Versailles at nine, then the half of it the buses never reach
9 playbooks shared · added to 28 trips
- 7:50 am1RER C from Invalides, direction Versailles ChâteauParis
Any RER C train whose four-letter code begins with V — VICK, VITY — runs to Versailles Château–Rive Gauche, ten minutes' walk from the gates. Since the 2025 fare reform a single out into Île-de-France is a flat fare, so buy the return at the same time: the machines at Rive Gauche at 17:30 have the only real queue of the day.
16 min by train or taxi · 16 km - 9 am2State Apartments at 09:00, ahead of the coachesVersailles
A 09:00 slot and an 11:00 slot are two different buildings. At nine you walk the Hall of Mirrors with perhaps fifty people in it; by eleven the day coaches from Paris have landed and it is one shuffling line you cannot leave. Closed Mondays, entrance A, and it is the security scan that is slow, never the ticket desk. Verified 2026-09-06: the Palace and the Trianon estate are both closed Mondays; the Palace opens at 09:00 and closes 18:30 in high season, 17:30 the rest of the year.
5 min walk · 350 m - 10:40 am3Down through the bosquets while the fountains runVersailles
The Grandes Eaux Musicales run weekends from April to October and on some Tuesdays, and they are the only times the groves — Salle de Bal, Trois Fontaines, the Bosquet d'Encelade — are unlocked and playing. On any other day the gardens are free to walk and the ticket you bought is for a park with the taps off, so check the calendar before you pick the date, not after. Verified 2026-09-06: against the published 2026 calendar, the Grandes Eaux Musicales run every Saturday and Sunday from 4 April to 1 November 2026, every Tuesday from 5 May to 30 June, and on a handful of one-off dates (3 and 6 April, 8, 14 and 25 May, 14 July), 09:00–19:00. On any other date the groves are locked and the taps are off, so the warning here is exactly right — pick the date from the calendar first.
15 min walk · 1.1 km - 12:15 pm4Lunch at the head of the Grand CanalVersailles
Not a good restaurant, but the only table at the head of the canal, and the alternative is a two-kilometre walk back out through the gates and in again. The better version of this stop: buy a picnic at the Marché Notre-Dame in town — Tuesday, Friday and Sunday mornings — before you ever go into the palace. Verified 2026-09-06: the outdoor Carrés of the Marché Notre-Dame do run Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, 07:30–14:00, and the covered halls behind them are open Tuesday to Sunday — closed Monday, the same day the palace is shut.
10 min walk · 700 m - 1:35 pm5The Hameau de la Reine, which does not open until noonVersailles
The Trianon estate opens at 12:00 — turning up at 10:00 to a locked gate is the classic Versailles mistake and it wrecks the running order of the whole day. Petit Trianon first, the Queen's Hamlet last, and keep going to the working farm at the far end: it has actual animals and most people turn back one thatched cottage before it. Verified 2026-09-06: the Trianon estate opens at 12:00 (10:00 in July and August) and closes 18:30 April–June and September–October, 17:30 in winter. The locked-gate warning stands.
8 min by train or taxi · 3.4 km - 3:45 pm6A bike for the last hour of the parkVersailles
The park is 800 hectares and the trudge back from the Hameau is the bit people remember badly. Bikes go by the hour at the canal head, rowing boats a little more, and the little road train is there if legs have gone. Ride the far side of the canal — hardly anyone crosses the water and the palace from that end is the view on the old engravings.
8 min by train or taxi · 2.4 km - 5 pm7Back through the town instead of straight to the platformVersailles
The Carrés Saint-Louis and rue de Satory are a real market town five minutes from the Rive Gauche platform — bakeries, a cheesemonger, tables outside. Almost nobody who comes for the palace ever sees it, which is the entire recommendation.
3 min walk · 250 m - 5:55 pm8RER C back into ParisVersailles
Four an hour, and the ones just after the palace closes are the crush. Let the first train go and you will sit down for the whole way back.