Skip-the-Line Versailles Palace & Gardens from Paris with Optional Fountain Show

Arriving from Paris in a comfortable private bus, accompanied by your expert guide, you’ll strut past the lines outside the Palace of Versailles in true royal fashion. As your guide shows you around a carefully curated selection of the palace’s 700 rooms, you’ll hear stories of the Sun King, Louis XIV, his successors, their queens, mistresses, and courtiers – including Marie Antoinette and other notable figures. Versailles had its heyday in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the Sun King elevated Louis XIII’s humble hunting lodge into the official seat of the French court – and 300 years later, the palace has lost little of its glamorous excess. The Gardens of the Palace of Versailles were designed by master gardener André Le Nôtre and court painter Charles le Brun, not as a respite from the palace, but as an extension of it – with every bit as much opulence (and intrigue) as the interior. Depending on the day, your tour of the Gardens may include the Musical Fountain Show (where fountains dance in perfect time to classical music) or Musical Gardens (where music accompanies your tour through the idyllic glades). Even if not, with your guide’s help, you’ll discover fountains, statues and secret groves scattered throughout the vast French formal estate. Following the guided tour, you’ll have a free hour to revisit the most captivating sights – or find new ones just for yourself. Surrounded by luxury, the only hardship is deciding how to follow an experience this spectacular.