Castles · Tour

Private Versailles with Lunch at La Flotille on the Grand Canal

The lunch break here is on the water: La Flotille sits at the head of the Grand Canal, reached on foot along the promenade that runs down from the palace. The three-course meal is bought separately, not included, which is worth knowing before you book. The day is private, in a Mercedes-Benz with WiFi, with pickup from any hotel or private residence in Paris. A licensed guide takes the palace: the State Apartments of Louis XIV and the Hall of Mirrors, which the guide will explain as a statement of French political, economic and artistic power rather than as decoration. After the palace there is free time in the French gardens and their 55 fountains, then the walk down to lunch. The afternoon covers the Trianons. The Grand Trianon is built of pastel-pink marble, and it exists for a plain reason: the main palace filled with people, and the Sun King wanted somewhere to get away from them. The Queen's Hamlet is a stylised Norman village and working farm, built for Marie Antoinette to retreat to with her closest friends. The operator can also meet clients at Versailles itself rather than in Paris.