Free Walking Sightseeing Tour #3 in Versailles, France
Legend
Tour Facts
10.5 km
187 m
Explore Versailles in France with this free self-guided walking tour. The map shows the route of the tour. Below is a list of attractions, including their details.
Activities in VersaillesIndividual Sights in VersaillesSight 1: Monument Pershing - Lafayette
The Pershing - Lafayette Monument is a memorial located on the heights of Versailles, erected as a tribute to the American army that fought in the First World War and to the army of the American War of Independence.
Sight 2: Maison Cassandre
Sight 3: Lazare Hoche
Louis Lazare Hoche was a French military leader of the French Revolutionary Wars. He won a victory over Royalist forces in Brittany. His surname is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on Column 3. Richard Holmes describes him as "quick-thinking, stern, and ruthless... a general of real talent whose early death was a loss to France."
Sight 4: Bâtiments du Manège
The Armoury Building was a former military building under Napoleon III in Versailles, France. It was demolished in 1988 with the exception of its gate, which remained on the Avenue du Général-de-Gaulle.
Sight 5: Borne du Serment de Koufra
The Capture of Kufra was part of the Allied Western Desert Campaign during the Second World War. Kufra is a group of oases in the Kufra District of south-eastern Cyrenaica in the Libyan Desert. In 1940, it was part of the colony of Italian Libya Libia Italiana, which was part of Africa Settentrionale Italiana (ASI), which had been established in 1934.
Sight 6: Maison natale du général Hoche
Sight 7: Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Versailles Grand Parc
The Hotel de la Chancellerie is a private hotel located in Tours, 60 rue de la Scellerie.
Sight 8: Hôtel des Postes
Sight 9: Musée de l’Histoire de France
The Musée de l'Histoire de France is a museum that was created by King Louis Philippe I in the Palace of Versailles and opened in 1837. At the time, it represented an ambitious project of national reconciliation between the hitherto competing narratives of the French monarchy and the French Revolution, to which Louis-Philippe devoted significant personal attention. Whereas it gradually faded in importance as a museum in the later 19th century, its lavish historicist decoration remains a major exemplar of the art of France's July Monarchy.
Sight 10: Grand Appartement de la Reine
The Queen’s Large Apartment is a set of five lounges located on the first floor of the central body of the Palace of Versailles. These rooms were the reception spaces for the sovereigns of France Marie-Thérèse, Marie Leszczynska and Marie-Antoinette. Also for the Duchess of Burgundy as a dolphin. These spaces are now presented as they were under Marie-Antoinette, when she left them on 6 October 1789.
Sight 11: Grand Appartement du Roi
The King's Grand Apartment is a set of seven salons in the Palace of Versailles designed to be the setting for the monarch's official acts. These salons are very richly decorated, in the Italian fashion of the time of Louis XIV.
Sight 12: Opéra Royal
The Royal Opera of Versailles is the main theatre and opera house of the Palace of Versailles. Designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, it is also known as the Théâtre Gabriel. The interior decoration by Augustin Pajou is constructed almost entirely of wood, painted to resemble marble in a technique known as faux marble. The excellent acoustics of the opera house are at least partly due to its wooden interior.
Sight 13: Le Bassin de la Pyramide
The pyramid basin is a basin of the Versailles gardens.
Sight 14: Le colérique
The grande commande was a commission ordered by Louis XIV for statues intended to decorate the parterre d’eau of the gardens of the Palace of Versailles, as initially conceived in 1672. The commission, which included 24 statues and four groups, was ordered in 1674. Designed by Charles Le Brun from Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia, the statues were executed by the foremost sculptors of the day.
Sight 15: Bassin du Dragon
The Dragon's Pool is a basin in the gardens of Versailles.
Sight 16: Bassin d'Encelade
The Enceladus Basin is a fountain in the gardens of Versailles, France.
Sight 17: L'Enlèvement de Proserpine par Pluton
The abduction of Proserpine by Pluto, the masterpiece of François Girardon inspired by the history of the abutment of Persephone or Proserpina, is a group connected in marble completed around 1696, kept at the orangery of the Palace of Versailles.
Sight 18: Parc Balbi
Balbi Park is an English type park, located next to the king's vegetable garden in Versailles, in France. Its access is free and its entry is located rue du Maréchal-Joffre.
Sight 19: Cathédrale Saint-Louis
Versailles Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church located in Versailles, France. It is a national monument.
Sight 20: Chapelle Notre-Dame des Armées
The Notre-Dame-des-Armées Chapel is a Roman Catholic religious building located in Versailles, at 10 impasse des Gendarmes. Built in 1877 by Frantz Blondel under the direction of the Eudist Fathers, it first served as a Soldier's Home. Roland-Gosselin, bishop of Versailles, entrusted the work of the military to the Eudist priests and had a chapel built for them. Until 1967, the latter was an integral part of the homes and chaplaincies of the French Army, then still led by the Eudists.
Wikipedia: Chapelle Notre-Dame-des-Armées de Versailles (FR), Website
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Disclaimer Please be aware of your surroundings and do not enter private property. We are not liable for any damages that occur during the tours.
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