One Day Visit to Chateau de Versailles

My plan during the weekend is to visit two major attractions in Paris, one is Chateau de Versailles and another one is to visit Musée du Louvre. As a first move I chose to visit Chateau de Versailles on Saturday and Musée du Louvre on Sunday.

Saturday Morning around 10 plus I managed to join the queue the ticket office at the Palace to get the ticket, As expected the queue for buying ticket was longer but luckily not so long compared to the situation an hour later. There was another queue again to get into the Palace with security checks and all. I collected the audio guide and started to explore the palace right from the assembly hall till King's private places.

King Louis XIV had real passion for art I would say, the collections of huge art paintings hanging on the wall and appearing at the every ceiling inside all around the palace. It seems like there were arts school to teach by the experts during those days. He was also an expert in ballet dance I heard. During his days he was treated like God by the people as there was waking up ceremony everyday morning by the priests and the bedroom was real beautifully decorated to the max. Nowadays we may not be expected to have that kind of luxurious life now matter how rich we are. Inside the Palaces to visit, Hall of Mirror, Bed Room for Queen and Discussion Room for making major decisions also public entertainment area, Room for Gods and lot more.

After that I returned my audio guide and took quick lunch and walked along the Garden that had so many water fountains under different names. Its architecture was simply fabulous. There were varieties of sculptures carved on Marble and various other materials as well. They make the fountain work only for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening so it’s nice to visit the garden only during that period.

After that I had to walk for about 15 mins to reach Grand Trianon on the way I saw a farm land where they breed sheep, cow and horses. Herd of sheep were spread all along those piece of big land and were busy doing there grass eating business. Tried to attract few of them closer to me with a green apple I heard and quite a lot came over near the fence and I clicked few snaps of them.

Grand Trianon was built mainly for a place where king and his close family could escape from the hectic life of court at the Château of Versailles. Petit Trianon was closed for renovation, but had access to the Marie-Antoinette’s estate and it was real big one, where the queen had her own theatre and Private house. I understand from the history that this entire estate was built and managed as per queen’s taste. Small houses along these regions were unique in design of its kind. There were farm land at the backyard of the houses and it was decorated with gardens through front and back. I shall add those pictures here tonight.

By the time I finished walking around the estate it was already 7PM, I thought I will better walk back home since I was really getting to the point of being totally exhausted. I must make a point here that if you are not physically strong to walk around everywhere in this huge area you must really prepare yourself with all possible support as it really demands a strong physique to explore. There are mini trams available to move between different locations alternatively you can hire a golf cart or bi-cycle too but to walk inside the palace or estate it’s definitely tiring for those who dislike walking. I didn’t know that the same goes for Musée du Louvre until I visited it next day.

You will have to plan at least one day to be there and explore the entire place if not in half a day you might have to skip some portion of the whole place. I would suggest to buy One Day Pass ticket as it will give you access to all places out there otherwise you will have to buy ticket for every entrance and is expensive than One Day Pass. I guess a pass will cost you 25 Euro. Another Idea could be to get a 2 days Museum pass that will cost you only 30 Euro and you can also visit all other museum in Paris along with Chateau de Versailles. For details on Museum passes please visit Official Web Site and get details on what kind of passes you like to buy and where to buy. They have passes valid for 2 / 4 / 6 days and it has no expiry date that gives you the freedom to use any day you want to use it. But the day count is consecutive from day one you start to use it.

I need to give special thanks and credit to my friend David, who lives in Paris and works for the same company as mine for providing excellent details and guidance on where to go and what to look for.

I will write another post on my experience during the visit to Musée du Louvre.