On our recent drive back to the UK, Michael and I decided to spend a couple of nights in Versailles. It’s a place I’d been wanting to visit for so long, but we’d just never got round to it. This time, however, because we were going back for a funeral, we figured it would be nice to do something to lift our spirits. And it certainly did that.
I had no idea what to expect, apart from a huge palace that was once home to the kings and queens of France. When we arrived in the town, I was immediately smitten. It was very pretty, and then, we turned down the main road and were faced with the most magnificent building I’d ever laid my eyes on. It was absolutely spectacular in all it’s golden splendour. Seriously, this place glistens in the sun.
We located our hotel pretty quickly, because it was very close to Versailles Palace, and had parking beneath it, which was perfect. Then we headed out for a little wander, booking our tickets to Versailles Palace at the nearby tourist office. We booked to see the palace, its’ gardens, and everything else surrounding it. We wanted a full day to take advantage of it, so we decided to do it the following day. The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around the town, and finding a cute little vegan cafe where we had some delicious ice cream. That evening, we also managed to find quite a nice spot for dinner, which catered to our plant-based diets.
The following morning, we walked up to the massive gates ready for our 9am entrance. To eliminate too many extreme queues, entry is every half an hour (I think), which works pretty well. The queue was still quite long, but it moved forward very quickly and we were in the palace grounds within minutes. I was so excited! And I certainly wasn’t disappointed. There was so much to see, and it was just so freaking gorgeous! I loved every second. We took all morning to visit the palace, the gardens, the Estate of Triannon, the park, Marie-Antoinette’s estate, the farm with it’s adorable animals, and the utterly enchanting Queen’s hamlet which had such a magical feel to it—almost like something out of Harry Potter! If you know me, then you’ll know how much I loved that lol!
We walked for miles, which we were happy to do, but you can rent golf buggies, if you need a respite from all that exercise. The buggies aren’t cheap though, so be prepared for that. There’s plenty of places to have a drink and a bite to eat, and we were lucky to find a couple of vegan options, although we had to send our meal back the first time because they forgot to remove the cheese from our ‘vegan’ burgers. But they didn’t fuss about it so it was all good. Later, we also found a chap selling the most delicious vegan ice cream / sorbet which we absolutely relished!
My photos and videos simply do not do any of it justice. The entire Versailles Palace grounds are breathtakingly beautiful and we felt so at home there lol (!). One day, I’d like to return and do the whole thing again. For now though, we’re thinking we’d quite like to visit Paris, because Versailles has given us the bug! When we left the following day to head to the Channel Tunnel, we did get a little peak of the Eiffel Tower in the distance…I was so excited, I was like a little girl squealing in the car!
Versailles is only a couple of hours from the Channel Tunnel, so it’s super easy to visit if you’re in the UK and fancy a couple of days away. And the tickets were very cheap. I think we paid about twenty euros each, which is an absolute bargain, if you ask me.
And since visiting Versailles Palace, I’ve started watching Versailles on Netflix lol!
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