Visiting Versailles from Paris: Transport, Tickets, Day Plan

Before you go: the rules that shape the day

• The palace and the Trianon estate are closed on Mondays, as well as on 25 December, 1 January and 1 May. The gardens and park open every day.
• Entry to the palace is by timed slot, to be booked online by all visitors, including those entering free or with the Paris Museum Pass. A ticket bought online guarantees entry within half an hour of the booked time. Slots open three months in advance.
• The Trianon estate (Grand Trianon, Petit Trianon, the Queen's Hamlet) only opens at noon.
• Two seasons, two sets of opening hours. From 1 April to 1 November, the palace opens from 9am to 6.30pm (last admission 5.45pm) and the gardens from 7am to 8.30pm. From 2 November to 31 March, the palace closes at 5.30pm (last admission 4.45pm) and the gardens open from 8am to 6pm.

What you will see on site (the Hall of Mirrors, the State Apartments, the Trianons) is described in our page on the Palace of Versailles.

Getting to Versailles from Paris

Three stations serve Versailles, plus a bus route. Since 1 January 2026, the Métro-Train-RER ticket costs €2.55 for any journey within Île-de-France: a single trip to Versailles by RER or Transilien train therefore costs the same as a metro ride within Paris, i.e. €5.10 return. The ticket is loaded onto a Navigo Easy pass or into the Île-de-France Mobilités app. The Navigo Semaine (€32.40) and Paris Visite passes cover Versailles at no extra cost; to find out which one suits your stay, see our comparison Navigo or Paris Visite.

RER C to Versailles Château Rive Gauche

This is the most popular option: the RER C can be boarded at several central stations (Saint-Michel Notre-Dame, Musée d'Orsay, Invalides, Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel) and runs to the terminus at Versailles Château Rive Gauche, about ten minutes' walk from the palace. Allow 30 to 40 minutes' travel depending on your departure station. Two precautions: the line splits into several branches, so only board a train showing Versailles Château Rive Gauche as its destination; and the RER C has closures for engineering works every year (in summer and on some evenings), announced in the app. How the network works is explained in our guide to the metro and RER.

Transilien trains from Montparnasse or Saint-Lazare

• From Montparnasse (line N): arrival at Versailles Chantiers, often the shortest journey (about fifteen minutes on direct trains), then about 18 minutes' walk to the palace.
• From Saint-Lazare (line L): arrival at Versailles Rive Droite after about thirty minutes, then about 17 minutes' walk.

Useful when the RER C is closed; see our guide to Paris train stations.

Bus 171 from Pont de Sèvres

From Pont de Sèvres (terminus of metro line 9), bus 171 stops in front of the palace after about thirty minutes outside traffic jams. You need one ticket for the metro and then a Bus-Tram ticket (€2.05).

Comparison of the ways to get there

Prices as observed in September 2026. Navigo and Paris Visite passes accepted on all these options.

Which ticket to choose

The Passport is the standard ticket: it gives access to the palace (by timed slot), the Trianon estate, temporary exhibitions and the gardens, including on Musical Fountains Show (Grandes Eaux musicales) and Musical Gardens (Jardins musicaux) days. Its price depends on the season and on your nationality or residence: nationals and residents of the European Economic Area (EEA) pay €3 less, on presentation of proof. An end-of-day rate exists for those with only a few hours.

The Trianon Estate ticket, with no timed slot, is enough for the Trianons and the Hamlet without the palace. The gardens are free from November to March. From April to October, they charge admission almost every day, as they host the Musical Fountains Show (weekends, public holidays and some Tuesdays) or the Musical Gardens (Tuesday to Friday). The park beyond the gardens (Grand Canal, surroundings of the Trianons) remains free for pedestrians and cyclists.

Prices as observed in September 2026 on the official ticket office. The Musical Fountains Show ticket bought at the counter on site is listed at €16. The Paris Museum Pass does not exempt you from booking a slot; it only pays off if Versailles is added to several major museums over the same days (see our comparison of Paris passes).

Free admission and first Sundays

Entry to the palace and Trianon is free for under-18s and for European Union residents under 26, as well as for several groups (disabled visitors and their companion, jobseekers with proof). Booking a timed slot remains compulsory for the palace.

From December to March, the whole estate is free for everyone on the first Sunday of the month: 6 December 2026, 3 January, 7 February and 7 March 2027. The palace slot must still be booked and these dates sell out fast; expect large crowds too.

Musical Fountains Show and Musical Gardens

In 2026, the Musical Fountains Show (Grandes Eaux musicales) takes place from 3 April to 1 November, every Saturday and Sunday, on Tuesdays in May and June and on some public holidays. The Musical Gardens (Jardins musicaux), with music in the groves, run Tuesday to Friday from 1 April to 30 October. The groves are open from 9am to 7pm, except on certain days (including 25 October to 1 November) when they close at 5.30pm. The 2027 calendar had not been published at the end of September 2026. The Night Fountains Show (Grandes Eaux nocturnes), on summer Saturday evenings, is booked separately.

A typical day by season

The estate is vast: the Grand Canal and the Trianons are more than a kilometre from the palace. Allow a whole day if you want to see everything.

From April to October

• 8.15am to 8.30am: leave Paris, having booked the 9am slot. This is the quietest time in the rooms.
• 9am to 11.30am: visit the palace.
• 11.30am to 1pm: gardens and groves, with the fountains on Musical Fountains days.
• 1pm: lunch near the Grand Canal (picnic in the park or restaurant, see below).
• 2pm to 5pm: the Trianon estate and the Queen's Hamlet, open since noon and less crowded in mid-afternoon.
• Return: on foot, by little train or by bike, before the gardens close.

Getting around the park:

• Little train: full circuit €9 (€7 reduced rate), €5 for the return trip to the palace; it links the palace, the two Trianons and the Grand Canal, every day except Monday.
• Bikes: hire at the Petite Venise, at the end of the Grand Canal, €10 per hour, €21 per half-day, €23 per day; from 10am to 6.45pm from April to October.
• Rowing boats: on the Grand Canal, €16 per half-hour and €20 per hour per boat, from 1 March to 15 November.

Prices as observed in September 2026.

From November to March

The same plan, condensed: palace at 9am, Trianon from noon, last admission at 4.45pm, gardens free and without shows until 6pm. The rowing boats stop on 15 November, as do the bikes; the bikes return in mid-February, the boats on 1 March. The little train runs all year round, except on Mondays.

If you only have half a day

Take the end-of-day Passport: the palace in the late afternoon, once the groups have left, then the gardens. Trianon will have to be sacrificed.

Where to eat

The estate has several places to eat, most of them closed on Mondays, except La Flottille and its guinguette:

• At the palace: the café Ore (French cuisine, 9am to 5.30pm) and Angelina (tea room), both on the expensive side.
• In the gardens: La Girandole and Le Dauphin, for a simple meal or a snack.
• At the Grand Canal: La Flottille (traditional brasserie, open every day, children's menu) and its guinguette (crêpes, ice cream, from April to October); La Petite Venise for more refined Italian cooking.

Picnicking is free and allowed in the park (around the Grand Canal, the Pièce d'eau des Suisses, the Plaine Saint-Antoine), but not in the gardens. Once you leave the estate, the town of Versailles also has bakeries and restaurants at normal town prices, around the Notre-Dame district.

Crowds and pitfalls to avoid

The palace itself states that Tuesdays and weekends are the busiest days, especially in summer (on Tuesdays the Louvre is closed and visitors head to Versailles instead). Aim for Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, with a 9am slot or one after 4pm.

The real pitfalls:

• Online resellers. Unofficial websites sell the Passport at a higher price, sometimes as "skip-the-line" even though the timed slot is compulsory for everyone anyway. Buy from the palace's official ticket office.
• Offers of tickets or guides around the station and the Place d'Armes. A ticket bought from a stranger may already have been used or be fake: an investigation into ticketing fraud at the Louvre and Versailles led to people being charged in February 2026. Our guide to scams to avoid in Paris describes the common techniques.
• Luggage. Suitcases and large bags are refused for security reasons. ## Going further

If you are hesitating between Versailles and another château in Île-de-France, our selection of day trips from Paris compares Chantilly, Vaux-le-Vicomte and Fontainebleau. To fit your Versailles slot around the other bookings of your stay (Eiffel Tower, Louvre), see what to book in advance in Paris. And if you are visiting museum after museum, our review of the Paris Museum Pass will help you decide whether it is worth it.