Palace of Versailles: Access All Areas + Audio Guide

In the public mind, the name Versailles conjures up notions of the sumptuous palace and vast landscaped gardens. But did you know there's also a third part? With this passport ticket, you’ll be able to explore , Marie Antoinette’s private compound.The main palace and gardens are extravagant beyond belief. More than 700 rooms, a large collection of 18th-century French art, an opera house and a 75 m-long hall of mirrors lined with statues and busts. The gardens feature all manner of luxuries and follies that a European monarch just couldn’t do without: meticulously manicured lawns, hundreds of ornate fountains and statues of Greek gods emerging from water pools. But that's not all: the famously profligate Marie Antoinette wasn't content with the room she had at Versailles, so she insisted on having her own compound away from the main palace. And boy howdy, did she get it! Two smaller - though still grand - palaces, known as the Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon, already existed on the edge of the grounds. She took these and added a village of idyllic, rustic buildings that came to be known as . It was all fun and games till the rabble came calling…Versailles has a total area of more than 2,000 acres, so there’s plenty of magnificence to go round - or above! (In 1783, the first balloon flight experiment was held for the king. The passengers included a duck, a rooster, and a sheep).The four rooms in the Queen’s State Apartment are currently closed for renovation. Visitors can learn about Marie-Antoinette’s world in other places, such as the and the .