Versailles: Europe’s Favorite Palace

I’m spending a couple of weeks in the area around Paris to make two TV shows on the great palaces and châteaux of the region. Most of these castles are run like businesses, and need a certain amount of visitors to stay in the black. Versailles is the dominant attraction in the area, drawing a flood of visitors every day while nearby palaces struggle to get a crowd.

p14-hall-mirrors-crowd Visiting Versailles on a weekend in midsummer comes with the worst possible crowds. A steady crush of visitors shuffle through the hot and muggy one-way route, as if enduring some horrible punishment. The magnificent Hall of Mirrors is the payoff, and even with a mossy carpet of tourist heads, it’s a thrill to see.

p15-crew-hall-of-mirrors Most great sights in Europe are closed one day a week to the public. But that doesn’t mean they take the day off. That’s the day the furniture is dusted, paintings are moved around, elite visitors and their entourages are given private tours, and film crews (like us) are busy doing their work. We filmed on Sunday to show the reality — a palace packed with tourists. And then we came back on Monday (when it’s closed) to shoot all the details of the furniture, paintings, and my “on cameras.” Being in the Hall of Mirrors with a mob is good. Being there all alone hits you much deeper. Even if you don’t have VIP film crew access, you can still have the Hall of Mirrors (almost) all to yourself: Just visit midweek, during the last hour of the day.

p16-steve-laptop I am so proud of our France guidebook. Being in France, I’m meeting happy travelers with the book everywhere I go. And it’s the labor of love of my co-author, Steve Smith. Steve joined us as part of our TV crew. He’s our fixer (he arranged the permissions for our big camera), our guide, our driver, and my on-camera sidekick as we produce these France shows. And, an expert at multitasking, whenever there’s down time on the TV production end, Steve is busy updating the details of our guidebook. While we worked for five hours in an empty Palace of Versailles, Steve was on call, online, on the phone, and on his laptop.

Comments

12 Replies to “Versailles: Europe’s Favorite Palace”

  1. We benefitted from your recommendations when we were in Paris a number of years ago. Thanks for your continual work to make our travel experiences great.
    Tennessee Travelers

  2. I saw the video on FaceBook, oh my, it took me back to my visit to Versaille. I went on Easter Sunday. That could be the only other day that might beat out a Sunday in July for crowds. And it was a rainy Sunday and so no one was in the gardens; everyone was in the palace. I followed the palace with a Easter Dinner with my French Pen Pal from High School and then took the train to Chartre. As I walked up from the train station to the Youth Hostel, the sun came out, and the Cathedral Bells were ringing. It was spectacular.

  3. I visited Versailles in early July on a Tuesday, and the crowds were the same as shown in your first photo. It was NOT a pleasant travel experience! Unfortunately it was the only day I had available and the last day of my Paris Museum Pass. The gardens were a much easier visit but after spending several hours wandering around, I was worn out so didn’t get a chance to explore as much as I wanted.

    I envy your ability to tour the Chateau when it’s closed and empty. I’ll be looking forward to seeing the new shows.

    I’d like to add that I used your audio tour for that Chateau visit and it worked really well. Thanks for your interesting tour of Versailles!

  4. Having faced the crush in Florence on a rainy day with a lot of the Uffizzi closed for renos, I think there is a culture clash with such a variety of tourists. Many cultures don’t mind the push and shove and crush while others need more space and politeness. It makes enjoying popular sights difficult. My friends said the Vatican was so claustrophobic they had to force there way out. I know it is expensive to keep up these places but perhaps there should be more limited admission on some days.

  5. Thanks so much Rick for being generous as usual, sharing valuable tips and “trade secrets” (filming over different days: one for the place, another for the crowds…) with the rest of your loyal readers. I particularly appreciated the tip about visiting midweek during the last hour (even if I doubt most “greedy” readers will follow the “last hour” part very strictly!). Albeit I don’t picture myself anywhere near Versailles anytime soon (though God knows how much I’d rather be in the Most Beautiful Country on Earth*), I suppose the advice would be useful for most jam-packed, popular destinations.

    *Not that I want to spur an argument on this blog between the French and Italians!

  6. Looking at the top picture, I just can’t help being reminded of another time when the Hall of Mirrors endured a huge crush of foreigners. I believe it occurred in 1870, and there is a famous painting that commemorates the event…

  7. Thanks Steves, for sharing your awesome experience through this post. i am excited to go there with my friend and would love to recommend to others.

    Thank you
    Wikifundotcom

  8. My first trip to Europe was right after 911. Just happened that way. So for a few years Europe was pretty quiet unless you went right at high time. But even then I was in LALA land that this is how it was. Well around 2006 things started picking up and we have now found that no matter when you go, all the major sites are quite busy.

  9. We are enjoying revisiting sites we saw in May and June this year, using your good guidebooks and good maps as we drove across Europe, England and Ireland for 35 days.

    Thanks for all your work!

  10. Do your own research so you are not a victim of people who make their living selling tours and information.

  11. Steve Smith, I suspect, does MOST of the book writing on France. I have a couple of his tour guide books and they are quite good. But any masochistic Americans who visit these tourist “magnet” locations when they are busy deserves what they get. I avoid crowded sites, airplanes and roads and trains. Which does indeed curtail my trips to France or anywhere that
    brings crowds: Florence; Madrid; Paris; Tokyo; Venezia etc.

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