Suggested Personalized Itineraries Close to Paris

GIVERNY

• While driving you along the Seine river valley to the village in Normandy where Claude Monet lived from 1883 to 1926, your guide will retrace the painter's life and his sources of inspiration. You will then visit his house and studio and the gardens he created as a subject for his paintings. See the ponds and the Japanese
idges built with a lock on the tiny Epte river for the Water Lilies series. Drive back on a scenic road overlooking the Seine river valley and cross beautiful landscape and charming villages.

GIVERNY & VERSAILLES

• Follow the Seine, on the steps of the Impressionnist painters, until the lovely village of Giverny. Discover Monet’s house, workshop and gardens with its water lilies and Japanese bridge.

• In the afternoon, visit the universe of the Sun King. Admire the plush Royal Apartments, the celebrated Mirrored Gallery, the formal geometrical gardens, and stroll along the Grand Canal to discover the Grand & Petit Trianons (entrance fees not included), as well as Marie-Antoinette’s private hamlet

VAUX LE VICOMTE

• Vaux was the tragic setting for the downfall of Fouquet, a faithful minister who paid the price of life imprisonment, accused of an embezzlement he did not commit, victim of the jealousy of king Louis XIV. Vaux was a haven for leading French artists. Writers, poets, painters and sculptors gave the best of their talents to the glory of Vaux. A preserved genuine masterpiece of French 17 century art. The architect, decorator and gardener who created Vaux-le-Vicomte are the same who will create Versailles.

VAUX LE VICOMTE & BARBIZON
• Discover the splendors created by Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Nôtre for the Finance Steward Nicolas Fouquet, who gave Louis XIV the idea to built Versailles, and at the same time who was punished for its insolence. That anyone other than his royal self could own such a splendor could not be tolerated by the Sun King. 

• Then visit the quaint village of Barbizon, by the Fontainebleau Forest and painted by Impressionist painters.

FONTAINEBLEAU &BARBIZON

• With its richness, complexity and power to surprise, the magnificent castle of Fontainebleau sums up the history of France. From Francis I (the castle was his favorite residence) to Napoleon III, each sovereign left a unique mark on the structure and its grounds. Return through the forest and stop at the typical village of Barbizon which inspired landscape painters such as Corot and Millet.

AUVERS SUR OISE

• A true immersion in the pictorial art of the last century, Auvers enchanted first Daubigny, Corot and Daumier (as proved by Daubigny's studio-house), to subsequently attract the major names of Impressionism. Apart from the château, where you are invited on a 'Voyage to the time of the Impressionists', you can immerse yourself in the unique atmosphere of the period at the Auberge Ravoux which put up Van Gogh before his death in 1890. Today one can see his miraculously preserved room and a museum devoted to him.

CHARTRES

• Chartres boasts the most beautiful and the largest cathedral in Europe. Triple masterpiece of French Gothic Art : by the architecture, the sculpture, and the superb 13th century stained glass windows. (their surface extends over more than 3000 square yards).

• Walk through the old town where beautiful houses line the paved streets. Several "hillocks" lead down towards the Eure valley with its old mills, and bridges.

CHANTILLY

• Marvelous site, the Domain of Chantilly includes the Castle with the Condé museum (first private painting collection in France, furniture, library), the park, unique because of the diversity of its different historical gardens and its varieties of trees, the hippodrome, the forest.

• The Musée Vivant du Cheval is housed in the most beautiful stables in the world, the Great Stables of the Princes of Condé, an architectural work of art of the 18th century

• ‘Le Parc de la Faisanderie' (The Pheasant park) This magical garden has been revived recently with several re-creations: the Prince's' kitchen garden, orchard, fantasy garden, a unique hen house with 20 different
eeds and some 'ornamental gazebo' sheltering pigeons presented by ‘style': curly, peacock, fantail, capuchin … a delight for young kids and adults too.

March - April ‘Daffodil Festival’ :
Like during the time of the Great Condé, himself a huge collector of flowering bulbs, 100,000 daffodils, narcissi, irises and 3000 tulips will announce the arrival of spring. Daffodils will appear like a veritable yellow river flowing into the pond of this ravishingly romantic garden.

SENLIS

• Senlis is an exquis/ite little town, with narrow cobbled streets, ancient buildings and beautiful churches

The old town is a preserved area, where efforts have been made to preserve and restore the built heritage, some buildings dating back to the XIIth century. A number of films and costume dramas have been shot here.

The cathedral is one the earliest example of early Gothic style, and there are churches and other religious buildings at every corner, as the Bishopric of Senlis was extremely influential until the French Revolution. For a long time Senlis was also a Royal Residence: King Hugues Capet (founder of the powerful Capetian dynasty in 987) was crowned there, Louis VI re-built the Castle in the XIIth century, while Saint Louis built the Saint Maurice Priory.

There is a lively street market every Tuesday and Friday morning. Calèche rides, starting from the Cathedral, are a great way to explore the medieval centre, and to soak up the atmosphere.

You are here in the heart of Royal Picardie, close to Chantilly, Compiègne, and Pierrefonds and their majestic forests. Senlis is still home for or a nice day out for many posh Parisians (Paris is only 35 miles away).

MALMAISON

• The 17th-century Château de Malmaison was the little love-nest of Napoleon and Josephine. It houses an extraordinary collection of Empire furniture, Napoleonic art objects and decors created by the architects Percier and Fontaine.

 

Champagne Region & Reims:

• A wonderful day of excursion and tasting through the "Montagne de Reims". In the morning, the Marne valley and first tasting-visit at a small Champagne house.

• Then keep on towards Epernay, and get ready for Champagne tasting along the prestigious Avenue de Champagne, where the famous Champagne makers such as Moet & Chandon, Pommery, or La Veuve Clicquot will be happy to host you in their cellars.

• In the afternoon, visit Reims cathedral where most French Kings were crowned. Visit and tasting of a major Champagne house and cellars and or visit the magnificient cathedral, where most of the French kings were crowned.

Option: visit to the Foujita chapel, entirely decorated by the famous painter from the 1920's Ecole de Paris.

 
NORMANDY

The D. Day Landing Beaches and Bayeux.
• A journey from the high cliffs of the Seine to the capital of Normandy, Caen. Visit the Caen Memorial, known as the World War II Museum.

• Lunch at Bayeux, or in a nearby charming city, which hosts the famous Bayeux Tapestry.

• Then visit, the D-Day Beaches of Omaha, the Pointe du Hoc, and the American Cemetery at St Laurent.

or

• Start with a drive along Juno and Gold beaches , where the Canadians and the British troops landed and visit the D Day museum in Arromanches . You will see how the artificial port built there allowed to unload the necessary equipment to win the war.

• Continue with Omaha beach and the very moving American cemetery. Then drive along Omaha beach where your guide will show you some of the German bunkers and machine-gun nests.

• See Pointe du Hoc where the Ranger heroes of colonel James Earl Rudder climbed the cliff to destroy a German battery, key action for the success of D Day and therefore victory in WorldWar II!

Option: on the way back to Paris, see the Tapestry of Queen Mathilda in Bayeux , actually a 70 meters long work of embroidery retracing the epic of William the Conqueror's expedition to England in 1066.


Le Mont Saint Michel
The granite island, 80 meters high in the middle of a bay forms a monumental and picturesque sight with its village houses huddled close together and encircled by walls and on top, the old abbey founded in 708 with its gothic "Marvel". During equinoxes, watch the highest tides in Europe rising with the speed of a running horse.

Rouen, Honfleur and Deauville
• Walking tour in the old town of Rouen, Capital of Upper Normandy with its gothic churches and half timbered houses and the old market square where Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake.

• Afternoon visit of the charming port in Honfleur, birthplace of impressionism, from where Samuel de Champlain and Cavelier de la Salle set sail.

• Drive along the coastal road to discover Trouville and Deauville, smart seaside resorts of the wealthy Parisians.

CASTLES OF THE LOIRE VALLEY

LEONARDO DA VINCI AND WINES FROM AMBOISE.

Chambord
The Château is the largest in the Loire Valley, allegedly built to a design created by Leonardo da Vinci. Extravagant structure with massive tours and terraces holding 360 chimneys where the court and the women used to attend the king coming back from hunting. Of all the architectural wonders of Chambord, the most famous is the double-spiral staircase, core of the building.

Amboise
Royal castle and gardens overlooking the river and the blue-slate roofs of the town. The Saint Hubert chapel houses the tomb of Leonardo who died in Amboise.

• Tasting of Touraine wines, appellation Amboise or Montlouis.

Manoir de Clos Lucé
Leonardo spent the last time three years of his life at Clos Lucé (until his death in 1519). Discover the amazing collection of 40 inventions, drawn by Leonardo himself and constructed by IBM : the first automobile, the tank, the parachute, the helicopter, the swing bridge. A thrilling meeting with Leonardo the engineer, four centuries ahead of his time.
   
CHAMBORD, CHENONCEAU AND CHEVERNY OR CHAUMONT OR BLOIS

Chenonceau, Castle-bridge built over the river Cher, where the unique beauty of its architecture reflects in the water, nicknamed "le Château des Dames", it owes a large part of its charm to women.

Cheverny is a classical early 17th century private castle richly furnished, with a beautiful park and a hundred hound dogs in their kennels.

Blois is a magnificent royal castle in a major town and illustrates different periods in architecture : it combines a Gothic, a Renaissance and a Classical wing.

Chaumont : Former medieval fortress transformed in the Renaissance, exceptional setting for the International Festival of Parks and Gardens (from mid-June to September).

• Impressionist art in Paris & the Ile de France

• Chantilly, Senlis & Compiègne

• Stained Glass at Chartres and Bourges

• Vézelay and Bourges

• Mont St. Michel and Chartres

• Abbeys in Normandy and the Ile de France