Price-less: Welcome to my castle!

Today I have finally opened the doors of *my* Versailles castle (for the first time on my blog) and it's only because today the access to it is free and follows the rule of my series about things to do for free in Versailles! Every first Sunday of the month, from November to Mars, everyone can freely visit the castle and the gardens at no cost. Even more, the access won't cost you a dime the other days either, if you're under 18yo or under 26yo and coming from a country member of the EU. You-hoo!!! (I'm only happy for you, 'cause, in my case, I've long passed both deadlines...)

Today I've also ordered a nice (almost) blue sky to come along with you and a big gold sun to wonderfully keep an eye on you while you have to leave the place full of regrets: I should've woke up earlier to have enough time to see everything!

Rest assured, you will never have time to visit the castle and the gardens in one day, you will definitely have to come back!

Price-less: The Lambinet Museum on a wintry Sunday afternoon

It's really hard to believe that there are other museums in Versailles - that is, other than the Château(and, in a broader sense, that there is any life out there other than the Château...) - but there ARE!!! I mean, there is, because there's only one: the Musée Lambinet, the city museum. Quite neglected by tourists (just like almost all the rest of the city - thing that started to become a bit of a problem for officials lately, btw, and for easy-to-understand reasons...) this 18th century building turned into museum is a small jewel well worth the detour off Versailles' one and only beaten path.

The museum proudly presents artifacts tracing the history of Versailles after it became the city of kings and, even if it's a relatively young city (the first citation of its name in an official document was in 1038, something about a guy named "Hugo de Versaliis"), Versailles was nonetheless the theatre of big historical decisions and dramatic situation reversals deserving a museum in its own right. You already know from my previous posts how the people of Versailles are perfect, so, logically, they made a city history museum and this is the Musée Lambinet!

Price-less: Rock me, Versailles!

Versailles isn't a city easily associated to rock music, that's why I've been more than curious to go see the concert of three local rock bands, in my quest for things to do in Versailles at a low (or no) price.

This is the second year when the municipality organizes the rock contest "Les vendredis du rock" (=The Rock Fridays) in a somewhat sterile, closely supervised space at the sports center Richard Mique - and I can tell you that I deeply felt that arid environment: I so missed a beer to go with the music and drown my teenage memories! But since the event is specifically aimed to teenagers I had to go cold turkey and was forced to admire those (more or less) teenagers in all their splendor and awkwardness. Without even being able to blame it all on the alcohol!...

Price-less: Versailles Conservatory

Every now and then I get *the look* when I tell someone that I live in Versailles. A look of profound respect and deep consideration, which stopped to take me by surprise eventually because I learnt to know the cause: the interlocutor associates right away Versailles with the French royal house and reckons by extension that everyone who lives in Versailles has to be either a descendant of blue blood or at least a magnate who just bought half of the château (that's right: our castle - which, of course, is better than yours! - is magic! It must have at least 86110 halves, to follow the widespread prejudice with dignity...).

The town's reputation is really hard to break, and, while it's true that sometimes you have to spend a small fortune to go to the Opera House, people think that the residents are some overly rich bourgeois who live in castles and whose women are dressed in Chanel suits with Peter Pan collars.