After the castle tour, I walked to the back of castle, where there was a huge public park. South Parterre was a nice little garden. Blocks of dainty grasses were shaped into curves of patterns, like a gigantic patchwork, and diminutive flowers were sowed around them. To the right of South Parterre was Fountain of Latona. A flight of stairs behind the fountain was featured as a seating area for the crowds during the evening, when the musical fountain came to life.

Amble down the Royal Ave and Tapis Vert, where you will see Fountain of Apollo with bronze flying horses sculptures partly submerged in the pond spewing water into the air. Go farther to the Grand Canal of Versailles. Couples used to have dates here. Rent a boat, row across the Grand Canal or laze in the middle of the canal; lay your head on your partner's lap, arms folded; and enjoy the light breeze. If you came here by yourself, cycle on a rented bike around this canal and explore the inner part of Grand Canal.

Versailles is a whole day trip -- trying to do it in half a day might leave you feeling you missed out.

Tip: This is one place where you will kiss your museum pass. There is actually a separate entrance for museum pass holders, and we walked right past the long line stretching to the gate and beyond.

I was interested in seeing Versaille because I remember sitting in my high school French class while my teacher told us about this lavish palace. It was originally a hunting lodge for Louis XIII, but became the official royal palace of Louis XIV after his father's death in the late 1600s. The palace has remained and is now open for tourists to see how the French royalty lived during the 17th and 18th centuries.

My advice to anyone visiting Versaille is to bring good walking shoes and never visit on a Monday! Traci and I traveled to Versaille only to discover that the main chateau is closed on Mondays! How did I miss that in the brochure? Anyway, the huge gardens and the smaller Trianon palaces are open on Mondays. We decided to check these attractions out and maybe come back another day to see the chateau. Somehow, I think both of us knew we would not have time to make it back again on this trip.

The gardens of Versaille seem to stretch forever in all directions. There are fountains and statues all over the place. We toured the Petit Trianon and the Grand Trianon. These buildings served as mini-palaces. They are lavishly decorated with 17th- and 18th-century furniture and paintings. Unfortunately, no photographs were allowed in these buildings. However, it is really worth the trip to see these places. Again, bring good walking shoes or buy a ticket for the tram because it is a long walk on sand and gravel from the chateau to the Trianons. You can rent bicycles but we didn't know this until after we had already spent several hours walking through the gardens and touring the buildings. The area in front of the chateau requires a good amount of walking over cobblestone. Our feet were already aching from walking through the gardens all day. The cobblestone really did us in.

Finally, since Versaille requires a lot of walking outdoors through gravel and sand, avoid visiting this attraction on rainy days. Fortunately, we were there on a sunny day. I just wished it wasn't Monday.

The lines are hideous, and can be a complete turn-off if you aren't patient. But the wait is worth it, once inside.

Each room is more lavish than the next. Laden with velvet, gold, mirrors, paintings and extravagance. The Hall of Mirrors, or the War drawing room, is the culmination of the grand tour. It is an incredibly long hall filled with chandeliers and mirrors that is royal enough to put all other royals to shame. While we were there, they were doing some sort of construction and the full effect was lost, but it wasn't very hard to use our imaginations.

Make sure to go outside and take a tour of the manicured gardens. It's easy to imagine dukes and duchesses making their way through the hedge mazes and sitting on the edges of the fountains.

On some Sundays, the fountains are turned on with classical music. Call ahead to find out when that will go on. It would be well worth the planning.