Baroque music playing throughout the vast grounds which house multiple gardens, groves and statues. Bubbles floating in the air as you exit the palace into the gardens for the evening. If you are planning a trip to Versailles, I highly recommend attempting to work in the The Fountains Night Show and the Royal Serenade which take place every Saturday from around June to mid-late September.
We spent the day at Versailles. We will write more about the palace and our day there in another post. One of our favorite experiences in all of our travels was this evening at Versailles.
We finished our day activities at Marie Antoinette’s hamlet in the Trianon Gardens. Before the Fountain Shows and Musical Gardens experience the staff of the palace closed the palace to all guests for an hour or 2 to prepare the experience. This was great because it gave us a chance to search for a spot to eat and sit down for a bit. The walk from the Hamlet back towards the town was a bit devoid of restaurants when we visited. We stopped at the first spot we came to which wasn’t too impressive. When we left the restaurant we chose and walked 2 more streets back towards the palace we discovered several other restaurants we could have chosen from.
The line to re-enter the palace for the evening was much more streamlined than the lines for the palace during the day. The Royal Serenade took place in the Hall of Mirrors with dancers in period costume dancing to baroque music. The performance lasted around 40 minutes before we were set loose in the gardens for the evening.
When you exit the palace into the gardens, it is an amazing experience to hear the music, see bubbles floating over the crowds near pools of water as you walk out, and to gaze all the way down the center of the grounds to Apollo’s Fountain.
The grounds contain multiple groves, each with their own unique design and features. I spoke to one of the staff members while waiting to enter the palace for the evening. They were explaining some of what we would experience and they personally recommended the Ballroom grove as one of their favorites and it became one of ours as well. Multiple small fountains were placed in a circular setting. You can find a picture of it in this post but it doesn’t do justice to the experience.
The public restrooms available to guests for the evening will have long lines and leave a lot to be desired. Plan accordingly. 🙂
We were staying in Paris and had taken the train out to Versailles for the day. Worried we might miss the last train of the evening back to Paris, we exited the grounds as they were conducting the fireworks and boarded our train. If memory serves, it was at least 20-30 minutes before it departed so they seem to give you ample time to watch the fireworks and make your train. If we ever make it back for this experience we would most likely consider spending the night so we wouldn’t have this worry.
Overall, Versailles was and is still one of our favorite places we have visited. I highly recommend it! 🙂
Leave a reply