Versailles - train times and Garden Only?

As far as I can see on their website there is no musical show on Fridays in June so you can visit the gardens only for free (no entry to the palace or the trianons) if that's what you want to do. That's what I did because I had already visited the palace on a previous visit. I did buy the separate ticket for the trianons though because I hadn't seen them before.

According to the RER C schedule, they start running at 5:30 am so you should easily be able to get the first train that would get you there by 9:00 am. You don't need any advance ticket, timed or otherwise, for just the gardens.

For next Friday, RATP is showing the first train at 5:27 from St Michel-Notre Dame, takes 38 minutes to get to Versailles Rive Gauche. Figure about a 15 minutes walk to the Chateau entrance. Trains run every 15 minutes, at least that early in the morning.

https://www.ratp.fr/en/itineraires

I would not go except on a Fountain Day (weekends) for the Gardens only as the gardens are architectural not floral and with the fountains not running there isn't much to see IMHO. the gardens require a ticket on Fountain Days which is easy to purchase at the garden gate and allows in and out privileges all day. There was no line when we did it in October a few years ago; in any case there will not be anything like the long long security line for entering the palace. Here was our visit on a fountain day:
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/fountains-of-versailles-a-little-chaos/

I have the opposite opinion, i would not go on a fountain/musical day if i had a choice. The gardens are wonderful without, and are much more crowded when they are on. I often go and only do the gardens. But i never miss going to the Petit Trianon and Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet... special places imo.

I'm with you Susan. I would probably stay away from Versailles on a musical day, especially during high season. I spent the better part of a day exploring just the gardens. They are lovely and some of the fountains are intriguing works of art even without water. The lake, the trianons, the hamlet are all beautiful and nice to explore without horrendous crowds - I went in August and none of these was crowded at all. And I disagree that there are no beautiful flower gardens - I have a raft of photos that say 'not true'.

If I were to go back I would take the Blue Fox Bike tour. You meet in Paris and take the train to Versaille, go to a market to get food for lunch, ride through the sections of the gardens that allow bikes and get into the palace without the big line. Fat Tire probably has an equally good tour. I've taken another tour Blue Bike and when I saw how they organized the Versaille trip, it seemed like a better way to go.

I read the following that seems to say musical gardens (not fountains though) are on fridays in June. Am I looking at it incorrectly? One of the click-throughs gives an option for €8.50 tickets. Will it be so crowded or long lined that we should buy ahead? Or would we be better to buy timed chateau tickets? Half of our group has seen the inside, half has not.

On Tuesdays from 2 April to 14 May and from 2 July to 29 October 2019
On Fridays from 5 April to 25 October 2019 (except 19 April for the musical fountains show)

Warning: on days of Musical Fountains shows or Musical Gardens, the entrance to the Gardens is free only for children from 0 to 5 years old.

Access to the Gardens is included with all the Passport tickets.

Renee, you are correct and I apologize. I did not read down far enough on the website. I looked only at the musical fountain days, not the music in the gardens days. I didn't even realize that they were two different things. So, yes, on Fridays in June you would have to buy the separate musical garden ticket rather than entering the gardens for free. I don't believe you would need a timed entry ticket for anything except the palace - but hopefully someone else will know that for sure.

There is IMHO no reason at all to pay 9 Euro to hear crummy tinned music over bad speakers if the 'musical gardens' don't include the water. Obviously we just differ on the fountains. I find them much less interesting when they don't have water flowing and quite beautiful when they do. I would not make the effort of visiting the gardens on a non fountain day but in no case would I pay money to visit on a day with music and no water.

You don’t need to buy tickets ahead of time just for the gardens whether it’s a musical day, a fountain (usually one fountain at a time, not all the fountains at the same time) day, or an ordinary day. There may be a few people ahead of you in line, but there’s more than one ticket window, and it moves fast. Versailles put in a new speaker system so the sound quality is much better. If that Friday is the only day you can go, and you really want to go, i would. The farther away you are from where the fountains are, the less loud it will be. But, if you can go on an ordinary day, i would.

It is not our experience that only one fountain runs at a time. When we were there most fountains were running for 90 minutes or so in the morning and then again late afternoon. The only fountain with a limited time was the Neptune fountain which ran once around 5 pm or maybe a little later. We toured fountains during both time frames and only ran across a couple that were not flowing. Our favorite, the Ballroom Fountain was spouting away both morning and afternoon.