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How To Do a Day Trip to Versailles From Paris

When it comes to visiting Paris, there seem to be a few unspoken rules regarding being a perfect tourist: complain about the line at the Louvre, attempt to order your coffees in French, gasp at the interior of the Opéra Garnier, and give Paris a day off by heading outside of the town to Le Château Versailles. For anything less than a 5-day trip to the City of Lights, we'd stick to the city and its Art Nouveau and gateaux, but longer visits necessitate the break from Paris that Versailles affords.

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Architecture Travel / Paris / Versailles / Museum Travel / → All Tags

Versailles Grows a 'Modern Horn of Plenty'

For those of you making the pilgrimage to Paris for Valentine's Day and hoping to head down to Versailles to indulge your princess fantasies, don't expect the good old palace to look like it has popped out of a storybook. Instead, you'll find that Versailles seems to have developed an curious growth since the end of this last summer, an addition which will be sticking around until 2011.

Designed to help process the 15,000 visitors a day to Versailles and clamp down on security, the Versailles Pavilion, "a modern horn of plenty with a big mouth and a small tail," is actually inspired by the orange Central Park Gates of Christo. Like the Gates, this concrete and timber tunnel is only temporary, but we're sure that it will find some way to either travel around the world or overextend its welcome at Versailles. Nonetheless, we're intrigued by the juxtaposition of the classical architecture of the Chateau versus this strikingly modern snake; it's almost reminiscent of a vacuum, sucking up the eager tourists and their traveler's cheques.

Related Stories:
· Versailles Pavilion by Explorations Architecture [Dezeen]
· Architecture Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Explorations Architecture]