Paris; Saturday, 29 October, 2016

Given it had been such a late arrival the previous evening, I would normally have had a nice lie in, but I need to be up early this morning to head out to Versailles to be ahead of the crowds. Even after breakfast it was still dark when I left the hotel and walked the short distance to the metro station, in fact it was pretty much still dark all the way to Versailles itself, with dawn only really breaking as the train pulled into the station.

It was a short walk from the station to the palace where, after a few quick photos, I joined the already pretty lengthy queue that was forming in preparation for the doors opening at 9am. Given the even longer queue that was forming outside the ticket office I was really quite glad I’d purchased my ticket online a few days earlier.

Just after 9 the doors open and we all streamed into the palace to start the tour. The palace is every bit the extravagant and enormous structure that the hype makes it out to be, and inside the rooms live up to the ego of the Sun King.

There was a lot to see, and I was very glad that I had taken the advice of several different sources that said you needed to get to Versailles early to be able to take it all in – and to avoid the worst of the crowds. The hall of mirrors was still pretty busy, but looking out the windows you could see the waves of coach parties making their way to the entrance which would in around an hours time make the whole place unbearable.

I looked round the whole of the main palace building and quickly stopped for a very late morning coffee before picking up the Petit Train out through the park to the Grand Trianon – the summer palaces – about 2KM from the main palace, arriving just as they opened at midday.

I had a long look round the Grand and Petit Trianon and their respective gardens as well as walking out to the Queens Hamlet – the full size toy village and farm that was built for Marie Antoinette for her to play at being a peasant.

Back to the petit train and back up to the palace to head into the gardens at the start of the afternoon musical fountains circuit. Many of the major fountains were in operation playing to musical accompaniment. I followed the suggested route that took in most of the main sights of the gardens, ending up at the Neptune fountain a few minutes before it’s single and spectacular, show of the day – so spectacular that they need to close down most of the rest of the fountains beforehand to ensure there is sufficient pressure and water.

After the show finished I had a bit more of a wander around the palace gardens before, with the last light of the day, I headed back to the station and once again was on the train in darkness as I headed back into Paris. I stayed on the train all the way through to the Notre Dame and hand a wander around the Cite area before finding a very nice restaurant on the Left Bank for dinner before finally heading back to the hotel and turning in for a well-deserved sleep.