The Palace of Versailles
France > Paris > Surroundings > Versailles > Palace

Versailles Gallery

The Palace of Versailles (Tues-Sun: May-Sept 9am-6.30pm; Oct-April 9am-5.30pm; closed public hols; E7.50) is rightly one of the most visited monuments in France. Apart from a few areas you can visit on your own, most of the palace can only be viewed in guided group tours (E4-8), whose various itineraries can be booked in the morning at entrance D. Long queues are common, though by hiring an audioguide (E4 from entrance C) you avoid the queues and have access to more rooms. Don't set out to see all the palace in one day - it's not possible. To get there, take the RER line C5 to Versailles-Rive Gauche (40min), turn right out of the station and immediately left to approach the palace.

The palace
The palace was inspired by the young Louis XIV's envy of his finance minister's château at Vaux-le-Vicomte (see p.210), which he was determined to outdo. He recruited the design team of Vaux-le-Vicomte architect Le Vau, painter Le Brun and gardener Le Nôtre and ordered something a hundred times the size. Versailles is the apotheosis of French regal indulgence and, even if its extravagant decor and the blatant self-propaganda of the Sun King are not to your liking, it will certainly leave an impression.

Construction began in 1664 and lasted virtually until Louis XIV's death in 1715. Second only to God, and the head of an immensely powerful state, Louis XIV was an institution rather than a private individual. His risings and sittings, comings and goings, were minutely regulated and rigidly encased in ceremony, attendance at which was an honour much sought after by courtiers. Versailles was the headquarters of every arm of the state. More than 20,000 people - nobles, administrative staff, merchants, soldiers and servants - lived in the palace in a state of unhygienic squalor, according to contemporary accounts.

Following Louis XIV's death, the château was abandoned for a few years before being reoccupied by Louis XV in 1722. It remained the residence of the royal family until the Revolution of 1789, when the furniture was sold and the pictures dispatched to the Louvre. Thereafter Versailles fell into ruin until Louis-Philippe established his giant museum of French Glory here - it still exists, though most is mothballed. In 1871, during the Paris Commune, the château became the seat of the nationalist government, and the French parliament continued to meet in Louis XV's opera building until 1879. Restoration only began in earnest between the two world wars, and today the château's management are eagerly buying back the original furnishings every time they come up for auction. Curiously, they have chosen to restore the château as it appeared in the last days of the monarchy.

Of the rooms you can visit without a guide, the most stunning is the dazzling Galerie des Glaces - or Hall of Mirrors - where the Treaty of Versailles was signed to end World War I; it's best viewed at the end of the day, when the crowds have departed and sunlight fills it from the west. Overdoses of gilding await you in the grands appartements, the state apartments of the king and queen, and the royal chapel, a grand structure that ranks among France's finest Baroque creations.