The Palace of Versailles

Paris' neighbor is Versailles, home to the Palace of Versailles, where Marie Antoinette lived, along with four King Louis's, beginning with Louis XIII and ending with Louis XVI. We toured the palace and some of the gardens, although the ground was covered with snow in November 2024 during our visit, and it was bitterly cold outside. My favorite part of the visit was the Hall of Mirrors.

There is plenty of parking at the Palace. They will not allow you to enter before your ticket time, but don't arrive more than a half hour after your ticket time or you will not be allowed admittance. Purchase your ticket well ahead of time to ensure that you get a ticket. There are two admittance lines - one for on the hour and one for on the half hour. Wait in your line until the time for your ticket arrives, and then they let your line in. Once you're inside, you go through a security checkpoint and then you're free to wander the palace at your own pace.

You can wander through the gardens behind the palace without a ticket. We arrived before our ticket time to enter the palace, so we walked around the gardens for awhile before getting in line. We spent a couple hours inside the palace, and could have easily spent more time.