Weddingbee Blog

This post is dedicated to the lovely Mrs. Perfume, whose wedding was inspired by Marie Antoinette!

I was very excited the morning of my 30th birthday… making the trip to Versailles was one of the things that I was anticipating most about our trip to France. Going there on my birthday was just a bonus! (Having a wedding anniversary five days before my birthday has its perks!)

We wanted to get to the palace before opening, as we knew it would be swamped on a Saturday. The fountains at the palace only run on the weekends, so we didn’t mind the prospect of heavy crowds very much. I wanted to see the palace grounds in full swing!

Getting to Versailles from Paris was incredibly easy. We went to a metro station that serviced the RER train, and off we went! The train took about a half an hour from our station, and cost about 6 euros round trip. The entire trip, from hotel to the palace gates, was about an hour.

The first thing that we saw upon entering the palace was the beautiful chapel, where the marriage of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI took place.

We continued through the palace, taking in the unbelievable amount of gold and marble!

We were very excited to see the famous Hall of Mirrors, which also gave us a peek of the palace grounds.

The Queen’s formal bedroom was insanely ornate. This was the site where many royal children were born… we could not believe that childbirth was a spectator sport in the French Court! We also saw a neat hidden door in this room, which was used as an escape route by Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution.

I’ve already shared my obsession with all of the blue French doors in Paris. I found that the blue hues used in the Royal portraits were just as irresistible!

We took a few more minutes exploring the palace…

Then headed out to experience the grounds! I was very excited to see the fountains.

We were very lucky to have such lovely weather! This was our view after leaving the palace. It was very crowded close to the building, but was less congested further into the grounds.

Which seemed to go on forever! We were really impressed by the sheer size of the land.

The fountains were absolutely amazing. I was very happy that we scheduled our visit while they were running.

After about 20 minutes outside, I was already overwhelmed! (In an awesome way.)

There was so much to take in… the sculptures, the beautifully manicured shrubs, the spraying water… we just walked around with our jaws on the floor!

On either side of the main walkway and canal, there were smaller gardens hidden behind hedges. Each garden had a different theme, with sculptures, fountains and flowers to support it. It was super fun to “discover” all of these beautiful spots!

The roses smelled wonderful!

We walked toward the side of the palace…

And then headed toward the Petit Trianon, which was quite a walk from the main area of the grounds. The hedges were so tall along our path!

After a long walk and a bottle of water, we reached the Petite Trianon. Although not originally built for Marie Antoinette, it became her private escape from the strain of court life during her time at Versailles.

We loved the vibe of the interiors here. The palette and decor were much more relaxed, and quite beautiful.

This was my favorite room! So delicate and feminine.

The details of the interiors were stunning!

Another Royal Portrait, another gorgeous blue color.

We left the charming building and headed toward Marie Antoinette’s Estate. As we walked, the grounds became more natural and unkempt. This area was devoid of other tourists, and very romantic!

We stopped at a bench to have my “birthday cake”, which came in a pretty pink box…

Oh yes. The moment had finally come! Although we had been in Paris for 6 days, we still hadn’t tried a Ladueree macaron. We had been past their flagship shop twice, but not during their open hours. You can imagine my delight when we saw the small Laduree boutique in the palace at Versailles! What better time to try these famous French treats than on my birthday, sitting in the lovely grounds of Versailles?

I was a little worried that they wouldn’t live up to their hype, but they were seriously amazing. The taste, the texture, the color… just unbelievable. We made it a point to eat many more before we left France!

We took a closer view of the Temple of Love, which was across from our bench.

Then we continued on toward the Queen’s Hamlet.

When I was in fashion school, I learned about the Hamlet, a fake farming village that Marie Antoinette had created in order to enjoy the simple life. In this village, she and her friends would dress up (or down, in this case!) and pretend to be peasants and milkmaids, which was a way for them to escape the stiff reality of the French Court. Ever since that lesson in my fashion history class, I have wanted to see the place where all of this went down! I was thrilled to find that we could tour this area of Versailles. The village was a lot larger and even more picturesque than we imagined! I suppose we thought that the buildings would be in worse shape after being exposed to the elements for so long.

The hamlet looked like something out of a fairy tale.

The gardens were incredibly charming!

We made our way past the cottages, toward the farm.

The animals were adorable!

Every way we looked seemed perfectly orchestrated, straight out of a story book. It was really something!

We toured the marble dairy, enjoying the cool air inside.

The whole village was so beautiful and relaxing.

We made our way back toward the Petit Trianon, enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way.

We stopped to peek inside the miniature opera house that Marie Antoinette had created for her and her friends. It was life sized yet seemed like a dollhouse theatre. Some of the gardening “tools” used in the peasant inspired performances were on display in the Petit Trianon.

The gardens surrounding the Trianon were lovely!

We made it back to the main grounds in time for the fountains to start spraying again. In order to conserve water, the fountains run for a few hours in the morning, then again in the afternoon. Visiting the Queen’s estate turned out to be perfect timing for this schedule.

We found an ice cream stand behind one of the gardens. It was the best ice cream that I had in France! The consistency was so perfectly icy. mmmm.

We explored the different gardens…

Which were just incredible. The whole day, I must have uttered “Incredible” every five minutes. The grounds just blew us away.

Mr. Taffy loved seeing the way that the fountains were turned on.

We settled for a rest by the Dragon fountain. The fountain was near Neptune’s Basin, where the grand finale would take place just before closing time.

The grand finale was amazing! We were so hot that we wanted nothing more than to jump in!

The whole experience at Versailles was just stunning. We cannot recommend it enough!

We headed back to the train, exhausted but incredibly happy. The palace and grounds have such a remarkable history, and it was wonderful to see it first hand. After our trip we re-watched Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola. Since the movie was filmed at Versailles, we were thrilled to watch it after touring it ourselves. It was really fun to relive our visit that way!

Have you been to Versailles? What was your favorite part of the tour?

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