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VR experience at Versailles on 'lost features of the gardens'

When I asked about this new VR experience at Versailles, no one responded and I couldn't find reviews anywhere so a friend and I decided to make a day of the gardens and do this. We found it very rewarding. Few people seem to know of the VR experience. While we waited for our session many people wandered in and were told they had to get tickets on line or at a ticket booth elsewhere.

Unlike Eternelle Notre Dame you do not wear a heavy backpack with the VR gear and so kids can do this one. It is time in a very small room and about 10 people or so at a time and everyone wears a headset and can walk about during the experience.

Le Notre guides you to several places in the gardens that have long since been destroyed including the menagerie, the labyrinth and a grotto of the gods. The most fun was probably the menagerie where you can wander among exotic birds and watch them flying overhead, be charged by an elephant and have a tiger walk right by you in petting distance. The labyrinth is interesting but you don't get to really walk the whole thing. The grotto where Louis XIV also appears is interesting. The whole thing lasts about 25 minutes or so.

If you enjoy VR experiences it is well worth doing. Not quite as amazing as the Impressionist visit to the Salons at the Orsay last year, or Eternelle Notre Dame but close.

The gardens of course are always a delight on fountain day -- we waited to get our tickets at the gardens which was a mistake -- get them on line ahead and you just walk in and it is a euro cheaper. The fountains seem to run longer than the last time we did this type visit but the triple fountains was not functioning when we got there.

Lots of people renting boats on the canal and the open air restaurants were pleasant and offer good service and good food.

Posted by
1264 posts

Thanks, that was uniquely interesting! I really appreciated the VR ideas for Paris, have added to our list.

Not quite as amazing as the Impressionist visit to the Salons at the
Orsay last year, or Eternelle Notre Dame but close.

Posted by
4988 posts

It's this VR experience at Versailles or is it done offsite by an independent company? We recently did a VR experience of the pyramids in Egypt that seems similar. It was expensive but well done.

Posted by
10741 posts

Unlike Eternelle Notre Dame you do not wear a heavy backpack with the VR gear

Here's an update: you no longer have to wear a heavy backpack at Éternelle Notre Dame, either !

I went back in February with a friend who was in town and had described the backpack to her and was pleasantly surprised when instead, we just received headgear that has everything in it.

Posted by
9007 posts

Kim -- that is great. I assumed the backpacks were required because each person is in a different phase of the experience. With the head sets I assume it is being broadcast to everyone the same.

This is definitely not a private attraction outside Versailles. It is in a building on the grounds sort of t the left where the toilets and information office is. The attraction is also listed on the official website -- I bought tickets ahead through the site -- they were 15 Euro which is a lot less than Eternelle Notre Dame. I failed to buy garden tickets because we had not decided we were going to do that and that was a mistake.