Summer activities in Versailles

A new town, founded by the will of King Louis XIV, it was the capital of the Kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789, before becoming the cradle of the French Revolution. After having lost its status of royal city, it became the préfecture of Seine-et-Oise département in 1790, then of Yvelines in 1968. Versailles is historically known for numerous treaties such as the Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the American Revolutionary War and the Treaty of Versailles, after World War I.

If you are bored of the Chateaux of Versailles** you have to know that the city offer much more than that. You can just walk around the city and enjoy all the places that the city offer. During the summer a lot of attraction take place in the city, like shows in the street. Just take place with the citizens and enjoy the activities that the city put in place.

Le mois Molière

During the month of June the city put in place a lot of representations of famous theater piece of Molière and other famous writer. During this month there is more than 350 representations and half of them or free. The issue is that all the scene are in French and sometime its even old French, but you can still come to see a part of the show to see the costume and decoration. Because the actors are mostly part of the La comédie française, which is an organization that represent the best theater actors of France. And also the theater piece that they show are really famous and have most of the time music in it. So even if you can’t understand French you can understand what is happening. Because at the time those theater were wrote knowing that some peoples in the crowed couldn’t hear the actors.

L’académie Equestre de Versailles

Close to the castle there is the old stable of the king. They are open all the year except during the winter. You can visit the stable on Sundays but the tickets are really hard to have because it’s only in small group. You can still have tickets on there web site

But for me it is really better to go see a show that they do. They have a company than perform with horses and it’s not really more expansive that the visit of the stable (25euros). And you can go freely in the stable after the show. During this show you will see all the different way the horses can move and how it was important at the time to show that you had well-trained horses.

“I wanted to create a school; a new kind of school, a kind of company-cum-school at the heart of which a “community” spirit would develop, a school where horses would teach us how to work in harmony, fully respecting each other, a school in perpetual movement, without any pre-established rules, curricula or diplomas. I devised this Academy as a top-level school, capable of training artist-riders, but also as a place to blossom, a place where beautiful people can bloom. I never considered the act of passing on as simply amounting to communicating your technique or expertise to others."

La Place du Marché

If you are looking for a coffee, a pavement area or a place where to eat, you are at the right place. All around the place there are many bars or restaurant where you can enjoy the marketplace. Most of the time there is a big market with a lot of French specialties. For me the 2 most authentic restaurants of this place are Le V and Au chien qui fume. They are two old restaurants that still do old French gastronomy, it’s a bit expensive but if you are looking for French food those are the good places.