Versailles overnight

I recently read or saw (probably on YouTube) something about the town of Versailles. It was positive, that's all I can remember. I wonder if you'd do well to stay two nights there so that you can enjoy the park and gardens after the palace is closed and the tourists have gone back to the city. The other question I have is whether you will return to Paris after this or move on to another location. I wouldn't do this in the middle of a stay in Paris unless you can afford to keep your hotel in Paris and travel with just a day pack. If you're not staying a second night at the Ibis and can't keep your room in Paris, what will you do with your luggage while you're touring the palace?

While its your vacation, and you can do what you want, it would help to know where you plan to be on the days before and after this one night interlude. There is certainly no shortage of restaurants if you are staying at the Ibis adjacent to Ave. de Paris. And you should be able to store your luggage at the hotel after check out, and pick up after leaving the Palace.

However, if your plans include stays in Paris, I would consider just staying with your Paris hotel. There's no reason you can't get to Versailles before opening time, using the Metro/RER. And you could stay in Versailles for a leisurely dinner after your visit, since the RER runs until very late

We spent a night in Versailles before going to the Palace in early June 2023, just as you propose; we arrived from Chartres. I can’t tell you where we dined or stayed, but we found a nice place for a large, late lunch and, in the evening, charcuterie and wine. It made for a relaxed afternoon and eve and a low stress walk to the chateau with our 9 am timed entry tix, the next morn.

We got in line about 8:30 and didn’t enter the Chateau until 9:15 or so. Big crowd right in through the gate, then by the chapel and to the State Apartments.

The best advice I can offer is

• Don’t bother with the RS Guided tour to the Chateau. With the crowds, trying to match the pace of the audio only tour with where we were in the Palace quickly became impossible.
• Get the official Chateau Versailles App on your smart phone. Do that at least one day in advance of going to the chateau. Or, do it before you depart the US and spend some time with it on the airplane.
• The advantage of the guide on the phone is that it combines maps and pros of various rooms with the audio and you can easily move around the virtual palace on your phone to match your location.
• The official app has two dozen guided tours of various elements of the Chateau, such as the State Apartments, the Louis XIV Rooms, the Empire Rooms, the Apartments of Louis CV Daughters, the Gardens, the Grand Trianon, the Petite Trianon, the Queen’s Hamlet, the Apartments of the Captain of the Guard, the Empire Rooms and more. These run 30 to 90 minutes each with photos of various rooms, descriptions, and maps so you can easily navigate and jump around. There are four other 30 to 60 minute tours for kids.
• The App is useful not just for your tour. But an advance study of the App will help you plan what to see. We were at the Palace and Gardens until perhaps 3 pm, rented bikes at the Venice Gate to ride over the the Petite Trianon and the Queen’s Hamlet, yet did not get to the Grand Trianon, the Apartments of the Captain of the Guard, Gallery of the History of the Palace, the Crusades Rooms, or the Fountain Show. We really skipped through the Empire Rooms - which was probably fine since the best paintings were largely removed to the Louvre 200+ years ago. The Chateau is immense and, like the Louvre, you need a plan in mind - before you walk through the entry gate.

All that being said, I get that the Versailles Palace is a bucket list item and I am glad we saw it, but it was our least pleasant of 29 days in France in 2023. Part of the was the heat. But only part of that. The Palace itself was very crowded. We saw more impressive (though much smaller) gardens in the Dordogne and at Chaumont and Villandry in the Loire and Giverny on that same 2023 trip.

Hope you enjoy yourselves.

We will be en route from a Loire Valley chateau near Saumur (a week-long gourmet foodie retreat!). The night after Versailles will be in Paris. Just thought adding a stop in Versailles before Paris would be nice. Late September is probably not going to be any less crowded or any cooler than a mid-summer visit. I guess I should prepare myself for both eventualities!

I don't know. I think you can expect lower temps and smaller crowds in mid-September. A quick Google suggests going on Wednesday or Thursday and either going first thing, as you have suggested, or after 3:30pm when the tour buses have gone and most of the day trippers have returned to Paris. The gardens are open later than the palace, and you might even catch the sun setting around 8pm. Could be nice.