Visiting Château de Versailles in the Fall: The Château and Gardens

landenkerr

5 years ago

visiting chateau de versailles in the fall featured

visiting château de versailles in the fall hall of mirrors chandeliers

It’s hard to believe, but I hadn’t taken a day trip to Versailles from Paris in seven years, largely because of the number of visitors. But in the absence of the normal crowds, visiting the Château de Versailles in the fall became an absolute must.

It’s not that I don’t love the Château de Versailles – but large, crowded places give me anxiety. What the past year has made me realize in general walking around Paris and visiting museums (when they’ve been open) is how pleasant it is to experience these places calmly. You can take your time, appreciate the details, and really linger without crowds of people directly behind you.

I know the objective is to sell the most tickets, but I do hope that tickets with timed entries (that are actually enforced) will be here to stay. It does require a bit more planning on the front end, but it’s so worth it.

Getting to Versailles from Paris

The easiest way to get to Versailles and the Château de Versailles from Paris is by taking the RER C to the Versailles Château Rive Gauche station. If you catch the RER C from the Musée d’Orsay station it’ll take just over 30 minutes to get to Versailles, and then you have about a 10 minute walk to the Château.

Just be aware there are two other Versailles stops – Versailles Chantiers and Versailles Rive Droite. Both of these stations are about a 20 minute walk from the Château de Versailles.

Before going I recommend looking at the RER C Timetables here. You can pick the station you’re starting from and the destination. It will also show you the name of the train so you can be sure you’re getting on the right one (often VICK when going to Versailles Château Rive Gauche).

Château de Versailles Tickets

I recommend buying a ticket for the first time slot available. You can look at all of the different ticket options with pricing here. Since crowds were less of a concern for us, we went in the afternoon and bought Passport with Timed Entry tickets with access to the entire estate.

There are several options for eating on the Château property, but we wanted to eat in the city. Versailles resident and Pastry Chef extraordinaire Molly Wilkinson recommended Chez StefS, which we loved.

Now for the fun part – the photos from our visit to the Château de Versailles in the fall. The Grand and Petit Trianon will be included in a Part Two to come!