The Place d'Armes is the great forecourt that opens in front of the Royal Gate, where three avenues from Paris, Sèvres, and Saint-Cloud converge in a trident on the palace entrance. It is the first thing you see arriving from the town, and the approach is designed to impress: the two great stable buildings (Grande and Petite Écurie) flank the square symmetrically, and beyond the gilded gate the palace rises at the end of the Cour d'Honneur.
In Louis XIV's time the square was where troops paraded and the king reviewed his household cavalry. The equestrian statue of Louis XIV at the centre — a bronze by Cartelier and Petitot (1836), replacing the original Bernini — presides over it still. The scale is worth pausing over: the square is large enough to hold an entire army, which was exactly the point.
This is where you'll join the entry queue for the palace, and where coaches and cars deposit visitors. Early morning, before the crowds arrive, the square has a grandeur that's harder to feel once it fills up.