Versailles in 3 days

Louis XIV's palace, home of the court from 1682: the Royal Chapel, the state apartments and the 73-metre Hall of Mirrors with its 357 mirrors.

On show days, the fountains of Le Nôtre's gardens play to baroque music on a set timetable, from the Latona Fountain to Neptune's.

Cobbled streets of low eighteenth-century houses around Saint-Louis Cathedral, built from 1742 to 1754, with its Clicquot organ of 1761.

A 9-hectare garden laid out from 1678 to 1683 by La Quintinie to feed Louis XIV's table, with walled enclosures sheltering espaliered fruit trees.

The real tennis hall where, on 20 June 1789, the deputies of the Third Estate swore not to part until France had a constitution.

Market halls in the town's oldest quarter, joined three mornings a week by open-air stalls of local growers, cheesemongers and fishmongers.

Open free to walkers, with the 1,670-metre cross-shaped Grand Canal, where you can hire a rowing boat or a bike or simply picnic.

The royal retreat twenty-five minutes' walk from the palace, including the Grand Trianon of 1687 with its pink marble colonnade.