France: North to South

Basic Inclusions

Detailed Itinerary

Days 1-2: Home - Arrival in Paris, Rouen, Caen

Weeks, or even months of preparation come to fruition at last as you board your airplane bound for Europe and the glittering jewel at her heart, Paris. Bienvenue!

Travel to Caen via Rouen
Travel along the Seine River Valley to Rouen, a provincial capital that's forever linked with Joan of Arc in the French's collective memory. On a sightseeing stop, you will see the cathedral, immortalized by Monet and one of France's most beautiful buildings. It demonstrates the highest workmanship of medieval workmen and of their modern successors, who revived medieval skills to complete restoration after World War II. (It is estimated that during one night in 1944 some 345 bombs were dropped on Rouen.) Other landmarks include the famous rue du Gros-Horloge and the infamous Place du Vieux-Marché where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431. Travel to the hometown of William the Conqueror, which was tragically destroyed during the Battle of Normandy in 1944. Restored monuments include the ruins of William's castle, the Abbaye aux Hommes (resting place of the Conqueror and a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture) and the Abbaye aux Dames where Queen Mathilde, William's wife, is buried.

Day 3: D-Day Beaches, Bayeux, St. Malo

Travel to St. Malo via D-Day Beaches and Bayeux
Continue to the first French city to have been liberated by the Allies on DDay, and one of the very few in the area that escaped major damage. Bayeux has preserved 15th-century half-timbered houses and a magnificent cathedral which overlooks the city. Enter the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux and marvel at the city's treasure, 226 feet long and 20 inches high. Embroidered in the 11th century with amazing details, it tells the story of the invasion of England by the Normans in 1066 - nearly 900 years before the Normandy D-Day landing of 1944. Stop on the cliff that overlooks the landing beach of Arromanches to watch the impressive Normandy's 100 Days, an HD film with surround sound that's presented in a circular cinema. It places spectators in the middle of the Battle of Normandy, thanks to archival footage. This is indeed Second World War country, with sobering memorials, bunkers, and occasional remnants of barbed wire. Three-quarters of a century after D-Day, the beaches of Normandy are still referred to by their WWII code names.
Just over the coastal bluffs, in Colleville-sur-Mer, lie the 9,387 military graves of the American Cemetery. The endless, crisp rows are poignant reminders of heroic days that changed the outcome of World War II. Board your coach for the journey across the lush campagne normande to the medieval town of Saint-Malo.

Day 4: Excursion to Mont Saint-Michel, Centre Commercial Leclerc

Excursion to Mont Saint-Michel
It's a short ride to one of the Merveilles de France. Visit to Mont Saint-Michel Abbey As you get closer to the site, see how the Mont Saint-Michel rises out of the sea mists, its spired abbey church perched upon a rocky island set in a tidal bay. On your way up the hill for a visit to the abbey, you will walk along steep streets filled with tales of pilgrimages and of prisoners who were once kept on this small island. On the way back, spend some time browsing in the village's souvenir shops. Have a look at the surrounding seabed, a flat sandy expanse at low tide, where incoming tides are said to rush in as fast as a galloping horse.
Centre Commercial Leclerc
Stop at the Hypermarché Leclerc, which is part of France's leading chain of supermarkets, with stores also established in several European countries, from the south (Spain and Italy) to the east (Poland). Check out products consumed by most French people, through the food aisles, at the clothing racks, or in the electronic gadgets department. Look for the perfect souvenir, the coolest fashion accessory, or the tastiest French treat!

Day 5: St. Malo Walking Tour, Amboise, Chenonceau, Amboise, La Cave Aux Fouées Dinner

Tour director-led walking tour in Saint-Malo
Enjoy the walled city of St. Malo in the company of your tour director. See landmarks such as the Cathédrale Saint-Vincent (whose 12th-century nave, lit by sparkling modern stained-glass windows, houses Jacques Cartier's tomb), and the 15th-century castle with its Tour Quiquengrogne. You may want to stroll along the ramparts for great views. Look for souvenirs along the narrow shop-lined streets. Visit to the Cathédrale Saint-Vincent
Enter a sanctuary that dates back to 1146 and displays several architectural style due to renovations and additions made through the centuries. In choir chapels, visitors can see the graves of the New World explorer Jacques Cartier, who reached Canada in 1534, and of the most famous local corsair, Duguay-Trouin, rewarded with a noble title in 1694.

Visit to the Château de Chenonceau
Discover the prettiest of the Loire Valley châteaux, which spans the River Cher. In 1547, King Henri II gave this property to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. On her orders, splendid gardens were added and a bridge was built to link the castle to the other bank of the Cher. The famous gallery later erected upon that bridge by Queen Catherine de Medici served, during World War II, as an escape route between Nazi-occupied northern France and unoccupied southern France.

Travel to Amboise
Proceed to the Loire Valley town where the most famous resident of all time is not one of the kings who spent time there, but Leonardo da Vinci. The Renaissance genius was 64 when he arrived in Amboise at the invitation of King François I. He was buried within the estate of Amboise's Royal Castle in 1519.

Free time in Amboise
Stroll around town, below the Royal Castle, and see the Hôtel de Ville, the fountain designed by Max Ernst, and the Church of St. Denis, which dates back to the 12th century. Depart for the Val de Loire, the 'Garden of France' where, during the Renaissance, French monarchs built fancy castles to entertain their courtiers.

Traditional dinner at the troglodyte restaurant La Cave Aux Fouées
Tonight's meal is at a restaurant housed in one of the limestone caves typical of the area. Its name, La Cave aux Fouées, refers to the local flatbreads (fouées) that are eaten warm, soon after they come out of a wood-burning oven and have been filled with deli items traditional in this region.

Day 6: Chambord, Paris, Montmartre Walking Tour, Dinner in Montmartre

Enjoy your ride along the celebrated vallée de la Loire, dotted with châteaux that evoke the sophistication of the Renaissance.
Visit to the Château de Chambord
Enter the largest of the Loire Valley castles (440 rooms and 80 staircases). At the age of 25, King François I decided to build a sumptuous residence, and he did. However, over the 32 years of his reign he only spent 42 days at Chambord! Today, visitors marvel at the park (enclosed by a wall 18 miles long), at the grand façade, and at the famous Double Helix Staircase (Grand Escalier), which leads to a roof adorned with 200 chimneys! Let the 3D and virtual reality technology of your HistoPad Chambord fill up castle rooms as they were in their heyday, back in the 16th century, while you listen to automatically triggered commentaries.

Travel to Paris
Pick up speed on the autoroute that takes you into a whole different world: the stately monuments and broad boulevards of the French capital.

Tour director-led walking tour in Montmartre
Enjoy a walking tour on Paris's highest hill and its most celebrated bohemian district. Artists still flock to Montmartre's charming Place du Tertre, as they did when Toulouse-Lautrec painted the French Cancan dancers at the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret.
Visit to the Sacré-Coeur Basilica
Discover panoramic views of the city as you make your way up to the SacréCoeur for a visit to this white-domed basilica, which anchors the Parisian skyline.

Dinner in Montmartre
This evening, enjoy dinner in Montmartre.

Day 7: Paris City Sightseeing, Sainte Chapelle, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris, Latin Quarter Dinner, Seine River Cruise

Set out on a coach tour of the city. On the Right Bank of the River Seine, see Napoléon's Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysées, the Place de la Concorde, and the exuberant Opéra Garnier. On the Left Bank, you'll drive by the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides, the Latin Quarter, the Luxembourg Gardens, and Saint-Germain-des-Prés. A local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Paris, will accompany your group.

Sainte Chapelle
Visit the former Royal Chapel known as the Sainte-Chapelle, a true gem commissioned by Louis IX in the 13th century to house relics brought back from the crusades, in particular Christ's Sacred Crown of Thorns. The sanctuary combines superb acoustics, soaring architecture and a visual symphony of brilliant colors when sunlight pours in through its magnificent stained-glass windows. Photo stop near Notre-Dame Cathedral

View Notre-Dame de Paris, gutted by the fire of April 15, 2019, but still standing, solemn and magnificent with its iconic towers miraculously preserved from destruction. Begun in 1163 and completed in 1272, this cathedral has presided over centuries of glorious and somber French history, including its desecration during the French Revolution. In 1831, Victor Hugo launched a campaign of restoration with a novel he titled Notre Dame de Paris. Because he saw the cathedral as the main character, he strongly objected to the title of the English edition: The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Free time in Paris
Check out the bouquinistes' stalls set up along the quays of the Seine river. There are treasures and souvenirs to be found among the books, old postcards, and reproductions of artwork.

Dinner in the Latin Quarter
This evening, enjoy dinner in the Quartier Latin

Seine River cruise
See Paris transformed into a wonderland like no other during a cruise along the River Seine.

Day 8: Napoléon's Tomb and Army Museum at the Invalides, Musée d'Orsay, Eiffel Tower

Visit to Napoléon's Tomb and the Army Museum at the Hôtel des Invalides
Head to the imposing Hôtel des Invalides, a complex, founded in the 1670s by King Louis XIV as a home for wounded and homeless war veterans. View the grand tomb of France's foremost self-made man, the Emperor Napoléon I.
Visit to the Army Museum at the Invalides
Proceed to the Musée de l'Armée. Its vast military collections, among the world's best, include weaponry, armor, uniforms, banners, and a wealth of documents.
Visit to the Army Museum's World War II exhibits
Visit the Départment Contemporain (1871-1945) to view audio-visual documents and period artifacts related to the Second World War.

Visit to the Musée d'Orsay
View the exceptional collection of Impressionist works on display at the Orsay Museum, including Monet's famous series on the Rouen Cathedral, the tortured canvases of Vincent van Gogh, and works by Renoir, Manet, Gauguin, and Cézanne.

Ascent to the second level of the Eiffel Tower
Take an elevator to the deuxième étage of the most famous cast iron structure ever built, la Tour Eiffel, for an unforgettable panorama of Paris. Eiffel Tower Summit (subject to availability).

Day 9: Grands Boulevards District Walking Tour, Champs-Elysées Walking Tour

Discover the best of the Parisian boulevards, in a district that was renovated in the 19th-century on orders of Emperor Napoleon III. Baron Haussmann razed entire medieval neighborhoods at that time to create wide avenues, in particular in the area now known as the Grands Boulevards (including Boulevard Haussmann!).
Le Printemps department store
Enter the sophisticated flagship store of the chain Le Printemps, and discover the latest fashion trends for the upcoming season under its stunning stained-glass cupola. Don't miss its roof-top café, called Déli-Cieux - a play on words.
Visit to the Galeries Lafayette department store
Enter the elegant flagship store of the Galeries Lafayette, famous for its splendid 19th-century glass and iron atrium. Several floors are devoted to creative and trendy fashion from a wide range of French and international designers. Check out the rooftop café, La Terrasse (popular at lunchtime), which affords an extraordinary view of Paris, with the fabulous gilded roof of the Opéra Garnier in the forefront.

Tour director-led walking tour along the Champs-Élysées
Follow your tour director on a stroll along the glamorous Avenue des Champs-Élysées, which stretches for more than a mile from the Place de la Concorde, where Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette encountered Dr. Guillotin's invention and their fate. The obelisk at the center of the square was presented by Egypt to France in 1831 and dates back to the 13th century BC, a relic of Ramses II. In the vicinity stands the Palais de l'Élysées, built in 1718, which now serves as the residence of the President of the Republic. At the other end of the avenue, the Arc de Triomphe looms over the city's craziest rotary.

Day 10: Train to Nice, Promenade des Anglais Walking Tour

Train to Nice
Today, there's the excitement of a ride on a Train à Grande Vitesse (no clickety-clacks on these smooth rails), from Paris all the way to Nice. Time flies aboard the streamlined cars which, inside, look and feel like an airplane. You're on your way to the Côte d'Azur, famous for its sunny climate, the turquoise Mediterranean, and the vedettes de cinéma who inhabit the surrounding hills.

Tour director-led walking tour along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice
Enjoy a walking tour along the Promenade des Anglais, which is said to be Europe's most handsome boulevard (see the luxury yachts from the world over). Time permitting, venture down side streets into the Old Town, known as Vieux-Nice.
Photo stop at the #I LOVE NICE sign
Pause at the tricolor and gigantic #I LOVE NICE sign installed by the graphic artist Gilbert Bochenek in 2017. It's been a popular selfie site on the famous Promenade ever since. If time allows, you may be tempted to ride the Ascenseur du Château: this elevator (free of charge) goes up to the Colline du Château, a coastal hill where a park offers a splendid panoramic view of the city and its bay.

Day 11: Free time at the beach or the markets

Enjoy time at the beach or the markets today!
Enjoy your free time at the beach or last minute shopping at the markets!

Day 12: Departure

Depart Nice
Le retour, hélas... Your plane awaits. This time the earth rotates towards you, allowing an arrival in the U.S. seemingly shortly after you left Europe! You're eager to share your adventures with family and friends.

CUSTOM TOURS

All tours can be customized to your particular needs.
Or start from scratch - we will build your dream tour!

Going Places Blog

Social Feed