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Few places in France carry the weight of Versailles quite so literally. The town exists, in the popular imagination, almost entirely in the shadow of its palace, and yet that relationship is more interesting than it first appears. The Château de Versailles was not always the seat of French royal power; Louis XIV moved his court here from Paris in 1682, transforming what had been a hunting lodge into the most elaborately staged demonstration of absolute monarchy in European history. The decision reshaped not just the town but the entire concept of what a royal residence could be.

The palace itself is vast in a way that photographs do not quite prepare you for. The Hall of Mirrors stretches for seventy-three metres along the garden facade, its seventeen arched mirrors reflecting the light from the gardens below, and it remains one of the most recognisable interiors in the world. Beyond it, the Grands Appartements, the King's and Queen's State Rooms, and the Royal Chapel together form a circuit that rewards unhurried attention. A guided tour of the main palace building gives structure to spaces that can otherwise blur into one another, and several of the bookable experiences on the catalogue pair that guided access with priority entry, which matters considerably given the queues that form at the main gates from mid-morning onwards.