Château de Versailles
No trip to Versailles is complete without stepping inside Louis XIV's jaw-dropping palace, where 700 rooms and 2,000 sculptures tell the story of French royal ambition at its most extravagant. The Hall of Mirrors alone — 357 panels of glass reflecting the gardens beyond — is worth the journey from Paris.
The Palace Interiors
Begin in the Royal Apartments, where gilded ceilings painted by Charles Le Brun depict Louis XIV as Apollo, god of the sun. Each room is more opulent than the last, layered with Flemish tapestries, marble fireplaces and furniture restored to its 17th-century splendour.
The Hall of Mirrors stretches 73 metres along the garden façade and was the beating heart of French diplomacy — the Treaty of Versailles was signed in this very room in 1919. Visit on a sunny morning when light floods through the arched windows and the chandeliers seem to catch fire.
The Royal Gardens
André Le Nôtre's formal gardens spread across 800 hectares behind the palace, arranged around a grand central axis that stretches all the way to the horizon. Clipped yew cones, marble statues of gods and nymphs, and perfectly circular fountain basins give the landscape an almost theatrical geometry.
On summer weekends the Grandes Eaux Musicales bring the fountains to life with baroque music, turning the gardens into a living stage set. Arrive early to secure a spot near the Bassin de Neptune, the largest and most dramatic of the 50 fountains.
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