Versailles, with its 700 rooms and 26 acres of roof, is gargantuan, and this is not including the Grand and Petit trianons. Add 2000 acres of grounds, 200,000+ trees, and 50 fountains, and even then, the scale is hard to grasp.

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.

As with other Paris attractions, we were advised to go to Versailles first thing in the morning. In comfortable walking shoes (a must for any sightseer to Paris), we arrived at the RER station at St. Michel to take the train to Versailles. We were soon confused with the train system (a little different from the metro)--trains going in the same direction go to exactly opposite points in the line! It was not just us being dumb, as we found a group of tourists from Chicago trying to work out the same problem. Since it was pretty early in the morning, there was no local around from whom we could ask directions. Finally, putting our heads together, the group from Chicago and we discovered that only trains starting with "VICK" go on to Versailles. From there, it is about a 30 to 40 minutes’ journey into the countryside.

Behind the gates is a vast cobblestone courtyard (we saw some girls in heels remove their shoes and opt to walk barefoot). In its centre is a 20-foot equestrian statue of Louis VIX, with the palace in the background. We let out a gasp at the first glance of the palace, but we were soon overwhelmed by the sheer opulence of the interiors. The magnificence of the palace hit us in the face at every step, and it was very easy to understand why the French had the Revolution.

One of our greatest disappointments was the Hall of Mirrors. It was undergoing renovation, and most of it was covered, so that what we finally saw was more a "room of mirrors" than a hall of mirrors. But what little we saw was enough to make us hold our breaths. Huge mirrors adorn the walls, with great crystal chandeliers dropping from the ceiling. The beautiful paintings on the ceiling gave our necks quite a strain.

The other sore note in the trip to Versailles was the tour groups. To the chagrin of other visitors, these guided tours would monopolize the area near the display for ages. When we would attempt to squeeze through to get a closer look, we’d get nasty looks from even the guide. For a shy person like my husband, it was quite daunting, but I was brazen enough to counter the looks with a stare of my own. I had longed to see the historical palace since high school, and I was not going to let anyone stop me from getting a look long enough to set my imagination soaring.

After our long walk in the main palace and the Trianons, our feet were sore, and we sat down at the top of the stairs that lead down to the fountain and the gardens with rows of statues. The gardens are an interesting walk; unfortunately, we were just too tired to explore them all. Maybe the next time we are in Paris.

Monday morning, we decided to make the journey to Versaille. It was a half-hour journey by train to the Paris suburbs. Our metro pass got us there, but we had to pay one Euro per person to get back to the city since Versaille is outside the zone that our three-day metro pass covered.

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 Sun King, Louis XIV, built Versailles as an homage to his greatness. And it is quite astounding. This gargantuan castle is situated beyond Paris, just a short RER ride away. With some careful maneuvering and a few snacks, one can get there in an almost painless fashion, without spending the money for a taxi.

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.

This is a great experience because you can see why the people revolted against all the money being spent by the royal court. There are many tours that you can go on, but the grand apartments and the gardens are a must. One can spend a full day at the chateau.