Versailles: top attractions & road trip guide
Versailles is a town just southwest of Paris, built around the vast royal palace that Louis XIV transformed from a hunting lodge into the seat of French government in the late 17th century. The Château de Versailles, with its Hall of Mirrors and formal gardens, remains one of Europe's most influential examples of royal architecture and landscape design.
Top attractions
Hall of Mirrors
This 73-meter gallery lined with 357 mirrors facing garden-view windows was the ceremonial heart of the palace and the site where the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919.
Gardens of Versailles
Designed by André Le Nôtre, these 800 hectares of symmetrical parterres, fountains, and canals are a defining example of the French formal garden style.
Grand Trianon
Built in 1687 as a retreat from court life, this pink-marble pavilion in the park was used by Louis XIV and later Napoleon as a private residence away from the main palace.
Queen's Hamlet
Marie Antoinette had this rustic mock village of thatched cottages, a mill, and a farm built in the 1780s as a pastoral retreat within the palace grounds.
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