Getting there from the east side of Paris takes a while since it's quite a ways out by mid range train and it just happens that during those days there was another strike, so there were a lot fewer trains, thankfully getting there worked out in the morning (on the way back, after missing a train, getting uber back was expensive, but way faster):

10mn walk from the RER station

Visiting the main palace wasn't too terribly busy:

the most famous room

Ironically while the Versailles gardens are way better in the summmer, I actually prefered the palace in the Louvre. The gardens are huge but not as impressive in the winter when most things are dead. A 20mn walk way is the Trianon, other quarters away from the main palace, not as impressive to visit:

And that was it for Versailles. It still took a good 5H to visit between getting tickets, going through the gardens and visting the somewhat skipable Trianon residences. It was fun, but soemeone short on time can appreciate the royal rooms inside the Louvre, just as much, if not even more.

ridiculous line already

all this to go through the security gate which I guess wasn't there before

Eventually got in and had aroud 9H to see most everything, still a lot but manageable if you're efficient. This time I started with the underground ruins of the castle that used to be in the place of the museum:

before

after

really cool that they only found this semi-recently when digging for extra galleries

Lots more to see:

Then was time for the main museum, lots of rooms:

the audioguide wsa quite cool, based on a nintendo 3DS with geolocation

quite cool

I never take selfies :)

found my fellow leo :)

unexpected statue :)

Paintings came next:

the room with Mona Lisa was packed with people trying to take selfies

for this

all these people

More rooms still:

inside joke :)

The King/Castle section of the Louvre is better than Versailles in my opinion:

And more to see still, by then the day was getting a bit late, got to see almost everything before they started closing around 21:30:

and we eventually got kicked out

Nice to finish with a night shot: