It's good to be the king

Last month, our visiting friend Sue and I drove up to the Château de Versailles outside of Paris. I hadn't been inside the château since 1981, and Sue's last visit was in 1975. Because of train strikes this spring, we decided to combine a visit to the château with getting Sue to Paris for her flight back to California the next day. I'll save the details of that adventure for a later post. We left our house at about seven in the morning and got to the parking lot at Versailles by 09h30. There was some morning rush-hour traffic to slog through as we got closer to Paris, but we still made good time over all.

Standing in the Cour d'Honneur looking toward the center of the château. You can see, on the right, that the exterior of the chapel is under renovation. The screen that hides the scaffolding is decorated with a view of the chapel interior. It's a eye-catching effect.

I didn't want to waste time looking for parking and walking a long way, so I planned to park in the main Place des Armes lot right in front of the château entrance and to pay whatever price they charged for the convenience. I found the lot with no trouble at all. There were something like 406 of 550 spots available, so no worries. We parked, had a little snack in the car, and then headed through the gate into the Cour d'Honneur toward the building entrance. I bought our tickets on the internet to save time, and the line for ticket-holders was not at all long. We were inside and through security pretty quickly.

A closer view. Ticket holders enter on the left, under the "A." The gilded roofs, windows, and gates were quite impressive.

Sue and I picked up a couple of maps and oriented ourselves. We also had to find the rest rooms. First things first! With that done, we began our visit. We exited the south wing (on the left in these photos) to cross the Cour Royale (The Royal Courtyard), passed the Cour de Marbre (The Marble Courtyard), and re-entered the building on the north side for a self-guided tour of a selection of rooms and galleries.

Standing in the Cour Royale, looking toward the Cour de Marbre (up a few steps) and the château's historic ceremonial entrance. So many people were taking selfies with their phones and we saw a lot of people using "selfie sticks" which are not permitted inside.