Day trip to Versailles
 

I read on an earlier posting that it's easy to get to Versailles from Paris for a day trip. As it's our second visit to Paris & we're staying longer I thought this might be a good idea. How long does it take to get to Versailles? Which train station? How regular are the trains & how much? I know I've asked lots of questions here but you are the experts.

Versailles is served by three train lines from Paris - the easiest for access is arguably the Rive Gauche station served by the RER C line that runs down the left bank. From Invalides, the trip takes about 40 minutes; trains run several times every hour. Use the route calculator at www.ratp.fr

If you do <u>not</u> have a Paris Museum Pass, the best package is probably the <i>Forfait Loisirs</i> that covers both transport (M&eacute;tro and RER) and castle admission, plus extras like audioguides. It's about &euro;21 at all SNCF (and some RATP) train stations.

Note that the RER C line splits west of Paris; the train you want terminates at Versailles Rive Gauche (the C5 line). Overhead signs on the platform will tell you the destination of each train.

The forfait loisir package (includes ticket to all of Versailles and aller-retour train tickets) can be bought for 21 euros at the St. Michel RER station near Notre Dame. It's a straight shot from St. Michel station to Versailles Rive Gauche. About 45 minutes.

And it's well worth it! Went just 2 weeks ago on a Sunday when the fountains were on full display. Arrived at Versailles at 10 AM to see that the ticket line was already several hundred people long. Estimated wait time was 1.5 hours. We went right in without waiting in line.

Note that the museum pass does not cover all of Versailles while the forfait loisirs does.

palais closed on Mondays i believe

I don't remember the details of how to get there (any Paris guidebook that you take should have this info), but I'll just add that I've done it and it's indeed easy. It took less than an hour from our metro stop in Paris.

We found the trip to be easy, but only after we bought the ticket from a machine. If it hadn't been for a nice couple who knew how to use that dang thing, we may have never made it to Versailles. There probably are places where you can buy the ticket from a person. We tried to do that. The place we were at in the 7th had such a person but for some reason, she made us, and everyone else, use the machine.

Like dcd, we were made to buy tickets from the machine too. We had to figure out how to get the change machine to work first and then the ticket machine. Once we got the language changed to English, it was pretty easy.

Petit Trianon is closing in Nov for renovations.

I add my voice to others recommending the forfait loisir package. It was a great deal, wonderful to have the audioguides, and fabulous to skip past the long lines!