Enjoy this extended private visit to admire one of the most majestic palaces in the world
Experience Versailles as few do and see the places that only Queens, Kings and their closest friends were allowed access to. Many people visit the Palace of Versailles every year, but very few take the opportunity to discover the secret parts of this incredible place. Take this full immersive private experience to explore the jewel of the Royal Palace, the magnificent gardens with the exquisite Trianon and finally the domain of Marie Antoniette.
Meet our driver and our tour guide at the reception of your centrally located hotel and get a relaxing journey in a comfortable vehicle toward Versailles. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, The Royal Palace of Versailles covers an area of over 721,000 square feet and has more than 700 rooms. With our Skip the Line access and our passionate guide, you will visit the most beautiful and impressive rooms inside the palace: the King's Grand Apartments, with seven rooms dedicated to different gods, and the Queen's Grand Apartments, mirroring those of the king, which include the Coronation Room and the Queen's Bedroom, once occupied by Marie Antoinette, among others. Also, you will explore the public state apartments, like the War Room and Peace room, which hosted balls, concerts and political functions. The most stunning of them all is the Hall of Mirrors, which is packed with so much art, symbolism and imagery, your guide will make sure to spend extra time there helping you decode it all. After this immersive visit to the masterpieces of the Royal Palace, we will enjoy a very beautiful stroll along the breathtaking Royal Gardens. The highlights of the gardens are the magnificent fountains, which are packed with beautiful statuary and run on a system of gravity-driven hydraulics that has not changed since they were first installed. If you are visiting during the week, you will only see the architecture of the fountains but if you go on the weekend, you may be able to admire the full grandeur when they are turned on and water spouts from them just as it did over 300 years ago…
Continuing our walk in the Gardens, we will arrive at the Trianons to begin the second part of our tour. The Grand Trianon is a marvelous palace of pink marble with a wonderful garden. Heavily influenced by Italian architecture, the palace is set over a single storey flanked by a courtyard on one side and gardens on the other. After few time spent in the exterior of this palace, we will walk for few distance to reach the Petit Trianon. No visit to Versailles is complete without seeing the hidden beauty of the Petit Trianon. It was the private world of Marie Antoinette and the place where she was happiest. Your guide will take you on a journey into her world, through her beautiful English style gardens, into the elegant, intimate and charming rooms of her home, furnished by her favourite master craftsmen and representative of her exquisite taste. You will also see the tiny theatre that was built specially for her. This gorgeous place is often called the hidden jewel of Versailles.
In this area, Marie Antoinette could live a simple, country life. Here you will also discover the last beauty included in our itinerary. It is perfect replica of a Normandy village, complete with thatched cottages and vegetable gardens where, far from the elaborate life and rituals of the palace, the Queen would play at being a shepherdess surrounded by farm animals. The estate includes lakes, streams, meadowland, grotto, a farmhouse, a dairy, boudoir, barn, mill, dovecote, lighthouse, flower garden, orchard and a series of cottages. Walking along this place you will feel suspended in time and you will benefit from its peace and the harmony of its buildings.
After the visit, we will back at Versailles main entrance to meet our driver again and start our journey back to Paris. We are sure that you will remember for long time this immersive experience in French history you will certainly understand what the French mean by “Grandeur” (Greatness).