The journey from Paris to Versailles by train is quick, easy and 100% worth it. One of the most beautiful palaces I’ve ever visited, you can easily spend a whole day here; especially if you enjoy your history. Here’s everything you need to know about this stunning Parisian palace.
In my naivety I’d imagined that visiting Versailles would be a bit like visiting a National Trust house back in England. And in a way it is. Versailles is a rather large royal residence after all. But this palace is off the scale of splendiferous- so large and ornate and full of stories that I was blown away and could not get enough of it. I spent a day there in August, and despite the fact that we were there for a good seven hours, I felt like we didn’t see even half of what there is to explore.
How to get from Paris to Versailles by train
The majority of people travelling from Paris to Versailles by train catch the RER C train. (In Paris, numbered lines 1-14 are Métro lines, and lettered lines A-E are RER train lines). The RER C train takes just over an hour to get from the centre of Paris to Versailles- Château Rives Gauche. Make sure you buy the right ticket, and get off at the right station- because there are three Versailles stations to pick from. Once you reach the Gare de Versailles Château Rive Gauche, it’ll take about ten minutes to reach the palace. But don’t worry pals, the route is super easy- it’s straight up the road and very well signposted.
Other options for getting from Paris to Versailles by train are either the L train from Paris Saint Lazare to Versailles Rive Droit (opposite Château Rives Gauche), or the TER N train from Paris Montparnasse to Versailles Rive Gauche Chantier.
Check routes and timetables to get from Paris to Versailles by train.
How much does entry to Versailles cost?
For under 18s, entry to Versailles is completely free. And if you’re under 26 and live in the EU, it’s completely free for you too! Ticket price for everyone else is €18, or €20 for a timed entry ticket.
A 2 day passport ticket (which I would consider next time I visit, because the estate is absolutely humongous), costs €25, or €30 including entry to the Musical Gardens.
To buy tickets, head to the official website of the Palace of Versailles.
The Beginnings of Versailles…
Versailles was originally a little village outside of Paris, not a full-blown castle. In his heyday the young King Louis XIII visited the area regularly to make use of the surrounding forest- which was chockablock full of pheasants and wild boar to hunt in the usual royal style. Eventually he decided it was the perfect spot to build a hunting lodge, which would allow him to escape from the confines of Paris Court life and be free to hunt even more animals than he ever had before.
Visitors in those days didn’t think Versailles was particularly astonishing to look at. It was the kind of house that a ‘mere gentleman’ would live in; not a King of France extraordinaire with a long fancy schmancy hairdo and jewels galore. The original house still makes up part of the entire present-day palace. Just with a whole load of adjustments from the generations that followed.
The Sun King
When Louis XIII died, the crown was passed on to his 5 year old son, Louis XIV (or, as he quite liked, The Sun King).
Obviously 5 years old is a bit underage to be in charge of an entire country, so up until his early twenties a posse of advisors did this for him. During this time little Louis’ mother instilled in him the idea of the divine right of kings; and Louis saw himself to be very much godlike. God himself had chosen him to have control over the people of France, after all.
Ooh la la.
He was a highly religious man who had countless extramarital affairs with all sorts of lasses from the royal court. God told him to. Apparently. And what Louis said, went.
The adjustments that the Sun King made to the palace of Versailles are very interesting and very clever.
First of all he stuck images of the Sun all over everything, just to put his own personal stamp on the place and to remind everyone who was in charge. Building work commenced very early into his reign and lasted for the entirety of it. He extended the buildings and gardens like some sort of very extreme version of Grand Designs, to include enough space to house the entire royal court and French government. And all this extravagance cemented Versailles as potentially the most impressive palace that all of Europe had ever known.
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Louis knew that the government were not his biggest fans and therefore didn’t fancy trekking out of his beloved home territory all the way into Paris where who knows what might happen, just to see a bunch of people he didn’t like and didn’t trust. So he made them move to him.
The crafty old soul.
Not only was Louis a big fan of the arts and all things downright beautiful looking, he was also very aware of the fact that word would reach the rest of the world that France was a rich and formidable power. Foreign visitors, the true influencers of those days, came to stay and saw how opulent and majestic his palace was, and news travelled like wildfire.
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The ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors- probably one of the most famous rooms in the palace, where a whole plethora of VIPS have been greeted- is decorated with paintings of some of the Sun King’s greatest victories. So visitors were clearly subliminally bombarded with reminders that he was incredibly rich, incredibly powerful, and had eyes everywhere (those suns are on EVERYTHING).
Versailles Gardens
I’m going to cut straight to the chase here, the gardens of Versailles are INSANE. They are also completely free to visit.
Like the palace buildings, the gardens were re-sculpted and added to again and again and again, to form a place that is truly magical to look at and to be in. Various groves, walkways, hidden gardens and fountains depicting fables or mythology are patched together. It’s quite frankly astonishing. And the people who designed all this were honestly GENIUSES.
The Orangery (in the picture below) is probably the most famous of the gardens at Versailles. But in all honesty the number of different gardens seem infinite, punctuated in places with the odd pond or extremely large canal just to change things up a bit.
If you can afford to spend a couple of days at Versailles as opposed to just a Paris to Versailles train trip, I’d recommend it just so you can fully explore its beautiful outdoors.
The Inspirational Decor of Versailles
The style of the interior design is flamboyant and dare I say it in actual fact all a bit garish. I. LOVED. IT. It goes without saying that rooms like the Hall of Mirrors would be all splendour and chandeliers, but this pretty much goes for the private apartments as well.
Each room is so well coordinated that it had me cracking up round every corner. Almost everything matches, from the four poster beds, carpets, curtains, upholstered furniture to even wallpaper. What a commitment. And call me crazy but what I would give for a carpet in the same very brightly coloured design as the one below. French taste in the 17th Century was luxurious and, I reckon, a little bit eccentric too.
Big Trianon, Little Trianon
Believe it or not, there is more than one palace in the grounds of Versailles. The Grand Trianon is one of these, housed within a park. This palace was built when Louis XIV got so fed up of court life that he fancied a place for him, his pals and various lady friends to get away from it all. Something slightly more casual. Can you imagine.
When Louis XV came to the throne, he his chief mistress (it was all about the extramarital affairs in those days)- Madame Du Pompadour- the gift of her own château, within the park of the Grand Trianon. This new château was named the Petit Trianon.
(Pretty nice gift I’d say, and on a side note I’d like to mention here that Louis and Pompadour got together at a masked ball when he was dressed as a yew tree of all things. What an intriguing costume.)
Madame du Pompadour died four years before the Petit Trianon was completed, and when 20 year old Louis XVI eventually became King, he gave it (along with its own patch of parkland) to his wife Marie Antoinette, for her and her pals to party and hang out in. And boy oh boy was she a true party girl if ever there was one.
That moment in life when you’re so bored of your house that you build a village
Alright pals, maybe she wasn’t bored of her house. But it’s true that Marie Antoinette did have an entire village built near to Le Petit Trianon, just because she felt like it.
When the Austrian Archduchess initially married Louis XVI, the people of France were quite supporting of her and the marriage. She was a pretty young lass, and quite likeable as most accounts go. But she also spent a lot of money, on parties, food, drink and gambling. And a whole lot more money on clothes, shoes, and incredibly large wigs. A bit like an 18th Century Kardashian to be honest. Meanwhile France was in a general state of despair. The people were unhappy with the way that they were being governed, and starving hungry. There was nowhere near enough food to go around, a plight to which the Queen seemed either completely unbothered by or oblivious to.
When word got out about the Queen’s Hamlet, the general public were not amused. Gathered around a small lake she commissioned a working dairy, dovecot, watermill, lighthouse and farm complete with animals, amongst a selection of other buildings. And Marie Antoinette really got into character, roaming about the village dressed as a shepherdess and have a simpler life than the one she lived at Court.
The whole village is built in the very simple Norman country style which was becoming all the rage at the time. Despite the awkward circumstances of the hamlet being built for a spoilt queen, this place is pretty. It looks like the opening of Beauty and the Beast could very easily be filmed here. And it’s easy to see how Marie Antoinette got by very easily, living in this fantasy bubble-world she created for herself.
Let Them Eat Cake
Marie Antoinette was so out of touch with her royal subjects that the phrase ‘let them eat cake’ is said to have come from her. Alhough whether this was actually the case we will never know, alas.
But the point is that whilst the people outside were starving, the French nobility was having a right old laugh and the time of their lives, going about their business as normal. If the people are starving because there’s no bread…let them eat cake instead?
Obviously if there’s no bread there certainly won’t be cake you idiot, Marie. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
In 1789 a motley crew of extremely angry women from a market stormed through Paris, enraged at both the price of bread and how little there was of it, obtaining weapons and new members of their mob. They stormed to Versailles and laid the whole place under siege until the King promised to give them more food. This was one of the key starting points of the French Revolution which led to the eventual upheaval of the monarchy.
How very dramatic it all was.
So, pals. The long and short of it is that this place is astonishing for so very many reasons, and I want to go back ASAP just to find out even more. Getting from Paris to Versailles by train is so easy and there’s so much to discover here that you’d be crazy not to make the trip.
To walk around Versailles and not have a sense of wonderment at the millions of moments that have taken place there seems near enough impossible.
What you should know before you visit Versailles
- Tickets for the entry to everything (main chateau, Grand Trianon, Petit Trianon, are €20 (or €27 if there happens to be a musical fountain show happening that day)…
- …unless you’re under 18, or if you’re an EU resident under the age of 26, which in my opinion is ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. Those Brexit supporters clearly didn’t consider this when they voted Leave, did they!? I shake my head in sorrow, guys, I really do.
- You can buy tickets on the day, but considering the length of the queue to enter it’s definitely worth buying these in advance so you don’t have to stand in line too long.
- To enter the gardens of the Palace, you needn’t pay a single penny, pals! It’s all 100% free of charge.
- Big giant bags are NOT ALLOWED IN! Everything is screened airport-style before you enter the buildings, and then placed in a locker room for you to pick up when you leave.
- It’s closed on Mondays!! Plan ahead, people.
- If you happen to buy some sorbet from the little really cute looking sorbet stand in the gardens next to the boating lake, for the love of god DO NOT get the pink grapefruit flavour. You might think it’s a really unique-sounding interesting option but I’ll tell you now that it is probably the worst, most bitter-tasting thing I’ve ever sampled. And I am not a fussy gal when it comes to food.