The Palace of Versailles
Versailles is a roughly 45-minute RER C ride from central Paris and needs a genuine half-day. The Passport ticket (Palace + Trianon estate + gardens) runs €22-32 for EEA residents and €25-35 for non-EEA visitors depending on season; the palace is closed Mondays. Summer weekends add the Musical Fountains Shows (Grandes Eaux Musicales) and, on select Saturday evenings from June to September, an illuminated night show with fireworks (€32/$35).
Versailles is what happens when an absolute monarch decides money is no object and taste is negotiable — the result is genuinely overwhelming in scale, and also, 300-plus years later, still one of the best day trips in Europe. Just don't try to squeeze it into a spare afternoon between two Paris museums; it deserves its own day.
Getting there from Paris
RER C runs directly from several central Paris stations (Saint-Michel, Invalides) to Versailles Château–Rive Gauche station in about 45 minutes, then it's a short 10-minute walk to the Palace gates. Trains run every 15-30 minutes; buy a round-trip RER ticket (not a standard Métro ticket, which doesn't cover the zone) either at a station machine or through the SNCF Connect app.
Ticket prices and what's included
| Ticket | EEA residents/nationals | Non-EEA visitors |
|---|---|---|
| Passport (Palace + Estate of Trianon + gardens), low season | €22 ($24) | €25 ($27) |
| Passport, high season (Apr-Oct) | €32 ($35) | €35 ($38) |
| Under 18, and EU/EEA residents under 26 | Free | Free |
| Gardens only (non-show days) | Free | Free |
Opening hours run 8am-8:30pm in high season (April-October) and 8am-6pm in low season (November-March). The Palace itself is closed every Monday — a genuinely common trip-planning mistake, since it's easy to assume a national monument is open daily.
Versailles is closed on Mondays, full stop — no exceptions for holidays. Double-check this against your Paris itinerary before locking in a specific day, especially if you're building a tight multi-sight week.
The Hall of Mirrors and what's actually inside
The Hall of Mirrors (Galerie des Glaces) — 73 meters long, 357 mirrors reflecting the garden-facing windows — is where the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 and remains the single room most visitors come for. Beyond it, the King's and Queen's State Apartments and the Royal Chapel round out the main Palace visit, which realistically takes 2-2.5 hours on its own.
Marie-Antoinette's Estate and the gardens
The Estate of Trianon — the Grand Trianon, the Petit Trianon, and Marie-Antoinette's rustic 'hameau' (a faux-peasant hamlet she had built as a private retreat) — sits a genuine 20-25 minute walk from the main Palace, or a short paid golf-cart/train ride. It's easy to underestimate the distance and end up rushing it; budget at least 1.5 hours if you want to see it properly, not just glimpse it from outside.
The Musical Fountains Shows — 2026 schedule
From April through November, the gardens' Baroque-era fountains perform choreographed shows to period music: Grandes Eaux Musicales runs Saturdays and Sundays, and the calmer Jardins Musicaux runs Tuesday through Friday, both roughly 10am-7pm. A Gardens supplement of about €10 applies on these show days, on top of the Passport ticket (or as a standalone garden ticket if you're skipping the Palace interior).
| Show | When (2026) | Extra cost |
|---|---|---|
| Grandes Eaux Musicales (fountains + music, daytime) | Saturdays & Sundays, April-November | ~€10 ($11) Gardens supplement |
| Jardins Musicaux (quieter, music-only) | Tuesday-Friday, April-November | ~€10 ($11) Gardens supplement |
| Grandes Eaux Nocturnes (illuminated night show + fireworks) | Saturday evenings, 6 June-19 Sept, plus 14 July | €32 ($35) adult, €10 ($11) child 6-17 |
If your dates land on a Musical Fountains Saturday or Sunday, go — it's genuinely one of the best versions of a Versailles visit, with the gardens' geometry finally doing what it was designed to do. The night show (Grandes Eaux Nocturnes) is a separate, ticketed evening event running about 8:30pm to just after 11pm with fireworks — book it as its own outing, not a garden add-on.
How to avoid the worst crowds
Arrive right at 8am opening if you can — the tour-bus crowds from Paris typically land between 10:30am and 1pm, and that midday window is dramatically busier than the first or last hour. Visiting on a weekday outside the summer Musical Fountains schedule (Tuesday-Friday) also cuts crowds noticeably compared to weekends.
Mistakes worth avoiding
- Planning Versailles as a rushed morning stop before an afternoon back in Paris — the Palace, Estate, and gardens genuinely need a full half-day, and rushing it wastes the ticket price.
- Forgetting that a standard Paris Métro ticket doesn't cover the RER C zone out to Versailles — you need a specific RER-zone round-trip ticket.
- Showing up on a Monday, when the Palace is closed regardless of the date or season.
- Skipping the Estate of Trianon because it 'looks close' on the map — it's a genuine 20-25 minute walk from the main Palace, budget the time.