Chateau de Versailles Spectacles - Royal Serenade + Night Fountains Fireworks Show

If you are visiting Paris and Versailles any Saturday between June and September, I recommend buying a combination ticket to the Royal Serenade and Les Grandes Eaux (Fountain and firework show).

We visited and got a less crowded walkthrough of the palace (including many of the Salons and the Hall of Mirrors), watched the sunset over the garden, and stayed for an epic firework finale. I'd also recommend staying the night in Versailles if you can get a hotel, as we had to walk a bit to beat the crowd to uber back to Paris.

Below are more details of the experience:  

We got to the front gate where there were different queues for different start times of the royal serenade, ranging from 6:30 PM til 7:50 pm. 

• Part 1: Swordfight at the entrance of Versailles (mostly in French, but they said some English words) 

• Part 2: Serenade in Holy Chapel 
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• Part 3: Dance in the Hall of Mirrors 

Afterwards, we saw some of the salons.

From 7:30 on we went to the garden.

After walking a bit, we bought two glasses of rose and two ham and cheese baguette sandwiches. We sat on the stairs for a fountain view near the top, while staff encouraged people to wander the gardens below. 

While waiting for show, there was some fire pre-show. 

Fireworks show was around 10:50 pm and went until 11:05 pm. 

Even if there is bad weather - the Royal Serenade is mostly indoors and the fencing demonstration would otherwise be at the end- not sure about fireworks.