tickets and it does not matter which one you use for each leg of the journey).  There are several train stations with “Versailles” in the name, but the one we needed to get closest to the Chateau was called “Rive Gauche”.  The train that goes out to Versailles is a commuter train called RER (as opposed to the metro subway that runs locally through the city), but when you buy an RER ticket, it also includes the transfer on the metro to get you to your nearest RER station.  We did not use one of our t+ tickets to enter the metro today.  The RER/metro ticket to Rive Gauche cost €3.50 per person each way.  We inserted one of our tickets into the turnstile at our metro station near the hotel, and made sure to keep that half-way used ticket in our pockets as we would need it to enter the RER station in a few minutes.  We took the metro line 8 to the Invalides station and transferred to RER line C through the underground tunnels.  Make sure you do not leave the station because once you go through the turnstiles to exit the station, you can’t re-use the second part of your RER ticket.  We walked a loooong way underground through the tunnels, constantly following signs pointing towards the RER C train, and finally we came to a dead end with another set of turnstiles to enter the RER station. 

I was a bit nervous about using the RER, mostly because it was the only time we had to use it during our time in Paris so it was unfamiliar and intimidating.  It turned out to be very easy.  When we entered the RER station, we looked for one of the monitors listing the next arriving train.  We saw a train labeled “RG” would be arriving next on one of the tracks, and knew “RG” stood for Rive Gauche, the last stop on our line and conveniently also the stop where we needed to exit for Versailles.  The train was a double-decker train, so we went upstairs to get a better view.  Since we were traveling away from the city center during the morning rush hour, our train was nearly empty and we easily found seats for the 30 minute ride.  At some point, the conductor came around and scanned our tickets to make sure we had paid our fare, so don’t lose those little tickets!

Our train arrived a little after 8am, and our first stop was to get some coffee for DH at the Starbucks directly across from the train station.  We then walked about 10 minutes up the road until we saw this:

We found Versailles!  We walked around the enormous parking lot until we saw the entrance gate into the entry courtyard.

In just a short while, this courtyard would be filled with thousands of tourists waiting to enter the palace, but at 8:20am, there was hardly anyone here!  There wasn’t anyone around to direct us where to go, but as we got closer, we could see a big sign for “Gate A” on the left for individuals and “Gate B” on the right for group tours, so we went towards the left.

Waking up at 6am was totally worth it to get a photo like this with no one else in the background!!

Looking through the gates at the interior courtyard where we would soon be walking to enter the Chateau.

Even the interior entry gates were opulent! 

Now is when things got a little confusing.  We knew we needed to stand towards the gate on the left for individuals, but they had 2 lines at this gate.  There were two signs for the two entrance lines, but neither sign said anything about the Museum Pass.  We went back and forth trying to pick the right line, and ultimately picked the one on the right, but that was just a guess and we weren’t 100% sure we were in the right place.  There were only about 30 people ahead of us in this line, and they were all just as confused as we were.  Shortly after we arrived, the line started to grow, and by the time the doors opened at 9am, there were people stretching all the way back to the first entry gate!

The doors opened promptly at 9am, and we learned that we did pick the correct line.  We went through security with a metal detector for us to walk through and an x-ray machine for our bags.  I forgot to mention it but when we picked up breakfast pastries at the market yesterday, we also bought a bag of nuts and dried berries, and a few baguette sandwiches to eat as a picnic lunch in the gardens.  Apparently you are not allowed to bring food into the Chateau so we had to check that bag with security and we could retrieve it when we were ready to go to the garden.  We were not expecting that, so it was a good thing all the food was stored together in a plastic bag and it was easy to hand it over.  It was okay to keep our bottles of water inside the Chateau.

After we finished going through security, we walked across the interior courtyard that I showed in the last post (security was on the left side and we entered into the Chateau on the far right side).  Walking through the Chateau reminded me of walking through IKEA… there is a marked path and you can only go in one direction, so you really can’t get lost.  I had brought along a pocket-sized copy of the Rick Steves Paris guide book so we read excerpts from that as we walked through the Chateau.  We could have gotten an audioguide but preferred to just walk around and see with our eyes instead of focusing on the audioguide.

The Royal Chapel- this room was roped off so we could not enter any further than this…

Walking through a marble corridor with checkered marble floors and lines with marble statues… Versailles was truly a feast for the eyes!

Grand marble staircase

I liked the effect of each room having a different color wallpaper and all the doors lined up perfectly as you walked through the palace

The Hercules Room- the last room built by Louix XIV, named for the mural painted on the ceiling

Walking through the King’s State Apartment

The Venus Room

We arrived at the Hall of Mirrors at 9:15am, so only a few minutes after we entered, and it was nearly empty.  If you look online, you can find photos showing how this room looks during peak tourist season, with people packed in and selfie sticks floating up into the air at an attempt to capture a photo.  I was in awe at how beautiful and opulent this room looked with only about 10 people in here with us!  It was definitely worth the effort to wake up early and be among the first to enter Versailles!!!

Looking out the window towards the garden

We really took our time here, enjoying having the space nearly to ourselves and savoring this bucket list moment. 

Continuing on with our tour, the next room was the King’s Bedroom, which was created by Louis XIV in 1701 and where he lived until his death in 1715.  We thought the fluffy feather things on the chandelier were kind of funny… is that where the royal maid stored her feather dusters??

Personally, I preferred the look of the Queen’s Bedchamber…

The Nobles’ Room, used as a second chamber for the Queen

The Queen’s Guard Room, where 12 of the Queen’s guards were on duty 24 hours a day.  This is the only room in the Apartments with the original 17^th century decorations because the Queen never spent any time here and therefore as the Queen changed, there was no need to renovate this room.

The Coronation Room

The top of the grand marble staircase

Peeking out the window to see the gardens below…

The Gallery of Great Battles is the largest room in the palace and houses 33 paintings depicting major battles in French history.

Overlooking the Orangery

You will notice that there is hardly anyone in the background of all those photos.  It took us about 45 minutes to walk through the entire Chateau, and we stayed ahead of the crowds the whole time.  I almost feel like I didn’t get the true Versailles experience because I had read hundred of reviews complaining about how crowded it is and how you need to protect yourself from selfie sticks hitting you in the head!  We never encountered any of that and had a lovely morning stroll through the quintessential palace of gaudy opulence.

We made sure to use the restrooms before exiting the Chateau.  This was the first sign that we weren’t the only people here today as there were about 15 women on line ahead of me haha  Go figure!  It was worth the wait because I was not sure when we’d see another restroom after entering the gardens.

Mission accomplished, we picked up our bag of food from the security guard, and walked up a flight of stairs to reach the entrance to the garden.  I forgot to take a photo here, but you really can’t miss it.  Just follow the signs pointing towards the garden and you will see several small ticket booths where you can buy tickets for the garden.  My suspicions were correct and we only had two people ahead of us in line to buy our tickets.  Make sure you do not lose your tickets to the garden after you enter because you will need them again later in the day if you plan to visit the Queen’s Hamlet and Trianon.

We walked out onto the gravel path and looked back to see a great view of the whole palace.  By the way, I’d recommend wearing old sneakers if you plan to visit the gardens at Versailles.  We spent hours walking around on this dirt path and by the end of the day, our sneakers were embedded with dust.  We each traveled with 2 pairs of sneakers, so when we got back to the hotel that night, we washed out these sneakers in the sink and propped them up to dry in front of the fan.  Even with doing that, we both think our sneakers look more dull in color even weeks later because of all the dust and dirt that got into the fabrics.

Ready to explore the gardens!

Overlooking the Latona’s Fountain and the Grand Canal

When we bought our tickets, they gave us a pamphlet containing a map of the gardens and a schedule for the fountains.  The fountains don’t stay on all day so you need to plan your time in the gardens to see certain fountains at certain times.  Some of the bigger ones go off at 15 and 30 minute intervals all day long.  From 11am until noon, and from 2:30pm until 4pm, all of the fountains go off in a specific order so you can walk through the gardens following the map to see them as the water starts flowing.  It sounds confusing, but if you follow the sequencing on the map, you’ll be fine.

With all of that said, it was now 10:15am, so if we moved quickly, we could get to the Neptune Fountain before it next went off at 10:30am since it was one of the fountains to go off every 15 minutes.  The map was somewhat vague and did not show every single path and trail, but for the most part it was helpful to guide us through the gardens to get where we wanted to go.

Seeing these cone-shaped trees made me so happy!  When I thought of the gardens at Versailles, this is what I imagined I would see!

Walking through the North Parterres

Three Fountains Grove (before the fountains started going off)

We got to the Neptune Fountain just as it started to go off.  Notice how there is still no one else anywhere to be seen (aside from the gardening crew!)

Okay, so it wasn’t quite on the level of the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas, but considering these fountains were built in the 1600’s and are still functioning today, I was impressed!

We walked back towards the main chateau on a slightly different path to take in a different view of the gardens.

We made sure to get back to Latona’s Fountain before 11am so we could start the morning fountains walk on time.  We got there a few minutes early, and we saw some water coming out of the fountain, so we just assumed that was it.  One of the best things about the garden was that it was so huge at over 2,000 acres that it never felt crowded.  At this time, it was still early and most of the tourists were still waiting in line to enter the chateau, or making their way slowly through the palace, but there was even space to spread out later in the afternoon with more people around.

Can you tell how hot we were?  As beautiful as the garden was, there was nearly no shade at all!

We walked down the stairs to get a closer look at Latona’s Fountain.

Walking along the Great Lawn

Finally, at 11am, the real show began!  By now, we had wandered kind of far from Latona’s Fountain, so we observed it from afar knowing we would see it again later this afternoon when the sun was at a better angle for photos anyway.

We tried our best to follow the order of the red dotted line for the morning walk, but it was much harder than you’d think!  We never found the Ballroom Fountain, which was really disappointing because it was one of the coolest fountains in the garden.  The next fountain we saw was the Bacchus Fountain, but we arrived before they turned it on.

This was one of the fountains with a delayed start, so the water started promptly at 11:15am.

The Saturn Fountain

As we were walking through the gardens, we could hear classical music playing through the speakers.  When we got to the Mirror Pool, the fountain was actually choreographed to the music!  Again, it wasn’t quite on the level of the Bellagio, but I didn’t expect it to be.  It was very fun to stand there for a few minutes and watch the show, but we knew we needed to keep moving if we wanted to see a few more of the fountains before they stopped at noon.

This guy was squatting there for a long time so eventually I gave up waiting for him to leave and just took the photo with him in the way. 

The King’s Garden (isn’t this entire park considered the King’s garden??)

A smaller fountain that was not named on the map:

We came to an open space surrounded by arches with a fountain spouting up underneath each arch.  This was called the Colonade Grove and was the first time all day that we noticed there were other tour groups here with us today!

A rare spot with some shade!

Another pretty fountain but I couldn’t figure out what it’s name was

It was now 11:45am, so we needed to pick up the pace if we were going to make it to the Apollo Fountain on time.

We walked soooo much in these gardens!

Loved the geometric topiaries!

Back out on the Great Lawn looking up towards the palace

We made it to the Apollo Fountain on time!

Such a beautiful fountain in a beautiful garden on a beautiful (but hot) day in France!

At this point, we had been walking around outside in direct sunlight for nearly 2 hours and the heat was really getting to us.  If we had any hopes of walking out to the Palaces of Trianon and enjoying any of that experience, we needed a break.  Ideally we could sit inside with air conditioning, but that was not possible so we set out in search of seating in the shade.  We found a café along the side of the Grand Canal and there were some Adirondack chairs out front under the shade of some trees, so we plopped down for the long haul.  We ate our baguettes, drank as much water as we could, and basically just sat like a couple of lumps for one solid hour!  Being a tourist is hard work!!

At 1pm, we decided we’d better get moving or we would never get out to see the rest of Versailles.  We started walking down what we thought was the diagonal road towards Grand Trianon, but unfortunately, the maze that is Versailles got the best of us and we ended up at Petit Trianon instead. 

Wanting to conserve our energy as much as possible, we just cut through the Petit Trianon and kept going out towards the Queen’s Hamlet.

We asked one of the employees to point us in the right direction towards the Queen’s Hamlet, so she pointed out this gazebo in the distance and said it was out that way.

We started walking and hoped for the best, but there was very limited signage so we just crossed our fingers that we were going the right way.  We saw this building peaking through the trees and took that as a good sign that we were on the right path.

The gazebo is called the Temple of Love and is about halfway between the Petit Trianon and the Queen’s Hamlet.

After that, we had no idea where to go so we just kept walking towards where we saw that other building.  It would have been very helpful if they had a sign somewhere out here on the trail with arrows pointing the right way to go.

We continued walking until we saw this:

Yay! We found it!  So now let’s talk about a little bit of history.  The Queen’s Hamlet was built by Marie Antoinette as a place she could go to escape the extravagance in the main palace.  She preferred being out in the country and kept this area as a working farm and garden.  Being out there felt like we were in the middle of the French countryside, and you would never know that such a grand palace was located nearby.

There were tons of coy fish in the pond

When we got back to the Petit Trianon, we asked someone for directions toward the Grand Trianon.

Unfortunately, their directions weren’t helpful at all and we ended up at the intersection we were at an hour earlier that led us to the Petit Trianon in the first place, meaning we had just retraced our steps from before which was not what we wanted to do.  At that point, we just didn’t have enough energy to keep wandering around and we gave up.  In the end, we never did find how to get to the Grand Trianon on foot, and that is somewhat disappointing because I think we would have enjoyed seeing it.  If I were to do this day over again, the only thing I would change is that after we left the area near the café, I would have used the little train to drive us out to the Grand Trianon.  It was a 30 minute walk to get up that way and we didn’t even get to see what we thought we’d be seeing.  It might have been worth spending a few euro to conserve our energy and ensure we actually got to the right place.  Oh well, you live and you learn!  Now we have a good reason to come back here again some day!

After a 30 minute walk, we arrived back at the main palace just in time for the 2:30pm fountain show.

You can tell it is much more crowded now than it was when we were here at 11am, but there is plenty of space to spread out because the gardens are just so enormous.

The Latona Fountain looked beautiful in the afternoon sun!  What a great ending to our time at Versailles!

It was now a little after 2:30pm, so we walked over to the far right side of the palace to find the exit of the garden, then walked through an archway to get back to the main courtyard outside the front entrance to Versailles.  When we first arrived this morning, hardly anyone was here.  Now, there were literally thousands of people standing in a long line that snaked back and forth, up and down the length of the plaza.  I was so curious what time those people would finally get into the building because that line must have taken hours! 

We exited Versailles through the main front gate and walked up the long street towards the train station.  The RER C runs about every 20 minutes so we didn’t bother looking up the schedule and just decided to take whatever train left next.  When we got to the station, the sign on the schedule board listed each individual stop that the train would make, and then which platform to stand on for a train going to that stop.  There is a fork in the line for this train, but I am fairly positive that all trains go through Central Paris and stop at the Invalides stop, so we were able to take the next departing train which would leave in 12 minutes.  It was still relatively early in the afternoon, so while the train was more crowded than it was at 7:30am, there were always at least a few seats available even when new people boarded at stations down the line.  We found seats on the upper level so we could enjoy the views as we rode through suburban Paris.

These trains do not have air conditioning, but you can roll down the window a few inches to get a breeze.  Unfortunately, with temperatures approaching 100 degrees F, there was no breeze that could make this train feel comfortable!  We were already overheated from all of our walking in the sun all day, and even though it felt good to sit down for the train ride, it was so hot that we really couldn’t relax.  I brought portable powered fans that plugged into our USB power bricks, but they only worked for a few minutes and then got overheated and stopped spinning!  As we approached the Invalides stop, we went downstairs to stand near the doors, and that’s when we realized our mistake.  Remember, heat rises!  It must have been at least 15 degrees cooler on the lower level of the train and we would have been much more comfortable sitting down there, even if it meant not having a good view out the windows.  Oops!

We retraced our steps to exit the RER station into the tunnel towards the metro station, and re-swiped our tickets for free entry to the metro for the short ride back to our hotel.  We spent an hour or two getting showered and dressed, and then relaxing and catching up on emails and social media.  DH’s company has a few employees based in both Paris and London, so our plan for tonight was to meet up with one of his coworkers for dinner.  We requested a casual restaurant with French food that was near our hotel, so his coworker suggested Le Strogoff, a trendy restaurant specializing in ceviche and tartare dishes, located on Boulevard de Bonne Nouvelle (which is the same road as Grands Boulevards where our hotel is located, just with a different name). 

When we arrived at the restaurant at 7:30pm, we realized we would again be faced with the dilemma of sitting outside where there was a slight breeze but lots of smokers, or sitting inside where the air was clean but it was very hot.  The restaurant was fairly small, and most of the tables were located in the front on a patio and on the sidewalk.  There were already several parties seated outside and all of them were smoking, so we opted to sit inside.  When we walked inside, there was no one in there!

We seated ourselves and waited for DH’s coworker to arrive.  We ended up spending over 4 hours at this restaurant!  It was an interesting cultural experience in that we were the only non-locals eating here so it was not touristy at all.  We had been sitting and talking with DH’s coworker for quite a while and the waiter never came over to take our order until the coworker flagged him down.  It wasn’t that it was bad service, it was that the waiters leave you to chat with your friends and you are expected to let them know when you need something.  There was no pressure to order anything and no rush to turn over the table.  We were there during happy hour, so we ordered several rounds of carafes of white wine for €10 each.  I don’t know exactly what it was, but it’s a safe bet that even inexpensive house wine in France is going to be good!  After over an hour of chatting, we realized we should probably order dinner. 

I ordered the salmon ceviche with fries, and it was wonderful!  The menu was all in French so I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d get, but it was topped with a scoop of passion fruit sorbet which melted down into the dish creating a wonderful and refreshing sauce.  It was the perfect dish for an extremely hot summer night!

DH ordered the beef tartare and he said it was really good too

We would have never found this place if DH’s coworker hadn’t recommended it, but the food was delicious, the wine was plentiful, and the vibe was relaxed but trendy at the same time.  Another wonderful end to an unforgettable day in France!

Fitbit Daily Summary… Steps: 27,404,  Miles: 12.15,  Flights of Stairs: 13