Fat Tire tour of Versailles

We are visiting Paris in August and are thinking of taking the Fat Tire Tour of Versailles. Does this tour cover enough of the inside of the Palace ?

Are there bike tours at Versailles that are more interesting?Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

WARMAC

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You know, Versailles is SO easy. You can easily visit the chateau on your own and even rent bikes in the garden for a fraction of the cost of Fat Tire. That%26#39;s what I would recommend. You get your own bike tour for very little money.

Les

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My family of 5 toured Versailles in August of 2004 with Fat Tire. It was a great experience and one I highly recommend.

Our boys at the time were 10, 8, and 4. The 4-year-old rode in a child seat on the back of my bike. We got our bikes at FT%26#39;s office down by the Eiffel Tower, then rode our bikes to the RER station with our delightful American guide, Bronwyn. Because it was a Saturday morning and August, the city was pretty quiet and we were comfortable riding the bikes with the young kids through Paris. Bronwyn helped us get our bikes on the train. We rode the train about 20 minutes to Versailles station, as I recall, then biked down to an outdoor market, where we bought the fixings for a picnic lunch (ham, bread, cheese, olives, wine, juice, water). Then we biked into the grounds of Versailles. And that%26#39;s where I think having a bike and a guide is vastly superior to just walking around the palace. Versailles is not just about the palace. The grounds and gardens are magnificent and IMMENSE. Bikes are really the best way around to really appreciate it. We visited the faux village that Marie Antoinette had built, lunched on the grass on the banks of the Grand Canal, and appreciated a quieter and more bucolic version of Versailles than we otherwise might have.

After enough time on the grounds, Bronwyn kept an eye on our bikes while we toured the palace itself. I think we spent the better part of two hours and by the end definitely felt like we had had enough time there. Then, back on the bikes, back to the train station, and RER back to Paris. A great and memorable trip.

If you can rent bikes at Versailles, that would be a wonderful option. However, in our case, the addition of a pleasant and knowledgeable guide was worth it.

One final word about the biking experience itself: it was pretty easy. The bikes are squishy and comfortable. My wife and I are fairly fit, mid-forties, but don%26#39;t spend a lot of time on bicycles here at home. If you are similarly fit or better, you%26#39;ll have no problem. The boys were on the young side, but had no problems. In fact, it was a top 3 experience out of a 3-week Europe vacation (ranking up there with Disneyland Paris and seeing their cousins in Ireland). You have to be on alert biking in Paris since it is a major city, however we felt in total control with Bronwyn%26#39;s help. The biking on the Versailles grounds was flat-to-rolling on dusty dirt tracks.

Do it!

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