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Even if you ignore Versailles, the town names are a giveaway that the department of Yvelines was the former home of the French royals. Marly-le-Roi, Noisy-le-Roi. Just west of Paris, the numerous forests and parks are homage to when the royal family would hunt deer and wild boar in Rambouillet, and when Versailles was little more than a hunting lodge.
Versailles is by far the largest town in the area, home to more than 80,000 people. The chateau attracts millions of visitors each year, but the majority come on a day trip from central Paris. As Paris hotels overflow and Airbnb prices during the Olympic Games have skyrocketed, it’s a great time to explore Yvelines, and the palace is just the gold-gilded cherry on the wealth of places to explore.
RER services run to various towns in Yvelines, including Versailles Chantiers, Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Poissy, and tickets cost just €5 (£4.20) one-way from the centre of the capital – here’s how to enjoy a trip.
Go beyond the chateau
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The town of Versailles was built around the chateau, spilling out in a grid-like formation to accommodate courtiers and tradespeople. While I’d never recommend skipping the chateau, there’s a joy in discovering the smaller sites that show the more “ordinary” side of palace life. Perhaps the most fascinating is the king’s vegetable garden, Le Potager du Roi, dating from 1678. It’s open from Tuesday to Friday year round, or Tuesday to Sunday between April and October (guided visits available). The stables (ecuries), with their collection of wooden carriages and regular horse shows, feel particularly appropriate to visit this year as Versailles hosts equestrian disciplines during the Olympics and Paralympics (open on weekend afternoons only).
Channel your inner Olympian
Stand-up paddleboarding and kayaking are forbidden on the Seine… in Paris. Not so in Yvelines, where club Les Ragondins hires paddle boards and kayaks to cruise down the river past mansions and forests. There are plenty of birds to spot en route, including wild geese, herons and swans. Landlubbers, the cycle trails are quiet, well marked, and largely flat. Fat Tyre Tours runs guided tours, or you can hire a bike to explore independently from the Versailles tourist office. Alternatively, skip the Olympian workout and soak up the great outdoors with a glass of wine and a view. The 400-year-old vineyard La Bouche du Roi has won numerous prizes for its vintages – and runs wine and cheese tasting sessions in the heart of the vines (April to October).
Upsize
Forget a poky little chambre de bonne, in Yvelines you can stay on a luxurious barge on the Seine, with panoramic river views from your bathtub. At L’Escale Royale Port Ilon, there are onboard saunas, you’re only 40 minutes from the city centre, and rooms are still available throughout the Olympics. At the bottom of the Park of Versailles, on the fringes of Saint Cyr, Café-Hotel le Bout du Parc is the first property to open in a new eco-town, currently in construction. The rooms and roof terrace are extremely pretty, but it’ll be better when the town around is fully built (likely late 2025 or into 2026). In the village of Saint-Lambert in the Chevreuse Valley, 19th-century Le Manoir de Sauvegrain has just 29 rooms and an enormous garden – and still has availability for most of the Games.
Discover ancient history
Pretty little Marly-le-Roi, originally two separate villages, with its paintbox-like colours, was popular with artists and writers in the 19th century looking to escape the hustle of Paris and the slow, backwater pace of life still stands. Flanked on two sides by the 1.7-hectare Marly forest, keen walkers can follow woodland trails, or the more reluctant can simply potter around the boutiques of the old town. While, Saint-Germain-en-Laye’s chateau predates Versailles, starting construction in 1124. It feels appropriate that it has been turned into the national archaeological museum, with collections dating from the Neolithic age to the early Middle Ages (open Wednesday to Monday, year round).
Dine like royalty
Yvelines is a paradise for food lovers. There are no fewer than seven Michelin-starred restaurants here, and they don’t all have to cost a royal fortune, particularly if you go for the lunch menus. At Le Village in Marly-le-Roi, you can get a Michelin-starred six-course menu for €75. Chef Tomohiro Uido combines French and Japanese flavours, such as savoury waffles with wasabi.
The price tag at many Versailles restaurants is much more reasonable than in central Paris, often with the gilded façade of the chateau visible from your table. The tapas menu at Banderillas is extensive, and sangria inexpensive, but the paella steals the show. Gourmet bakery Les Pâtisseries du Roy looks fit for Marie-Antoinette, whether or not she really said “Let them eat cake”, with kitsch teapots and an abundance of chantilly.
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