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| The Palace and Gardens of Versailles span far and wide, offering enough to hold our interest for most of a day. |
Palace of Versailles
Date of Visit: Sunday, August 29th, 2021 (click here to read our full 7-day trip report about Paris, France)
Andy and I made our way to Versailles by train. We used the Mobilis pass for the journey, as it allows for a day of unlimited train travel in Zones 1-4 (if you get a Mobilis pass, make sure to sign and date it!). We arrived with just enough time to comfortably walk from the train station to the palace for our reserved 2:30pm entry. The palace was imposing upon our approach, with its gold accents starkly contrasting against the overcast sky. This was a day I had especially hoped for nice weather, and though the weather reports had looked promising initially, it wound up being occasionally cool, occasionally warm, often gray, drizzly for a while, and, near day’s end, blue and sunny. The inside of the palace, where weather did not matter, was in its own way similarly variable. Sometimes, there was plenty of space and you felt almost alone; other times, you ran into herds of people, heedless in their movements, spellbound by their audio guides. Andy and I did our best to maneuver around this latter group.
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| The gold accents starkly contrast against the gray sky. |
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| A peek at the garden fountains from one of the palace windows. |
While our appetites were sated, tempers were simultaneously soothed. Having come back to Earth, our focus now returned to having a nice time in our beautiful surroundings. Andy remembered that I had wanted to rent a golf cart so I could take some photographs while he drove around. We went to a nearby kiosk where people were returning the carts and, after some apparent confusion and misunderstanding, we accidentally rented two bicycles instead. Neither of us was very upset about this blunder, as we had also been interested in renting bikes. The only pitfall is that the bikes are not as good for photography, but to their credit, they were a lot cheaper than the golf cart!
After reacquainting ourselves with the experience of riding a bicycle, zooming up and down the paths (it has been over 10 years for us), we eventually parked near The Grand Trianon. It would have been easy enough to spend our time primarily in the buildings there, especially as a bit of rain was starting, but to be honest we barely glanced around inside. I particularly wanted to see The Queen’s Hamlet, and so we made that our focus. The grounds surrounding this entire area were a delight to wander and explore, with all kinds of hidden nooks and crannies, whimsical scenery, and live farm animals. Andy and I became exceptionally grateful that we had haphazardly rented bikes instead of the golf cart, since we were spending so much time here, and it would have cost us a fortune to simply keep the cart parked outside.
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| The hamlet was like a scene from a fairy tale. |
We immediately booked it back to the library, as I am somewhat of a coin collector and wanted the Versailles token. We made it there in excellent time, but it didn’t help or matter very much because, just like La Petite Venise, they were operating on the European version of island time and decided to close half an hour early. There was a group of other people like me at the door, wanting to get the coin. Someone from that group asked the security guard what was going on, since we could still see the staff inside through the window, although the door was locked. She explained that they had already closed the register and are packing up to go home. We noted that the door right in front of us said closing time was 6:30pm, and it was only 6:10pm. She replied with a shrug, saying everyone closes up at 6pm. Another person protested that we had already paid for the coins, so they would not need to ring anything up to give us our coins.
There were a couple of benches in front of the library, so we all sat there, variously in defeat and/or to catch our breaths (especially after the hike it took to rush back here). But somehow, a miracle: someone must have whispered something compelling into someone else’s ear, because one of the staff members came out and gave each of us a coin, without any verification that we had purchased one. They simply counted how many of us were waiting there and passed them out from a paper bag. Hooray! My comrades in arms congratulated each other on our good fortune before parting ways.
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| Even after all the day's excitement, we can't leave just yet - we still have to visit the groves! |
By this time, you know it was after 6pm, and we had not made it into any of the groves; we had merely peeked at a few from the main path. So, now this would be rectified. Once again, Andy and I walked all the way BACK towards the gardens and the groves, though at a significantly reduced pace. Once there, Andy and I felt like we almost, if not entirely, had the groves to ourselves. Most of the visitors seemed to clear out once the palace closed at 6:30pm, even though the gardens were open until 8:30pm. Furthermore, there was no staff manning the garden’s admission barriers, probably because all of the water features and music were done for the day. Thus, it really felt deserted. This lent a very mysterious atmosphere while we wandered the groves by our lonesome (mostly). Andy says he could imagine how the royals would feel, just strolling through by themselves. This solitary exploration of the groves, much like our visit to the hamlet, was an impactful and memorable part of our experience.
By the time we left the palace grounds and started walking back to the train station it was probably just after 7:30pm. After our long, but fulfilling, day, we were in no shape to stop anywhere else besides our hotel, so although we had originally planned for an evening visit to the Eiffel Tower, we did not speak of it.
According to my husband’s Fitbit, between our visits to the mosque, the Eiffel Tower, and Versailles, we walked no less than 17 miles on this day – though I’m not sure how much the bikes may have skewed that figure. For comparison purposes, we averaged just over 11 miles walking most other days of this trip. We are 36 years old. We have always travelled fast. I hope we will always be able to keep up this pace!
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