Our Versailles tour: Through The Hidden Doors

Private tour to Versailles with skip the Line & Hotel Pick-up/Drop-off

Our Private Versailles tour “Through The Hidden Doors” is designed for you if you already came to Versailles and really love the French history. This tour offers you the possibility to discover another side of the Palace of Versailles that the visitors cannot access generally. Discover the unknown places which are not accessible during the classical visit. During this visit, we will reserve the rooms to the Palace for you and you will have the privilege to get access to the rooms which will be semi-privatized for you. (just a few people will be in the rooms: not the crowd as we usually have).

Opera versailles

Opening Days
6/7 (except Monday)

Meeting-Point
Your hotel or apartment

Duration
5Hrs (half day)
9Hrs (full day)

Access
Skip the Line

Transport
Executive car

Type of tour
Private, up to 17 people

Choose a 5 stars tour to Versailles.

Because we know that driving a car and telling an interesting story during a guided tour requires different specific skills, we propose you to be guided by a very knowledgeable licensed guide and driven by a specific Chauffeur.

That way, your Versailles expert guide is really dedicated to you. He has more time for you and more interesting anecdotes & stories to share with you. & your driver is focused on your safety. This is a real private tour to Versailles.

What is included in this tour

We escort you (round trip) from your hotel to the Chateau.
Relax in our executive car with Chauffeur.
Enjoy a private tour with a friendly Versailles expert really dedicated to you. (the guide does not drive)
Feel like a Queen: skip-the-line tickets.
Admission to Musical Fountains Show or Musical Gardens included when running. (Gardens of Versailles when not running)
Headsets so you can always hear your guide. (if you are more than 6)

Place to see during this tour

Visit the private Apartments of the Kings Louis XV & XVI.
Visit the Apartments of the Queen.
Visit the Hall of mirrors.
Best of the 70 hectares of the Gardens.
Marie Antoinette’s Estate (Petit Trianon & Queen’s Hamlet) if you choose the full day tour.

What to expect during this tour?

Once arrived at Versailles, we will skip the queue and enter in the palace by a building reserved for the private visits in order to discover the Louis XV and Louis XVI Chambers.
One of the advantages of this visit is to visit some rooms which have a limited access & to avoid the crowd in these rooms.

Your guide will “open” you secret doors to discover the Private Apartments of the Kings. Having worked regularly at the Palace of Versailles and being passionated about its history, our tour guide will share with you the secret rooms of the Palace.

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Note: To be authorized to guide in this kind of rooms, our guides need to be licensed and authorized by the government but they also need a special autorisation delivered by the Palace of Versailles. This double agreement makes us fully confident on their skills to offer you a knowledgeable visit of Versailles…Just a few guides have this agreement.

Away from the crowd of the Big Apartments of Louis XIV, you will find the private Apartments of Louis XV, Louis XVI as well as the architecture’s masterpieces of the Palace including the Royal Opera and/or the Royal Chapel. (depending of the opening of the Palace).

This visit will enable you to discover what stands behind the doors of the Private Apartments of the King.
It is a discovery that will take place in a private atmosphere and a refined decor.

You will discover the Chamber of Louis XV with the dinning room for returning hunting parties, the clock room, the first antichamber that’s a royal doghouse, the bathroom, Louis XVI’s games room, the Louis XV’s library and rooms which represent the private life of the Kings, Louis XV and Louis XVI like the corner room with the roll-top writing desk of Louis XV.

The Louis XV clock

Zoom on the Louis XV Clock

Beautiful corridor ans stairs with marbles on the wall.

Beautiful door

In the background, the clock of louis XV

Clock Louis XVI

The Louis XV clock is an exceptional rococo work over 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in height, crowned with a moving celestial sphere. It shows the date, time, real time average phases of the moon and Copernican planetary motion. The large astronomical dials mark the rising and setting of the sun and moon every day. Earth is represented by a bronze globe on which all countries are engraved with the main cities. This globe is placed among the rocks and waterfalls, which serve as a universal horizon.
The mechanism is designed to be able to display the date until the end of the year 9999.
After being reviewed and approved by the French Academy of Sciences in August 1749, the clock was presented to Louis XV on 7 September 1750. The King acquired it the same year.

Then you will then leave those Apartments to see the Royal Opera (depending of the opening of the Palace). It is the unknown jewellery of the Palace of Versailles, one of the most beautiful rooms in Europe in which the wedding of the future King, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette was celebrated.

After having visited those private places, you will discover the magnificent Royal Chapel, which was built inside the Palace and where Royal Masses used to take place. It is also inside of this Chapel that Marie-Antoinette married the future King of France, Louis XVI, when she was only 15.

The Royal Opera at versailles

The Royal Chapel - Palace of Versailles

The Royal Opera during a concert at versailles

After visiting the Palace, you will discover a selection of the best of the 70 hectares of gardens and bosquets. You will see the orangerie and its 2000 orange trees, the French gardens as well as English garden. Your Guide will show you the way designed by the King, Louis XIV, towards the end of his life in his guide “Way to show the Gardens of Versailles”.

colonnade

dragon

Fountain

If you choose the full day tour, then we will visit the major Estate of Marie-Antoinette. You will be discovering the life of Marie-Antoinette at the Petit Trianon and you will be taken to the Queen’s Hamlet.

Walk in a familial and pleasant atmosphere in order to discover the Petit Trianon, the Village of the Queen and her English gardens. Marie-Antoinette built her own house, a Mill, a Preparation Dairy, a Cave, a Belvedere and the magnificent Temple of Love where lovers get engage.

Marie Antoinette Estate at Versailles

At the end of the visit, your tour guide and his driver will take you back to Paris at the location of your choice.

Price list for the half day

Number of people	Total Price all included
2 persons	590€ / pers
3 persons	460€ / pers
4 persons	380€ / pers
5 persons	336€ / pers
6 persons	300€ / pers
More than 6 persons	On request

Price list for the full day

Number of people	Total Price (except lunch)
2 persons	715€ / Pers
3 persons	560€ / Pers
4 persons	470€ / Pers
5 persons	420€ / Pers
6 persons	375€ / Pers
More than 6 persons	On request

Please note:

During the high season the Palace of Versailles is often fully booked and has a limited number of entries with direct access. We highly advise you to book 3 months in advance. If this is not possible, we recommend you to book an afternoon half-day tour when the Palace is less busy.

As we wish to make your visit to Versailles come true and get a better chance to get tickets with a direct access, please provide us with alternative dates & times at the check-out.

If you can’t book in advance, we advise you to book our half day tour “The Hidden Doors” starting at 12.15 or 1.45pm from your hotel.

Please note:

** We do not take responsibility for storing your luggage during the tour. If you require assistance with this please let us know in advance and we can arrange it at an extra cost.
** Children count for one participant.
** Visitors with disabilities can not access everywhere in Versailles. Please contact us before booking and we will customize your tour of Versailles.
** The Musical Fountain Show is opened All Saturdays and Sundays, from 31 March to 28 October 2018 and all Tuesdays from 22 May to 26 June 2018.
** The Music Show is opened on Tuesdays, from 27 March to 24 April, 15 May, and from 3 July to 3 October 2018 as well as on Fridays, from 6 April to 26 October 2018.

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Customization & option

Electric golf cart are accessible to people with limited mobility or to people who want to save their feet. We don’t charge you for this extra. We accompany you to the golf cart’s provider and you pay directly the basic price. A rental allows us to follow several itineraries (discovering the Gardens, Trianon and the Queen’s Hamlet, tour of the Grand Canal, tour of the entire Estate); The price is €32 an hour. Mandatory presentation of a driving licence. You can talk about this option with your guide during the trip by car from your hotel in Paris to Versailles.
In case you choose the Full day, a mini-train will take you to and from the Estate of Marie-Antoinette (Petit Trianon), Grand Trianon and Little Venice (7,50 € at full rate, 5,80 € at reduced rate). It is a good idea to avoid the walk from the castle to the Marie Antoinette Estate. We don’t charge you for this extra. You just pay the basic price to the provider if you wish to take this option. This option can be discussed directly with your guide when you meet her/him in the morning.
Experience a real 100% VIP experience: discover the gardens &/or the Palace outside opening hours. On request for corporate ONLY.

Helpful Hints

As the Palace & its gardens are huge, we suggest you wear sneakers and comfortable clothes. Moreover, a bottle of water and some sunscreen will be welcome during the visit of the Gardens on Summer. On Winter, we advise you to wear some warm clothes for a best experience.

The best day to visit the Palace is on Saturday & Sunday: all the fountains are functional during the Fountains Shows. The fountains are working on Saturday & Sunday from April to October. The Musical Fountains show works on Tuesday and Friday.

Renovation

The Queen’s apartment are closed for refurbishment until 2017. We propose you to replace these rooms with The Mesdames’ apartments. These rooms will give you an idea of what women apartment look like.

The Mesdames’ apartments were recently restored (2013) to their state of princely apartments. Mesdames, as the six daughters of Louis XV were referred to, settled there in 1752, but only two of them, Adelaide and Victoire – who did not marry and lived a long life – lived there until the revolution.

Safety 's Note

Next to the reinforcement of the security to enter in the Palace, the control may take longer than usual. Our skip the line tickets enable us to avoid the long queue. However you may have to wait a bit for the checking , especially during the high season.

Have questions? Contact us