We are visiting Paris in mid December and thinking about combo ticket of Louvre and Versailles with trianon, has anyone done this and what did you think? Since there is a lot to do in Paris and we all ready have another day trip planned we don't think we will have time to give all day to Versailles. Also how are the gardens during December?
Thank you
Posted by
Chicago
9279 posts
the gardens in December are IMHO not interesting because the fountains won't be running so there isn't much of interest there -- they are always free when the fountains are not working so there is that. If the VR garden experience is still running that would be worth doing. And of course crowds are a bit less for the chateau. IMHO the Trianon is not sufficiently interesting to be worth it on a short visit. I enjoyed the paintings of the garden when it was new but other than that just more rooms with gold molding. The chateau is worth some time.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/fountains-of-versailles-a-little-chaos/
Here are the gardens in summer; as you can see they are architectural gardens and the fountains are for the most part hidden in copses -- but these copses are not intrinsically interesting without the fountains. The ugly sculpture down the center of the gardens was temporary and is not there now. I visited the gardens in April and they looked about the way they did in those 15 year old snapshots. The VR experience is a tour with le Notre of three garden features that no longer exist, the maze, the menagerie and the grotto. Not as fabulous as Eternelle Notre Dame VR in Paris but good.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
353 posts
I agree with Janet above. I’ve visited Versailles several times, once in January. The gardens are less interesting in winter with the fountains off and drained. The times I’ve visited Versailles, I spent more than a half day there. With travel to and from, it was at least a ¾, if not a full day trip.
I haven’t done the “combo ticket” you’re asking about; I’ve always done Versailles independently. I’m wondering about what the “combo ticket“ might be. I’m not seeing anything like that offered as an option on either the official Chateau de Versailles or the Louvre websites. I’m guessing that it’s a 3rd party vendor offering a day tour. If you decide to go with that package, I’d recommend taking a close look at what’s being offered and weigh the value against buying the individual tickets from the official websites. How much time would you have at each site and does the ticket include transportation?
Unless you have the Hall of Mirrors on your bucket list I might save Versailles for another trip. Combining two major sites with significant travel between them is a lot for one day.