Compare Paris: The Great World City by ASA Cultural Tours vs Paris and Versailles by Eskapas

Day 1: Paris

Rue de Buci market street

Montmartre district

Participants will be required to make their own way to their accommodation in Paris (check-in time is 2.00pm).

After check-in we shall make an expedition to the nearby rue de Buci, a lively traditional market street with a variety of shops, restaurants, boulangeries and grocery stores, where you may wish to buy provisions for your stay in Paris. The produce market, which operates in the mornings Tuesdays to Saturdays, is a throw-back to when Paris was like a set of villages, each with its own market. In the 19th century street markets, considered dirty and noisy at that time, tended to be replaced by purpose built iron markets like the famous Les Halles in Paris that was torn down in the 1970s.

We also take a Métro trip to Montmartre, the most famous hill in Paris and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries a mecca for artists, writers, poets and their followers. To understand the development of Paris and particular districts like Montmartre, you must know that the medieval city, although the largest in Christian Europe, only occupied a small area to either side of the Seine. Places like Montmartre were autonomous communities in the countryside, outside the city walls. In Roman times Montmartre meant Mount of Mars, but was Christianised to the ‘Mountain of Martyrs’ after the city’s patron saint, Denis, who after martyrdom by decapitation, carried his head out of the city and placed it where he wished to be buried (at what is now Saint-Denis). As the city grew, small settlements like Montmartre were swamped and slowly transformed into urban precincts. This hill became a bohemian district in the 18th century, because it lay outside the tax barriers at which goods entering the city were taxed. The northern length of Paris’ tax barrier ran along what is now Avenue de Clichy, so that establishments like the Moulin Rouge were founded just outside it, where un-taxed grog could be sold cheaply. These in turn attracted a motley crowd and gave the region, including nearby Montmartre, a reputation for unconventional liveliness, especially at night. Bohemians have always been attracted by cheap prices and low life, and so artists, writers, musicians, performers and others flocked here to live, work and discuss art, life and politics in its street cafes. We shall enjoy a leisurely stroll through picturesque Montmartre, evoking its past street life, looking for echoes of it in the present and contemplating the role the place has played in the development of world culture. We will also admire the view from shimmering, white, monumental Sacré-Coeur, a glorious Neo-Romano-Byzantine church begun in the 1870s and completed in 1914. The evening will be at leisure. (Overnight Paris)

Day 2: Paris

Sainte-Chapelle

Notre-Dame Cathedral

Shakespeare and Company (exterior)

Musée National du Moyen Age (Musée Cluny)

Walking Tour of Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Welcome Drinks at L’Hôtel – Oscar Wilde’s last home

Between the Middle Ages and the 18th century, Paris was the largest Chrtistian city in Europe. It also enjoyed a unique status compared to capitals of a comparable age such as London. Whereas the Spanish and English monarchies were peripatetic, favouring cities throughout their lands, the French monarchy ‘created’ France from its headquarters in Paris; only during the reign of Louis XIV were the functions of the realm concentrated elsewhere, at Versailles. Since 1789, France’s successive republics have also concentrated power in Paris, to the extent that some scholars suggest that in the 19th century the country’s national identity actually became that of Paris. This concentration of power and culture is why Paris dominates France, and cities like Marseilles, Lyon and Toulouse have a strictly secondary status.

This morning, therefore, we explore the development of Royal Paris and its artistic and architectural heritage. We walk to the Île de la Cité, medieval centre of the city, to visit the Louis IX’s (1214 – 1270) exquisite Sainte-Chapelle, considered one of the finest architectural treasures of the Western world. Built in 1248 to house the precious relic of the Crown of Thorns, this chapel is conceived as a great, luminous stone and glass reliquary. Its stone structure is reduced to a light frame of thin stone piers and its walls are opened up into vast, richly coloured sheets of stained glass through which coloured light floods this unearthly place. Its stained glass windows seem like the scintillating jewels adorning the small reliquaries that inspired it.

From here it is but a short stroll to Notre-Dame. Pope Alexander III laid the first stone in 1163, marking the beginning of a construction project that took nearly 200 years to complete. The Cathedral is a remarkable transitional Romanesque-Gothic structure and features some superb stained glass and stone carving. The Gothic style’s cradle is Paris and the Île de France, whence it spread out across Europe. It expressed the intimate link between the Church and the French monarchy until the 1789 revolution, when it understandably became a target of the revolutionary mob. It took its place in French – and world – literature, when Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885) made it the setting of that great and extremely influential novel, Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) (1831). Hugo in fact wrote the novel, of which the cathedral itself, rather than Quasimodo or Esmeralda, is the true hero, in a desperate attempt to save this wonderful building, then in such a parlous physical state that some even advocated its demolition.

Next, we take a walk though the Latin Quarter to the Musée Cluny, via Paris’ legendary English language bookshop, Shakespeare and Company. Originally established in 1919 by Sylvia Beach, an American, in the 1920s the store was a popular gathering place for literary ex-pats. Sylvia lent books and money, allowed impoverished writers to stay, and promoted their works. James Joyce’s Ulysses was published by her in 1922. Henry Miller called the shop “a wonderland of books”, Hemingway wrote of it fondly in A Moveable Feast and Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Lawrence Durrell and Anaïs Nin dropped in often. Sylvia’s original bookshop closed in 1940, but the right to use the name and idea was given to George Whitman (great grandson of Walt). Today the shop is run by his daughter Sylvia.

The magnificent Musée National du Moyen Age at the Hôtel de Cluny (1485-1498), Parisian palace of the powerful Order of Cluny, is a fine specimen of late Gothic secular architecture. This museum holds a huge collection of medieval sculpture and tapestry and countless other objects as diverse as fine chests, stained glass windows, precious reliquaries and bejewelled ornaments. A highlight of our visit will be the Unicorn Tapestries that express the extraordinary richness of the late Gothic style, a vehicle for the expression of courtly power and grace. Here we enter the world of conspicuous consumption that underpinned French royal imagery.

After lunch, we take a walking tour of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés quarter which captures the essence of Paris on the Left Bank: the old abbey church of St Germain, charming streets lined with bookstores and literary cafés, old squares, artists’ studios, the famous Paris Fine Arts school, and the beautiful St Sulpice church, mentioned in The Da Vinci Code. We end our walk at L’Hôtel, Oscar Wilde’s last home, where you may wish to enjoy a welcome drink in its chic bar designed by Jacques Garcia.(Overnight Paris)

Day 3: Paris

Pompidou Centre – Musée d’Art Moderne

Beaubourg & Les Halles

Musée Carnavalet

Le Marais & Place des Vosges

Dinner at Le Train Bleu Restaurant

This morning we take a special private tour of the Centre Pompidou Musée d’Art Moderne, a magnificent collection of 20th century art which takes up where the Gare d’Orsay collection ends, with masterpieces from the School of Paris to the New York School. The view from the Pompidou’s rooftop is wonderful, because a feature of Parisian urbanism is the restriction of building heights throughout the city. You can therefore look across Paris to the Eiffel Tower, which escaped such restrictions because it was initially intended as a temporary entrance arch to the 1889 World Fair.

Across from the Centre Pompidou is the Café Beaubourg where we shall enjoy a morning coffee break. After the legendary and now defunct Café Costes, designed in 1980 by world-famous designer Philippe Starck, the Costes brothers commissioned prize-winning architect Christian de Portzamparc to build and design this stylish yet welcoming cafe.

We next explore the Beaubourg district and Les Halles area, which once housed the iron food markets of Paris. The initiation of a huge shopping area on the old market site, and the erection of Richard Rogers’ and Renzo Piano’s revolutionary Centre Pompidou (1972-7) in a run down city district, was attended by huge controversy. Such arguments are a leitmotif in the history of Parisian urbanism. Paris, along with St Petersburg, Berlin and New York, has a powerful history of the construction of grand, highly innovative, often challenging architectural statements. These accord with its status as a city of spectacle. Often initially controversial, such great monuments, like the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, eventually take their place in the celebration of the unique orchestration of period styles that is the city. Rogers’ and Piano’s building, an attack on the Beaux-Arts tradition, and totally at odds with the style and scale of the traditional architecture of its precinct, is now accepted by even its most hostile critics.

We next walk through the Marais Quarter where we will stop for lunch and visit the Musée Carnavalet, which occupies two adjoining mansions and is devoted to the story of Paris. Its copious collections include interesting objects like inn signs and even a beautiful 4th century bottle used for perfume, wine, or honey. The museum’s greatest collection, however, is of images of the city and city events from the Renaissance to the 20th century, including Jacques Louis David’s famous image of the Tennis Court Oath. The topographical images and cityscapes will allow you to ‘read’ the physical development of the city as it rose to world prominence.

The day’s program concludes with a short stroll to the Place des Vosges, a magnificent Renaissance square considered by many to be one of the most beautiful in the world. Its architectural harmony is matchless. Surrounded by lovely Renaissance brick buildings with stone dressings and quoins, and steep mansard roofs, this square was originally designed as a royal and aristocratic refuge from the densely packed, dirty, noisy city. At one end is a magnificent art bookshop. The remainder of the afternoon is at leisure. You may wish to further explore the Marais and some of the excellent designer shops located here.

One way in which Paris changed the way we live was by ‘inventing’ the restaurant during the French Revolution. This in part occurred because fleeing aristocrats left behind their chefs, who found an alternative outlet for their art. This evening we shall experience one of the great delights of Paris as we dine at ‘Le Train Bleu’, the famous restaurant at Gare de Lyon. Built in the Belle Époque architectural style, this luxurious restaurant was constructed for the great Universal Exhibition at the turn of the twentieth century, and in 1972 it was classified as an historic monument. Today, diners enjoy delicious food in an environment reflecting a by-gone era. (Overnight Paris) D

Day 4: Saturday 1 October, Paris

Fondation Le Corbusier: Villa La Roche

Musée Marmottan

The Fondation Louis Vuitton

Trocadéro

This morning we depart by coach for an architecture tour of the Fondation Le Corbusier, located in the 16th arrondissement. Cradle of early modernism, Paris is especially noted for the architectural experiments of Le Corbusier and his colleagues. Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret conceived the Villa La Roche, in which the Fondation Le Corbusier is now housed, in 1923-25. Designed for Raoul La Roche, a Swiss banker and collector of avant-garde art, the whole house is the art gallery, an ‘architectural promenade’ – a theme inspired by Le Corbusier’s visit to the Acropolis in 1911 and repeated most strikingly in his Carpenter centre for the Visual Arts nearly forty years later. The promenade goes up and down staircases, leads you through tight spaces, in-between balconies, open surveys, down ramps and into a beautifully lit library. This idea of a spatial sequence was re-invented by many modern architects, after Le Corbusier.

Next we visit the Musée Marmottan, a wonderful art collection that occupies a mansion on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, which was owned by the collector Paul Marmottan. He presented his house along with his Renaissance, Consular and Empire collections of paintings and furniture to the Institut de France and the museum was opened in 1934. In 1971, Michel Monet presented 65 paintings by his father, Claude Monet, to the museum. Part of Monet’s personal art collection has also been added, making the collection the largest corpus of the artist’s work in the world. The Musée Marmottan also has works by Berthe Morissot, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Paul Gauguin, Paul Signac and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. A highlight is Monet’s Impression, Sunrise which gave its name to Impressionism.

After time at leisure for lunch, we discover the much anticipated new art gallery in Paris. The Fondation Louis Vuitton for Creation has entrusted architect Frank Gehry (Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Vitra Design Museum, New York 8 Spruce Street) to design a new contemporary art museum and cultural centre, set in the Jardin d’Acclimatation, a children’s park in the Bois de Boulogne. Frank Gehry has imagined the building inspired by the glass dome of the Grand Palais. Using innovative technological developments, the museum takes the shape of the sails of a boat vessel inflated by the wind.

To close the day, we visit the Trocadéro, an area that took its name from an island off Cadiz (Spain), site of a great French victory over Spanish liberals in 1823. Trocadéro occupies the hill of Chaillot, which was the site of a number of important international exhibitions. The two arcing wings of the present Palais de Chaillot were built for the Exposition Internationale of 1937 and inscribed with quotations by Paul Valéry. Sculptural groups at the attic level are by Raymond Delamarre, Carlo Sarrabezolles and Alfred Bottiau. Eight gilded figures on the terrace of the Rights of Man between the two wings are attributed to the sculptors Alexandre Descatoire, Marcel Gimond, Jean Paris dit Pryas, Paul Cornet, Lucien Brasseur, Robert Couturier, Paul Niclausse and Félix-Alexandre Desruelles. This terrace is aligned to the Eiffel Tower across the Seine; the Tower was the entrance arch to the 1889 Exhibition that occupied this axis. The majestic axial view of the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro terrace brings home to us the secret of Parisian urbanism. The city has monuments from all periods, and these are often linked by axial views, like that which runs from the Louvre up the Champs Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe and beyond to the Grand Arch at La Défense. The boulevards and gardens on these axes create sight lines linking the monuments visually across the city, giving Paris a sense of monumentality and completeness rarely experienced in other cities. (Overnight Paris)

Day 5: Paris – Maincy – Paris

Meals: Dinner

Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, Maincy

Musée Rodin, Paris

Dinner at restaurant Le Procope

This morning we travel out of Paris by private coach to the famous Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. Nicolas Fouquet, Louis XIV’s Superintendant of Finances built this great house in 1641. Fouquet’s grand Baroque château, with its splendid formal gardens created by André Le Nôtre, raised the jealousy of the king and Fouquet fell from grace. Louis XIV subsequently commissioned Le Nôtre to create an even greater vision at Versailles. Our visit will illustrate how the landscape was modified to achieve the grand vision for the magnificent formal garden. We shall also explore the sumptuously furnished apartments, decorated with beautiful tapestries, as well as the kitchen with its row upon row of gleaming copperware.

After lunch we return to Paris where we spend the remainder of the afternoon visiting the Musée Rodin. Housed in the elegant 18th century Hôtel Biron, this was the residence of the sculptor Rodin from 1908 to his death in 1917. The Rodin collection in the sculpture garden and within the mansion itself is the most comprehensive Rodin corpus in the world. Your group leader will explain how Rodin developed his sculptural forms, after which you will have time to enjoy the works at leisure.

This evening we dine together at the most literary of all Parisian restaurants, Le Procope. First opened in 1686, it is one of the oldest dining establishments in the world. It is said to have introduced coffee to the Parisians and is famed for its sorbet. Voltaire’s regular table is on display (he drank 40 cups of coffee a day), but other regulars included Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin (said to have revised the US Constitution at one of its tables), Rousseau, Beaumarchais, Diderot, Longfellow, Hugo, Oscar Wilde, Balzac, George Sand, as well as leaders of the Revolution, Robespierre, Danton and Marat. (Overnight Paris)

Day 6: Paris

Opéra District

Opéra Garnier – interior

Walking tour of Palais Royal & Galerie Vivienne

Musée du Louvre

Tuileries gardens

Place de la Concorde

Paris’ leadership as the world’s major entertainment centre rested in part on its fame for opera performance, captured in Degas’ marvellous images of dancers, musicians and their audiences. In 1858 the Emperor Napoleon III commissioned a new theatre to house Paris’ opera and ballet companies. Charles Garnier (1825–1898) won a subsequent design competition and construction commenced in 1861; after many setbacks, including the fall of Napoleon, the building opened in 1875. This morning we undertake a walk to explore the sights around the monumental Opéra Garnier, and a guided tour of its sumptuous interior.

Next we continue our walk to Palais Royal, which originated as Richelieu’s Palais Cardinal, passing to the Crown when he died. We shall explore its beautiful gardens and marvellous shops. Surrounded by beautiful 17th century buildings, for four centuries this magnificent precinct has been a seat of power, focus of French leadership of the world’s intellectual life, and a place of recreation and pleasure; it is here that the world’s first purpose built restaurant opened when the French ‘invented’ this mode of public eating. It is also the home to the Comédie Française. Its peaceful garden is now enlivened by contemporary sculptures by Buren and Bury. The fountains in the lake in the middle of the garden fan out over two vast greens skirting the flowerbeds designed by American landscaper Mark Rudkin. The Palais Royal shelters numerous designer fashion shops, art galleries and antique shops which we shall explore, as well as the 19th century shopping arcades, Galeries Vivienne and Colbert.

From here it is a short walk to one of the world’s most famous museums, the Musée du Louvre, which arguably houses the world’s greatest art collection. It started life as a fortress, but over the centuries Kings and Emperors have added new buildings. One of the most controversial additions was the glass pyramid, designed by I. M. Pei, which opened in 1989. The Louvre’s art collections have been a vehicle through which governments established and reinforced Paris’ status as the world’s art centre in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Our visit will take in selected collection highlights as well as exploring the building itself. Once the formal tour is concluded, group members will have some time at leisure to further explore the museum’s vast collections.

In the late afternoon we shall walk through the nearby Jardin des Tuileries, an extraordinary open space surrounded by a magnificent architectural panorama. We end today by walking to the superb Place de la Concorde, one of Europe’s most powerful expressions of urban planning, designed, like so much of the city, to establish Paris’ reputation as the world capital. You will have the option of returning to the hotel or continuing on to discover further delights of the city into the early evening. (Overnight Paris)

Day 7: Paris

Musée d’Orsay

Quai Branly Living Wall by Patrick Blanc

Lunch at Les Ombres Restaurant by Jean Nouvel

Afternoon at leisure

This morning we visit the Musée d’Orsay, Paris’ Museum of the 19th century. It is housed in a former railway station, which was converted to a great museum by ACT Architecture (Renaud Bardon, Pierre Colboc and Jean-Paul Philippon) and the Italian architect, Gae Aulenti. It holds the world’s greatest collection of French Realists, Impressionists and Post Impressionists (1848–1914). Masterpieces include Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (1862-3) and Olympia (1863) and Renoir’s Le Moulin de la Galette (1876). Such paintings document two poles of Parisian life, those of Bourgeois recreation, and the alienation of the individual in a burgeoning, crowded, ever changing, modernist city. Not only was Paris the city of spectacle, but it was also the city where modernism as ‘state of mind’ was invented. We shall begin with a tour of the collection, followed by ample free time to view your favourite works.

We next take the Métro to reach the Quai Branly Museum designed by Jean Nouvel and view the Living Wall by Patrick Blanc, an extraordinary vertical garden rich in verdant textures. We don’t visit the Museum, dedicated to indigenous art from Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas, but do have lunch at its restaurant Les Ombres situated on the museum’s terrace. The restaurant’s decor, furniture and crockery are signed Jean Nouvel, architect of the museum. The play of shadows from the Eiffel Tower throughout the restaurant is a tribute of the architect to the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose major work has become the universal symbol of Paris. A magical place, this domed restaurant offers an unforgettable view of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower. Scattered with ponds, the terrace is accessible only to the restaurant’s patrons.

The remainder of the day is at leisure. You may wish to visit the Quai Branly Museum and admire the Australian indigenous paintings specially commissioned by Jean Nouvel as permanent installations of the museum, or stroll along the Champ de Mars to see the Eiffel Tower and the nearby Australian Embassy designed by Australian architect Harry Seidler. (Overnight Paris) L

Day 8: Paris

Musée Nissim de Camondo

Baccarat Gallery Museum and its Cristal Room

Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent Foundation including Yves Saint Laurent’s studio and library

We begin this morning with a visit to the Musée Nissim de Camondo, one of the most sumptuous private homes from the early 20th century in Paris. Built in 1911 by the Comte Moïse de Camondo, a banker, with architect René Sergent, to set off the count’s collection of 18th century French furniture and art objects, its design was based on Versailles’ Petit Trianon, with modern conveniences. Today the house is maintained as if it were still a private home preserved in its original condition. We are able to visit three floors: the lower ground floor (kitchens), upper ground floor (formal rooms), and first floor (private apartments).

One of the most extravagant spaces in Paris, the Galerie-Musée Baccarat, with a collection of Baccarat crystal dating back to 1816. This extraordinary collection documents the drive to make Paris the centre of the world of luxury that was initiated centuries before by Louis XIV. We start our visit of the Galerie-Musée Baccarat with a lunch in the Cristal Room, designed by Philippe Starck. After lunch we take a tour of the Gallery Museum.

Our last visit today is to the studio of the great fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, where each collection was born. Our guide will narrate anecdotes while presenting several original sketches and emblematic haute couture prototypes that bear witness to Mr. Saint Laurent’s creativity. Yves Saint Laurent sensed, perhaps better than any other designer, the movements of society. If Chanel gave liberty to women, Saint Laurent gave them power. By making use of masculine codes, he brought women security and audacity whilst accentuating their femininity. Finally, it is in the rich library before the bibles of the YSL collection, that you will understand the functioning of such a fashion house. (Overnight Paris) L

Day 9: Depart Paris

Your tour ends today in Paris. Those returning to Australia will need to make their own way to Paris CDG airport (contact ASA for information on private transfers). Participants wishing to extend their stay in Paris are advised to contact ASA for information about extending their stay at the Citadines Paris Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Day 1: Arrive in Paris, France

Arrival to Paris, “Bienvenue a Paris”, meet and greet and transfer to your city centered hotel in Paris.

Overnight: Paris Meals: N/A

Day 2: Paris Highlights

Spend a day exploring Paris in a very unusual way. This excursion on foot and riverboat will show you the highlights of Paris: visit the Louvre Museum and the Eiffel Tower with our professional guide.

After breakfast, meet with our guide in the center of Paris at 08:15 am. (Arc de Triumph of the Carrousel facing the Louvre pyramid)

He/she will take you straight to the famous Louvre Museum, through this must-see museum and tell you about the main artworks: the Venus of Milo statue representing the goddess Aphrodite, the impressive painting of The Wedding at Cana the Coronation of Napoleon illustrating the emperor’s crowning in the Notre-Dame Cathedral, and Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa which is the most visited work in the Museum.

After your tour of the Louvre Museum which takes about 2.30 hours, your guide will take you to the riverbank, before the Pont du Carrousel, to board a Batobus boat. This short cruise will show you Paris from a different angle. You will see some of the superb bridges over the Seine and Paris monuments along the banks. The boat moors at the Quai de la Bourdonnais at the foot of the Trocadéro, right opposite the Iron Lady

You will have time then for lunch on your own before going up to the Eiffel Tower

Your guide will let you disembark to go to the iconic monument of Paris. He/she will lead you up to the second floor where the secrets of the Eiffel Tower will be revealed. After hearing remarkable commentaries, you can enjoy the beautiful panorama of Paris and see the top Parisian landmarks. Keep on visiting the Tower on the second level and get down to the first one to experience the incredible glass floor.

The services of our professional guide will end on the second level of the Eiffel Tower and you will have free time at leisure (End approx 04:30 pm)

Day 3: Paris – Versailles

After breakfast, randez-vous at 08:15 am.

Departure from the center of Paris to the Palace of Versailles. Make the most of the 45-minute journey by luxury air-conditioned coach and listen to your guide’s introduction to the history of the palace.

The Palace of Versailles covers an area of over 721,000 square feet and has more than 700 rooms.

Follow your guide straight to the front of the line to see the palaces most beautiful rooms: the Kings Grand Apartments, with seven rooms each dedicated to a different god (Apollo, Mars, Mercy, Venus, etc.) and the Queens Grand Apartments, mirroring those of the king, including the Coronation Room and the Queens Bedroom, once occupied by Marie Antoinette, among others. Also, admire the spectacular Hall of Mirrors, a unique room in which guests were received and impressed, designed by the famous architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Almost 240 feet-long, it was created to dazzle visitors to the Sun King, Louis XIV; it is lit by 17 windows and some 350 mirrors, and overlooks the palace’s breath-taking gardens, the second part of your visit.</span></div>

Return to Paris at 12:30 pm

After noon free time at leisure

Overnight: Paris Meals: Breakfast</span></div>

Please note:

We strongly advise against high-heeled shoes (parquet flooring in the rooms and cobblestones in the courtyard)

Strollers are not permitted inside the palace

Access to the palace is challenging for those with reduced mobility

Photography without flash is permitted inside the palace

The skip-the-line access is subject to the Versailles Palace procedures: The Vigipirate plan, the security control or an unforeseen crowd can slow down the entrance.

Day 4: Paris

Breakfast and free day at leisure. Overnight: Paris Meals: Breakfast

Optional Tours:

Disneyland® Paris: 1 Day 2 Parks with round trip transport:

1 entrance ticket 1 day / 2 Parks

We begin our day by crossing Paris as far as the Porte de Bercy to join the A4 motorway leading to Disneyland ® Paris. (average journey : 1 hour). Our driver will leave you at the group parking area close to the park entrances. Take advantage of a nice day with your family at Disneyland ® Paris. Both adults and children will enjoy discovering the magic world of Disneyland Paris. You will be able to enter both parks:

Disneyland ® Park: Magic world where you will meet all the Disney characters who live in an endless fairy tale.

Walt Disney Studios ® Park: Go behind the scenes of the movies, cartoons and tv shows.

The group will re-join the coach at the same spot at the end of the day at 7.15 PM

Come back to Paris around 08.00 PM. Departure at 7.00 PM in winter 200€ per person Children Mont Saint-Michel Tour with lunch: (Only Friday &#8211; 14 Hour Experience) An exceptional day at Mont-Saint-Michel in the company of a professional guide. Discover the history and the riches of this Wonder of the West; through the enthusiastic commentary of our guide. 250€ per person

Loire Valley Castles: (Only Mondays - 13 Hours) Come and live an exceptional day in the heart of the Loire Valley in France. You will visit the Chateau de Chenonceau and the Chateau de Chambord with our guide, two of the greatest castles of the Loire Valley. This dive into French history will be completed by a visit to the Clos Lucé castle, the emblematic place of the famous Leonardo da Vinci. Take a seat in an air-conditioned vehicle, departure from the center of Paris at 7:15 am! 250€ per person

Normandy D-Day Beaches: (Only Saturdays - 13 Hours) Enjoy a full day excursion from Paris to the D-Day Beaches in Normandy in the company of an official guide, who will bring these historic sites to life. 250€ per person.

Day 5: Paris Departure

After breakfast, free time until your flight time. Transfer to the airport and end of ou services.

Au Revoir!