The Palace of Versailles

Getting there

The palace stands at the top of the town, with the place d'Armes in front and the gardens behind. By motorhome you reach Versailles without entering the low emission zone, but you do not stop in front of the palace: either you sleep at the campsite, or you come by train from Paris.

• From the Huttopia campsite in Versailles, in the Porchefontaine district, the palace is 3.2 kilometres away: you go on foot or by bike, and the motorhome stays on its pitch
• During the day, if there is room, the tourist office sends motorhomes to the open-air car park on the avenue de l'Europe, six hundred and fifty metres as the crow flies from the palace. You cannot stay there overnight, and on the place d'Armes there is no provision for motorhomes
• From Paris by train the most direct route is the RER C to Versailles Château Rive Gauche, from Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel, from Saint-Michel Notre-Dame or from Musée d'Orsay: thirty to thirty-five minutes, and eight on foot to the palace. There are also line L from Saint-Lazare to Versailles Rive Droite, a quarter of an hour on foot from the palace, and line N from Montparnasse to Versailles Chantiers, twenty minutes on foot. The ticket is the metro one, 2.55 euros in 2026. The tourist office advises checking for engineering works on the line, especially in the evening, at weekends and in the school holidays
• The Domaine de Trianon is at the far end of the park, more than a kilometre and a half as the crow flies from the palace: you get there on foot along the avenues, on the little train or in the electric carts. Only cars may drive as far as the Trianon, entering by the grille de la Reine and the porte Saint-Antoine

Practical information

Versailles is three visits in one: the palace, the gardens and the Trianon, with three different opening times. The Passeport holds them together, and the day follows the opening times: in the morning the palace, which opens first, and in the afternoon the gardens and the Trianon.

Contacts

Where it is

Versailles · Île-de-France

You set off from

Notes

• Opening hours, read in October 2026: from April to October the palace is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 18:30, the Domaine de Trianon from 12:00 to 18:30, the gardens and the park from 7:00 to 20:30. On Mondays the palace and the Trianon are closed, while the gardens and the park stay open. From November to March the hours are shorter, and the park is open from 8:00 to 18:00: the palace's winter closing time and last entry are on the official website. The park closes in snow or strong wind
• The 2026 tickets: the Passeport includes the palace, the gardens, on fountain days too, and the Domaine de Trianon. From April to October it costs 35 euros, 32 for citizens or residents of the European Economic Area, with an ID document; from November to March 25 and 22. The late afternoon Passeport, from April to October from 16:00, costs 28 euros and 25; from November to March, from 15:00, 18 and 15. The Domaine de Trianon alone costs 15 euros and 12 all year. The gardens alone, on the days of the Grandes Eaux and the Jardins musicaux, cost 13 euros for Europeans and 16 for everyone else in 2026, free up to five years. Who is entitled to free entry is stated on the palace's free admission page, which in October 2026 was under maintenance and could not be read
• When the gardens are free: from November to March every day, and from April to October on Mondays, when there are no fountains. On the first Sunday of the month, from November to March, the whole estate can be visited free
• The palace: you enter from the place d'Armes, through the gilded Grille royale, into the cour royale and the Cour de Marbre, the oldest, with its chequered paving and the brick façades of Louis XIII's lodge. Next to it is the royal chapel, designed by Hardouin-Mansart and finished in 1710 by Robert de Cotte. The Grand Appartement du Roi is a row of seven drawing rooms, almost all named after the gods, from the Hercules room, with Veronese's great Feast in the House of Simon, to the Apollo room, which was the throne room; then the War drawing room, the Hall of Mirrors, with its windows onto the gardens, the mirrors on the opposite wall and the ceiling painted by Le Brun, and the Peace drawing room. Beyond it the queen's apartments begin, with the Queen's bedchamber
• Louis Philippe's museum: since 1837 part of the palace has been the museum of the history of France, the largest history museum in the world, with the Galerie des Batailles
• The gardens are first seen from the terrace: the parterre d'eau with its two pools, the Latona fountain, the Tapis vert running down to the Apollo basin, with the god's chariot rising from the water, and the Grand Canal. To the south, below the terrace, the Orangerie that Hardouin-Mansart built between 1684 and 1686 for the orange trees in tubs, with its central gallery 155 metres long and, beyond the road, the Pièce d'eau des Suisses. To the north the Neptune fountain. The groves, the gardens enclosed among the trees such as the Salle de Bal with its shell cascades, are open on the days of the Grandes Eaux and the Jardins musicaux. In the park, outside the gardens, you can have a picnic
• The Grandes Eaux musicales and the Jardins musicaux: in 2026 the Grandes Eaux, with the fountains switched on and Baroque music from 9:00 to 19:00, ran from 3 April to 1 November on Saturdays and Sundays, on Tuesdays in May and June and on public holidays, but not on 1 May; the Jardins musicaux, with music in the groves and some fountains switched on at set times, ran from 1 April to 30 October on the other days of the week, except Monday. The 2027 calendar has not yet been published. In summer, on Saturday evenings, there are the Grandes Eaux nocturnes, which end after 23:00: those who go sleep in Versailles
• The Domaine de Trianon, which the palace also calls Marie Antoinette's estate: the Grand Trianon, the pink marble palace that Hardouin-Mansart built in 1687 for Louis XIV on the Grand Canal, where Napoleon and Louis Philippe later stayed; the Petit Trianon, which Ange-Jacques Gabriel built for Louis XV and which Louis XVI gave to Marie Antoinette in 1774; the English garden with its pavilions; and the Hameau de la Reine, the village of farmhouses around the lake, with the mill and the Marlborough tower, where the queen played at country life
• Getting around the park: the little train leaves from the north terrace of the palace and stops at the Petit Trianon, every day; times and prices are on the operator's website, which however has not been updated for some years. The electric carts are hired at the south terrace of the palace and at the Grand Canal: from April to October every day from 10:00 to 18:45, 42 euros for the first hour per cart and 10.50 euros for each quarter of an hour after that; whether a driving licence is needed the page does not say. On the Grand Canal you can hire rowing boats and around it bicycles, from Astel: ask for the spring dates and prices. The TRI bus, which goes to the Versailles stations, also stops in front of the Grand Trianon
• Between late April and early May 2027: the palace is closed on Monday 26 April and Monday 3 May. Saturday 1 May is a public holiday in France, and in 2025 and 2026, according to the Paris newspapers, the palace and the Trianon stayed closed and the gardens were open free of charge: for 2027 ask the palace. Thursday 6 May is Ascension Day, and with 8 May, also a public holiday, the long weekend lasts until Sunday 9. The schools of zone B, the north and west of France, are on holiday until 2 May: from Tuesday 27 to Friday 30 April the palace is open, with their holidays still under way, and the quietest days, on the calendar, are Tuesday 4 and Wednesday 5 May
• The names of the places: what in English is called the Palace is the Château in French, and the signs say Château de Versailles. The gardens are the Jardins, the park beyond the gardens is the Parc, and the Trianon is the Domaine de Trianon

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