Where to stay to visit Versailles

jongood

jongood

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Inspired by an earlier post thank you SmithsInFrance , we are going to try and visit Versailles at the end of this trip. Looking at camper contact the carpark looks OK but its unclear how the charging works, does anyone know? or any good suggestions for stopover near by?

Thanks
Jon
 
I can’t help with the parking but I would recommend that you buy your tickets online in advance as the queue for tickets was massive when I went. Lovely place though.
 
jongood said:
Inspired by an earlier post thank you SmithsInFrance , we are going to try and visit Versailles at the end of this trip. Looking at camper contact the carpark looks OK but its unclear how the charging works, does anyone know? or any good suggestions for stopover near by?

Thanks
Jon
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We tried to visit Versailles in May last year - unsuccessfully :(
Although there is a huge car park in front of the chateau, the left side was for cars only (with height barrier) and the right side was for coaches (no motorhomes allowed).
By car park I assume you're referring to 82030 on Camper Contact? If so, then I'm pretty certain it wasn't listed on CC when we were there last May which is a shame because it looks ideal. After driving around for a while we gave up as we couldn't find anywhere to park.

One of the Google reviews for Parking Europe gives some info on the charging system:
(Translated by Google) Attention: if you are a camper and decide to go visit the Palace of Versailles a treat to park about 200/300 meters from the entrance. It is not easy to find but I hope that with my instructions you will succeed. The park overlooks avenue de l'Europe but getting there is complicated. So: with the entrance of the palace behind you take the avenue de Saint Cloud and about 20 meters from the avenue de l'Europe cross turn right on the small avenue of avenue Saint Cloud and made a few meters turn left on a side street . Few meters, follow it without fear will take you to the entrance to the Park. You pay only from 7 to 19 and can sleep peacefully. At the exit you pay at the cash machine and with the valid ticket you can leave the park.
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I can thoroughly reccommend NOT staying on the Avenue de Paris about a kilometre from the front doors in a free parking space along the road. On the assumption you might want half an hours kip in between dustbin lorries.
What we did notice, and what we would try if we went again, is
48.813279, 2.108336
which is at Marie Anotoinettes gaffe. We saw about 5 or 6 motorhomes there during the day time and there is a road called Avenue de Trianon where we saw that a couple of motorhomers definitely got away with it overnight.
No doubt this is a wing it and see what happens place to stop but it certainly beats having to pay 2 nights at the local campsite at 40 euros ish a night.

My only other comment would normally be dont bother with going inside, but i also saw the picture of the hall of mirrors and if there ever was a time to go inside Versailles it would appear to be now. Enjoy
 
Alternatively stay at nonancourt (free aire) and take train. 14 euros one way for one but gets you in at 0830. You can do the rest of the costing yourself if interested !!!

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We stayed at the Huttopia campsite when we went - expensive and might be more busy now, but well located and safe.
You could only buy tickets online when we went, don't know if it has changed since, but it does make it quicker.
On French TV last week they said Paris is empty because all the Parisians have gone away for the summer and there are no American, Chinese etc tourists. Ideal time to go! Eiffel Tower is now fully open to the top as well and with the lift (originally opened just part way up and you had to use the stairs).
Interestingly, they also showed a glimpse of Puy du Fou (fabulous theme park in the Vendée) and pointed out that it was fairly crowded and very few people wearing masks.
 
Thanks for all the input. Definitely buying the tickets online.

it seems like you missed the original post DangerMousy, We also tried going on a previous occasion and yes the end of the queue was out of sight. The point of going now is that there seems to be a window where mass tourism is on hold so the queues are less and you might actually be able to see things ( I hate crowds)

sadly suavecarve the boss doesnt do early and I'm not keen on public transport! I like the Trianon suggestion but wonder if we would get away with it. I think I'm favouring stopping at the nearest aire we can find and driving in and paying to park for the day and then escaping to somewhere quiet - but better suggestions/indications of flaws in the plan welcomed?

Jon
 
jongood said:
Thanks for all the input. Definitely buying the tickets online.

it seems like you missed the original post DangerMousy, We also tried going on a previous occasion and yes the end of the queue was out of sight. The point of going now is that there seems to be a window where mass tourism is on hold so the queues are less and you might actually be able to see things ( I hate crowds)

sadly suavecarve the boss doesnt do early and I'm not keen on public transport! I like the Trianon suggestion but wonder if we would get away with it. I think I'm favouring stopping at the nearest aire we can find and driving in and paying to park for the day and then escaping to somewhere quiet - but better suggestions/indications of flaws in the plan welcomed?

Jon
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If you want to park up for the day having driven in then the Avenue de Paris is spot on. If you go about a kilometre up the road it becomes free parking. We parked overnight but it was just incredibly noisy.
I would go with the Trianon suggestion though and enter via Marie Antoinettes houses' rear (sic) and park it on the co ordinates i gave. There were 4 or 5 motorhomes there parking for the day and then having chat with the security to find the rules of play for overnight.
My only other advice is if leaving Versailles and deciding to set the sat nav for Chateau Thierry on the eastern side of Paris, then that is probably not a good idea as you have to go pretty dam close to the eiffel tower and through shed loads of narrow tunnels with junctions which is a bit hairy. Probably not best to do it in evening rush hour either !!!!!
 
pandas said:
They allow you to stay on site/in the grounds for one night providing you have booked an entrance ticket - there is a separate entrance and area for Motorhomes/coaches.
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Thanks, is that an entrance ticket for Versailles or for Trianon

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We got a total ticket that covered chateau, Trianon, gardens.
 
SmithsInFrance said:
We got a total ticket that covered chateau, Trianon, gardens.
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Thats the ticket to go for. Normally i would be advising "Dont buy a ticket and just see the garden" but the time is possibly the best time you are ever likely to get to see the inside of Versailles without tourists.
 
Hi Jon will you lets us know how you get on as I'm looking to visit at end of August and basically need the same answers as yourself:

Where to park overnight (as there is a late firework display apparently)
And the best ticket to get

TIA Amanda
 
suavecarve said:
jongood yeah I want to know as well !!!
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We went yesterday. It worked Ok for us but may have worked better if you had given me the right co-ordinates :LOL: - I know you meant well, but the co-ordinates were for parking Europa.

Parking Europa is possibly not where you would want to leave a valuable motor for too long but I think it would be Ok for an overnight as long as you werent precious about noise, it seems to be where the market traders park their vans and small trucks and some of them did have pretty noisy fridges.

But the bigger factor yesterday was it was baking hot 32c and pretty still and dusty, this meant that we didnt see as much of the gardens as we intended and decamped to an aire at Meaux.

I can't comment on the other suggested parking place at Trianon as I didnt see it. what I did notice is that there were hardly any queues for the 1600 and 1630 entries to the palace ( the 11am we did was pretty busy) You can enter the gardens at any time because they are free.

Hope this helps MB 2020

Edit to say that Nonancourt Aire is apparently closed so we stayed at Verneuil

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jongood said:
We went yesterday. It worked Ok for us but may have worked better if you had given me the right co-ordinates :LOL: - I know you meant well, but the co-ordinates were for parking Europa.

Parking Europa is possibly not where you would want to leave a valuable motor for too long but I think it would be Ok for an overnight as long as you werent precious about noise, it seems to be where the market traders park their vans and small trucks and some of them did have pretty noisy fridges.

But the bigger factor yesterday was it was baking hot 32c and pretty still and dusty, this meant that we didnt see as much of the gardens as we intended and decamped to an aire at Meaux.

I can't comment on the other suggested parking place at Trianon as I didnt see it. what I did notice is that there were hardly any queues for the 1600 and 1630 entries to the palace ( the 11am we did was pretty busy) You can enter the gardens at any time because they are free.

Hope this helps MB 2020

Edit to say that Nonancourt Aire is apparently closed so we stayed at Verneuil
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Weird. The only co ords I can find that i posted are for avenue de trianon en route to Marie Antoinettes gaffe.
Never heard of Parking Europa. We did park a further kilometre down the road and it was noisy as hell and i suggested not to park there.
48.813279, 2.108336
 
suavecarve said:
Weird. The only co ords I can find that i posted are for avenue de trianon en route to Marie Antoinettes gaffe.
Never heard of Parking Europa. We did park a further kilometre down the road and it was noisy as hell and i suggested not to park there.
48.813279, 2.108336
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Those co ords took me to the road next to parking europa, which is the camper contact one with fridge vans
 
suavecarve said:
All i can say is not on my google maps !
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Apologies you are correct, I now realise what I did. I set parking europa into Googlemaps on the phone and the co-ordinates into the Garmin, followed the phone for most of it and then it had a hiccup with a road closure and so I confused myself and followed the Garmin for the last bit. Sorry.
 
jongood said:
Apologies you are correct, I now realise what I did. I set parking europa into Googlemaps on the phone and the co-ordinates into the Garmin, followed the phone for most of it and then it had a hiccup with a road closure and so I confused myself and followed the Garmin for the last bit. Sorry.
Click to expand...
No worries, i wish that were the worst mistake i made with a sat nav !!!!

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