Gardens of Versailles
We decided to visit Versailles, the royal palace in the suburb of Paris, 20 km away. We took the RER and arrived in the nice posh suburb.
Once we reached the doors of Versailles, we realized we were in trouble. The lineup was so long I couldn’t even find where it started. I asked how long it would take us to get tickets: at least 90 minutes. And to actually get into the Palace, we had to queue another 90 minutes. Feng walked around a bit as we tried to assess how to make the best out of the situation. I looked up at the Palace and I saw people on top of each other by the open windows. No way I’m queuing at least 3 hours for a rush visit.
Meanwhile, Feng discovered visiting the gardens was cheaper and there were only about four people in line for that. Deal.
We were not disappointed, the gardens were huge and beautiful. I wish most of the fountains had worked though, and I wish the French were better organized. Granted, this is high-season but we had no problem getting in London’s major attractions for instance, and they were as busy. And please, please, set up more than one toilet in Versailles. I mean, this is ridiculous…
You can follow our French trip here on Flickr: France (2010).
 Versailles Maze |
 Gold Fountain |
Doors of Versailles
Park of Versailles
By the Water
 Fountain Show |
 Greek Inspiration |
 Courtyard |
 Fleur de Lys |
 Golden Doors |
 Taking a Break |
The Palace
Looking towards the Garden
The Palace
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- Sights of Paris (Part II)
- Old Beijing (老北京)
- Hollywood Boulevard
- Close Up of the Canadian Parliament
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@Poem — Yes, the water show at night is expensive. But during the day, the gardens are 7 euro. I should have bought the tickets online too! But because we never queued for long in London, I thought it would be the same in Paris.
@Vagabonde — Je dois visiter l’intérieur une fois… la prochaine peut-être ! je serai mieux organisée cette fois.
@aline — That the local train liking Paris to the suburb. It’s an in-between long distance high-speed trains and the subway basically.
@Soleil — Yes, I felt sorry for the people stuck inside Versailles! I could see them by the windows (all opened because it was like 40C) and it looked painful.
@khengsiong — You should!
@kyh — Next time I’ll go in!
@Yogi — Looking back, it was a good option.
@Linguist-in-Waiting — Was it? I would have queued 30 minutes but no more and it was so hot that day I just didn’t want to waste time.
@Tanya — Ah, so I’m not the only one who was surprised by the French queue! The Gardens were lovely, I wasn’t disappointed.
@micki — Tell me about it! You should have seen the toilet line-up… ridiculous! French are not always organized
The best one I liked is it he water fountain. It looks like artificial