Paris

Cost: The Château - the main palace - costs €13.50 (€10 after 16:00, under 18 always free, covered by Paris Museum Pass and Le Passeport pass, see below). The Château contains the Chapel, the Opera House (closed through June 2009), the King's and Queen's State Apartments (with the famous Hall of Mirrors), the French History Galleries (rarely open), the Dauphin's Apartments (heirs to the throne), and the Mesdames Apartments (Louis XV's daughters, open weekends only); all are included with your Château ticket.

Entry to the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette, the estate of the queen, costs €9 from April through October (€5 after 16:00, under 18 always free; covered by Le Passeport and the Paris Museum Pass). In winter, it costs €5. Tickets are available at the entry to the Domaine or at the main Château ticket office. With this ticket, you'll see the queen's Hamlet, the Grand and Petit Trianons, and a smattering of other nearby buildings.

The gardens are free, except on April-Sept weekends, when the fountains blast and the price shoots up to €8 (see "Fountain Spectacles").

Passes: Many travelers arrive at Versailles with one of these two passes.

The Le Passeport one-day pass is a good deal for serious sightseers lacking a Paris Museum Pass (April-Oct it's €20 Mon-Fri, €25 Sat-Sun; Nov-March it's €16 Tue-Sun). The pass covers your entrance to just about everything, as well as audioguides. (The pass is not a good value on Mon, when only the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette and gardens are open.) The pass gives you access to all open sections of the Château, the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette, and the fountain spectacles (that flow only on spring and summer weekends - hence the higher weekend pass prices). Le Passeport passes are sold on the Internet, at FNAC stores in Paris, the Ile de France TI in the Louvre, the TI in Versailles, and the palace itself (see www.chateauversailles.fr).

The Paris Museum Pass works at Versailles, covering entrance to the Château and the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette but not the gardens (on fountain spectacle weekends) or audioguides. Since a visit to Versailles can take up an entire sightseeing day, you'll likely get better use out of the Museum Pass in Paris, where it's easy to visit several sights in a day.

Hours: The Château is open April-Oct Tue-Sun 9:00-18:30, Nov-March Tue-Sun 9:00-17:30, closed Mon. The Domaine de Marie Antoinette is open daily April-Oct 12:00-19:30; Nov- March 9:00-17:30. The gardens are open daily from 9:00 to sunset (17:30 to 21:30), except on Sat in summer when they close at 18:00 to prepare for evening events. Last entry to all of these areas is one hour before closing.

When to Go: From May through September, Versailles can be a zoo between 10:00 and 13:00, and all day Tue and Sun. For fewer crowds, go early or late: Arrive by 9:00 (when the palace opens - tour the palace first, then the gardens). If you arrive later, tour the Gardens first and the Château after 13:00 when crowds dissipate (except on Tue and Sun, when the place is packed from open to close). Note that the last guided tours of the day generally depart by 15:00.

162 mi - about 2 hours 42 mins driving time.

Boulogne, France to Paris, France
1. Head northwest on Rue du Parvis Notre Dame toward Parvis Porte Notre Dame 400 ft
2. Rue du Parvis Notre Dame turns left and becomes Rue Saint-Jean 0.1 mi
3. Turn left at Place de la Résistance 262 ft
4. Continue straight onto Place Godefroi de Bouillon 92 ft
5. Continue onto Rue d'Aumont 0.1 mi
6. Continue straight onto D96/Rue de la Porte Gayole 0.3 mi
7. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto D96/Rue Edouard Branly
Continue to follow D96
Go through 2 roundabouts 1.2 mi
8. Turn right at D341/Route de Desvres 0.4 mi
9. At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto the E402/A16 ramp to Paris/Le Portel/Outreau 0.2 mi
10. Merge onto A16
Partial toll road 134 mi
11. Take the N184 exit toward Pontoise/Presles/Cergy/Méry-sur-Oise 0.9 mi
12. Keep left at the fork to continue toward N184 and merge onto N184 2.2 mi
13. Take the exit onto N184 2.7 mi
14. Take the exit onto A115 toward Paris/Taverny/Bessancourt/Argenteuil/A15 7.1 mi
15. Take the exit onto A15 toward Paris/Argenteuil/Epinay-sur-Seine 3.6 mi
16. Continue onto N315 (signs for N315/Asnières/Clichy) 2.1 mi
17. Continue onto Avenue Laurent Cely/D17
Continue to follow D17
Go through 1 roundabout 0.8 mi
18. At Place de la République-François Mitterrand, take the 3rd exit onto Boulevard du Général Leclerc/D110 0.3 mi
19. Turn right at Boulevard Victor Hugo/D912 0.4 mi
20. Turn right at Boulevard Victor Hugo
Speed camera within 0.1 mi 184 ft
21. Take the 1st left onto Avenue de la Porte de Clichy 0.2 mi
22. Turn right at Boulevard Berthier 0.9 mi
23. At Place Paul Léautaud, take the 5th exit onto Avenue Gourgaud 0.2 mi
24. At Place du Maréchal Juin, take the 4th exit onto Avenue Niel 0.5 mi
25. Continue onto Avenue Mac-Mahon 0.3 mi
26. At Place Charles de Gaulle, exit onto Avenue des Champs-Elysées 1.3 mi
27. Slight right at Voie Georges Pompidou 1.7 mi
28. Slight right to stay on Voie Georges Pompidou 387 ft
29. Sharp left at Quai de l'Hôtel de Ville 0.1 mi
30. Turn right at Place de l'Hôtel de Ville 236 ft
Paris, France