Versailles rewards patience. The palace rooms are astonishing — the Hall of Mirrors, the Royal Chapel, the King's and Queen's Apartments — but they're also extremely crowded in high season. Arrive early, buy tickets in advance, and you'll have a far better time than those who queue for two hours and shuffle through in frustration.
The gardens deserve as much time as the palace, perhaps more. They stretch for 800 hectares west of the building: formal parterres, woodland bosquets, fountains at every turn, and the long glittering line of the Grand Canal in the distance. On Saturdays and Sundays from April to October the Musical Fountains shows run, with the jets choreographed to Baroque music — they cost extra but are worth it. Deep in the gardens the Trianons and Marie Antoinette's Hamlet are quieter and often overlooked.
The town of Versailles itself has its own pleasures: the covered market on Place du Marché Notre-Dame, the Musée Lambinet in an 18th-century mansion, and streets that haven't changed much since the court was here.