I left Versailles thinking I'd seen enough of the palace for one lifetime, but that I'd love to…read morecome back and explore the gardens. We went on a hot day and did not have the will to spend much time outside.
If I were to do the day over again, I wouldn't waste half an hour in the golf cart line, which was a) fully exposed and b) barely moved the whole time we were there. It would've been nice to have a golf cart, as the grounds are enormous, but I wish we'd just gone down and walked the shadier parts of the garden instead of sacrificing our energy to the punishing sun.
The gardens were impressive and genuinely beautiful, palatial in scope and decked out with ornate fountains and manicured greenery. I was hoping to catch the musical fountain show, a popular feature of the gardens, but couldn't figure out when they were active. We did at least see the fountains turn on before we left, and that was pretty cool.
We didn't get far into the gardens on the main palace side, as everything was so spread out, but I liked what I saw and wished we'd had a little more time to explore the labyrinthine hedges, which I only saw because they were near the bathroom.
We took the rickety little train across the grounds instead, and the ride made me realize how big the place was, and how much of it we were missing. We got off at Petit Trianon and it took a while to walk to a place we could get cabs. Despite some heat exhaustion, this walk was quite pleasant, scenic and well shaded, through a path lined with old, tall trees. We saw a lot of families riding bicycles, and if I were to go back to Versailles, that's what I'd do, just rent bikes and roam around.