France has hundreds of wonderful Châteaus, but the most famous and most visited of them all is the Palace of Versailles, on the western outskirts of Paris. Serving as the center of political power for the French monarchy during the 17th century, it is grand in size and has some of the most remarkable French gardens anywhere.
There’s a lot to see and do, so a visit might take up to a whole day, and you can expect to spend much of that time waiting in line, crawling behind other tourist groups or struglling for air in a very crowded room inside the Château. My one-time visit experience has taught me that you better start off with the gardens to let all the tourist bus package tours go in, and then make your way back, but when it comes to the ticket line, I stood inline for 2 minutes before I pulled out my phone and realized that the tickets can be bought with the mobile online and that you can simply show your mobile at the entrance. So, overall, my entire line experience was a total of a few minutes.
With all due respect to the palace, rooms and audio-guide history, to me the Versailles are the gardens. This is what you should focus your time and energy on. The palace? you’re likely to see many more around France. But these gardens are nothing short of spectacular. If you’re short on time, I would even suggest just seeing the gardens and avoiding the crowded palace altogether.
What’s to see?
The official website writes about the gardens:
From the central window of the Hall of mirrors the visitor look down on the grand perspective that leads the gaze from the Water Parterre to the horizon. This original perspective, which preceded the reign of Louis XIV, was developed and prolonged by the gardener André Le Nôtre by widening the Royal Path and digging the Grand Canal. This vast perspective stretches from the façade of the Château de Versailles to the railings of the park.
In 1661, Louis XIV commissioned André Le Nôtre with the design and laying out of the gardens of Versailles which, in his view, were just as important as the Château. The works were undertaken at the same time as those for the palace and took forty years to complete. But André Le Nôtre did not work alone: Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Superintendent of the King’s Buildings, directed the project from 1664 to 1683; Charles Le Brun, appointed First Painter of the King in January 1664, produced the drawings for a large number of statues and fountains; and, a little later, the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart drew up increasingly understated scenic plans and built the Orangerie. Lastly, the King had all the projects submitted to him and wanted the “details of everything”.
The laying out of the gardens required enormous work. Vast amounts of earth had to be shifted to lay out the flower beds, the Orangerie, the fountains and the Canal, where previously only woods, grasslands and marshes were. The earth was transported in wheelbarrows, the trees were conveyed by cart from all the provinces of France and thousands of men, sometimes whole regiments, took part in this vast enterprise.
As you walk in at the entrance…
You’ll find lots of separate gardens with different themes…
Many of those fountains dance or include an audio of soft classical music for you to sit down and relax a bit…
As you can see, it’s all quite grand, and even though this was a packed weekend, the gardens are so vast that you’ll find plenty of areas where you’ll be completely alone…
As for the palace…
Hundreds of rooms, each with their own story. I did not have the patients to go into all the details, and it’s really alot to take in. I can imagine French history fanatics spending years here trying to master it all.
Just to give you a feel for the crowds, this is the famous mirror hall. It’s almost impossible for anyone to get a photo of anything in here…
But it’s all quite well-organized and the crowds won’t interfere with taking photos of glamorous French rooms…
Wikitravel has a decent guide for this place, should you need instructions on how to get there and what else the area has to offer.
Location:
If you weren’t already impressed with the French, this will probably do the trick.