The Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles is located about 45 minutes west of Paris, and it is the place the French royal family would go to get out of the big city. It is incredibly decorated with all of the finest materials, and its gardens seem to stretch out forever.

This room at the right is a very famous one. It's called the "Hall of Mirrors." Along one long wall there are high, silvery mirrors, and along the other are windows looking onto the gardens and fountains. Sometimes dinners would be held in this hall for hundreds of people.


The French kings used Versailles until 1789, when there was a revolution by the people of France and they no longer had kings and queens. Now Versailles is a museum, and you can see the bedrooms of the king and queen, their thrones, their stables, and all kind of other interesting things.

Versailles is being restored, because it is very old and needs some work. If you look closely at the roof of the palace below, you can see the difference between the restored part (on the left) and the section that still needs to be repaired (on the right.)

The Palace Gardens