|
Abbeys in Normandy and the Ile de France Tour
|
|
No country in Europe is home to so many important abbeys as France, but many did not survive the French Revolution.
|
Benedictine Abbey church of Saint-Pierre
|
St. Michel is one of the lucky and most famous ones. This tour of abbeys in Normandy and the Ile de France begins at the splendid ruin of the great Jumieges Abbey, west of Rouen.
|
Few ruins are as impressive and eloquent as this one, all that remains of the abbey church that was consecrated in the presence of William the Conqueror in the 11th century and sold as state property during the revolution.
Your personal bilingual driver/guide will accompany you through what remains of its Notre Dame and St. Peter Churches, as well as the Chapter house, sacristy, cloisters, gardens, the abbot's home, and the St. Valentine parish church.
Our next stop will be at the Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay, west of Paris in the Yvelines department, a less important Abbey that dates from the early 12th century, but which fell into decline from the 14th century, and since 1873 has belonged to the Rothschild family, who have restored the buildings and converted it into a hotel. We will dine in the ancient refectory, now an elegant restaurant, after which we will visit the different elements of the abbey, where the interest is in the combination of old structures with modern refurbishing.
We then drive to near Chantilly, where we visit the Abbaye de Royaumont, another ruin, but one in far better condition and one which reveals the vast wealth and power that the French abbeys had become. Royaumont is named in honour of St. Louis, who consecrated it in 1228 and endowed it richly. We will visit the ruins of the church, the cloisters, a beautiful garden, the refectory, the old kitchens and the abbot's home. Royaumont is frequently the site of charming concerts, which can be included in the itinerary if desired.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 850 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Amiens Cathedral Tour
|
This tour of Amiens Cathedral takes you on a jaunt through one of France's flatter areas, to the heart of Picardy, so the impact of viewing the country's tallest complete cathedral could not be more striking. Notre Dame de Amiens stands out strikingly from a distance, making the remarkable unity of its pure Gothic style all the more evident.
It is a 13th century structure, the last of the very tall cathedrals to be built, and is notable for its three tier interior elevation and an important ensemble of stone statues that decorate the main façade and south transept. It is often mentioned as the best example of High Gothic church architecture, and nowhere is it easier to view and comprehend the importance of the innovation of flying buttresses in building cathedrals that soar to the skies.
Paris Luxury Tours usually suggests combining this private tour of Amiens Cathedral with a tour of Beauvais Cathedral and St. Denis Basilica, to make a complete day excursion from Paris. Alternative choices include a tour of the chateaux at Compiegne or Chantilly.
For descriptions of those tours, please click on their links at the
left of this page.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Barbizon Tour
|
 Tucked away on the edge of the vast Fontainebleau Forest, the charming village of Barbizon is a retreat adopted since the 19th century by landscape painters and well-to-do city-dwellers alike. Among the most famous were Jean-Francois Millet and Theodore Rousseau.
Some of the painters of the Barbizon school paved the way to Impressionism, many of whose adherents repeatedly returned to the Fontainebleau area for inspiration. Famous writers like George Sands and literary figures such as the Goncourt brothers were not long in following their foot steps.
This tour of Barbizon is usually paired with either a tour of the chateau and park of Fontainebleau or the nearby Chateau de Courances, built in pure Louis XIII style, and graced with a park designed by Andre Le Notre. Our tour visits the Barbizon School Museum and its annex, Rousseau's home and atelier. It finishes with a stop for coffee at the White Horse Inn in Chailly-en-Bieres, where impressionists Renoir, Monet and Sisley used to quarter. For Sisley devotees, a visit to the nearby village of Moret-sur-Loing, his last home, is also an option.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Beauvais Cathedral Tour
|
This tour of Beauvais Cathedral is not your typical homage-rendering to the miracles worked by 13th century French cathedral builders. The  interest and focus of this private tour of St. Pierre de Beauvais is seeing what went so wrong in the colossal enterprise of trying to build the biggest and tallest cathedral in all France.
Borrowing ideas from Chartres and Notre Dame de Paris (among others), Beauvais Cathedral is a mixture of High Gothic and Rayonnant styles of church architecture. Its construction was overseen by three different bishops, each with different ideas of what was to be done, calling into mind the adage about too many cooks spoiling the broth.
Moreover, the efforts to build it were spread over 250 years.
Paris Luxury Tours usually suggests this unique escorted tour of Beauvais Cathedral in conjunction with a tour of Notre Dame de Amiens Cathedral, both to make a striking comparison, and to complete a full day of touring from Paris. Enthusiasts of church architecture might also wish to add a private tour of St. Denis Basilica, where most of the kings and queens of France are entombed. For descriptions of those tours, please click on their links at the left of this page.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Bourges Cathedral Tour
|
Two hours south of Paris, below Orleans, in the heart of Berry, lays the medieval town of Bourges. Looking at its charming tranquility, who would ever guess how much history has transpired here? This is where Vercingetorix fought Julius Caesar in 52 BC. It is the town Charlemagne made the capital of the Aquitaine, where Charles VII resided during the Hundred Year's War, where Joan of Arc wintered, and where Calvin was converted to Luther's ideas.
It is also home to St. Etienne Cathedral, which shelters one of the most remarkable collections of 13th C. stained glass in all of Europe. And it is where you will find Jacques Coeur's Palace, the finest example of 15th C. civil architecture anywhere in France. This privately guided tour of Bourges explores the genius that went into both structures: the rib-vaulted architecture and stained glass of the cathedral, and the remarkable light-filled residential qualities of the palace. It can also, upon request, include a one hour tour of the cathedral with one of its leading experts, Barbara Thomas-Richard.
This tour of Bourges also delves into the character and personality of Jacques Coeur, one of the first Renaissance men in France, a man of astonishing talents: banker, financier to the crown, entrepreneur, shipper, builder, traveler and diplomat. His palace, constructed before 1450 and so full of architectural and residential refinements, anticipates the blossoming of the French renaissance architecture under François 1 by almost a full century.
Paris Luxury Tours usually proposes this escorted tour of Bourges in conjunction with either a tour of Chartres (for the relevance of Church architecture and stained glass in the 13th C.), or a tour of the Vezelay basilica (for its proximity), to complete a full day excursion from Paris. There are numerous delightful options for country meals in this region.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 850 € per group
4-6 persons: 950 € per group
100 €/hour surcharge applies beyond 8 hours.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Chantilly Chateau and Park Tour
|
 A tour of the chateau at Chantilly is a short-cut to understanding the power and magnificence of the nobility in France. It can be argued with some success that the power of its creator, the Constable Anne in the 16th century, was equal to that of the crown. But it is nevertheless true that none of the previous royal palaces held a candle to the elegance of Chantilly.
This Paris Luxury Tour brings you to the domain of France's illustrious Montmorency and Conde families, and to a museum of world class stature, with paintings and drawings of Giotto, Fillippino Lippi, Raphael, Botticelli, Watteau, Ingres, and Delacroix. The park at Chantilly is also among the most magnificent in France.
Chantilly, furthermore, is where 3000 thoroughbred horses routinely train for racing, and is the seat of one of the most important horse riding schools in France, housed in the magnificent 18th century stables designed by Jean Aubert, which you also will visit.
This tour is usually proposed in tandem with visits to the nearby ancient royal city of Senlis and the imperial palace at Compiegne, to make a complete day of touring in the region. For details of those visits, please consult the Senlis tour and Compiegne tour pages.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Chartres Cathedral Tour
|
Situated on the banks of the Eure River in the center of a plain known as La Beauce (renowned as the granary of France, thanks to the many miles of surrounding wheat fields), Chartres has been receiving visitors throughout the centuries. Its ancient granite stones exude a history that begins with the Celts and the Romans. This tour of Chartres evokes not only the history of the cathedral, but also that of the old town.
 The cathedral we see today was constructed in less than thirty years during the 13th C., a period of remarkable purity of Gothic style, which it embodies. It stands on a site where records indicate at least three previous cathedrals had stood. A sermon in glass and stone, the building is ornamented with over four thousand sculptures and houses one of the finest collections of 13th C. stained glass in all of Europe. It also is home to a relic said to be the cloak of the Virgin, is therefore a marian church, hence its name, Notre Dame de Chartres.
This escorted tour of Chartres reveals what makes the cathedral unique and initiates the visitor in the fine art of reading the Biblical stories which are depicted in stained glass and stone. It may also include, upon request, a one hour private tour of the cathedral with Malcolm Miller, who is renowned as the world's greatest living authority on the subject.
This day tour of Chartres will also take you on a walk through the old town, draped on the side of a hill leading down to the river, where numerous restored mills evoke professions (millers, dyers, drapers, tanners, curriers, fullers, and tawers, to name a few) of bygone eras that no longer exist. One of them, the Moulin de Ponceau, with its lovely views of the old town, is a charming spot to have a delightful country lunch.
Paris Luxury Tours usually proposes this tour of Chartres in conjunction with either Mont Saint Michel (during summer hours), Bourges, Versailles or Giverny---to make a complete one day excursion from Paris.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
4-6 persons: 950 € per group
100 €/hour surcharge applies beyond 8 hours.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Compiegne Tour
|
 Looking at the Compiegne Palace today, which owes so much of its appearance to the efforts of Louis XV, Louis XVI and Napoleons I and III, you would never guess that its history goes all the way back to 843, when Charles the Bald ordered the construction of the first palace there. Nor would you guess that this is where Joan of Arc was wounded and imprisoned, unless you are reminded by Fremiet's equestrian statue of her, located more or less on the spot of her capture.
This tour of Compiegne takes you to a place which the kings and queens of France visited frequently. Much of what you see, however, is the result of the efforts of Jacques and Jacques Ange Gabriel. This is where Louis XVI was first introduced to Marie Antoinette in 1770. Forty years later, her great niece, Marie Louise, arrived here from Austria to meet her husband after her marriage-by-proxy to Napoleon I. The Compiegne Palace was also the favorite residence of Napoleon III and empress Eugenie. A two hour tour of the apartments of the palace evokes these and other historic events that took place here.
The palace also houses a fascinating collection of some fifty historic vehicles, from 18th C. coaches, to 19th C. omnibuses and early 20th C. motor cars. World War buffs can also visit in the near-by forest a prototype of the railway car in which Marechal Foch accepted the German surrender at the end of WWI and Hitler accepted the French surrender early in WWII.
Paris Luxury Tours usually proposes this tour of Compiegne in conjunction with its tour of Senlis and its tour of Chantilly, to make a complete one day excursion from Paris. For details of those tours, please click on the appropriate selections at the left of this page.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Fontainebleau Chateau and Park Tour
|
 This Fontainebleau tour visits the vast chateau and forest and steps back into a large swathe of French history. Of the medieval buildings where Louis VII, Philippe Auguste, St. Louis and Philippe le Bel hunted, lived or sojourned, nothing remains, and it is instead François Ier's 16th century chateau that survives. Visit this masterpiece of French renaissance architecture, and admire the 16th century decorative arts of the first Fontainebleau school. Later residents, including Henri II, Catherine de Medici, Henri IV, Louis XIV, XV, XVI and Napoleon each left their marks on the chateau. Then take a break for lunch at one of the many attractive bistros in town.
It would take several days to explore all of the 25,000 hectares of the forest of Fontainebleau, but after lunch your personal bilingual guide will drive you comfortably through several of its highlights, including the Apremont and Franchard Gorges. We usually top off this excursion with a tour in the near-by village of Barbizon. (Please see the Barbizon tour page for details.)
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Gardens of Andre Le Notre Tour
|
|
Few individuals have so transformed landscape architecture, not to mention the appearance of Paris itself, as Andre Le Notre.
|
|
Let this genius of the French style of garden at its peak be revealed to you, in all his glory. Le Notre learned the principles of perspective and optics from Vouet and the two Mansarts.
|
This Paris Luxury Tour of the Gardens of Le Notre will show you the master's rigorous use of those principles, his creation of expansive vistas, as well as his application of a hierarchy of values (instead of mere symmetry) to transform the art of the French garden.
 You will drive to your choice of his gardens: at Courance, Vaux-le-Vicomte near Melun, Fontainebleau, Meudon, Sceaux, St. Cloud, Versailles, St.-Germain-en-Laye, Chantilly, the Tuileries and Rond Point de Champs Elysees. Your bilingual driver/guide will divulge the subtleties of Le Notre's art, in his use of water pools, formal parks, trees, fountains, and sculptures.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Giverny Tour
|
This tour of Giverny starts with a pleasant one hour drive, roughly paralleling the Seine, to the eastern edge of Normandy, the province in which Claude Monet was born (Le Havre), where he frequently worked (often around Honfleur), and where he spent the latter part of his life (in Giverny).
Monet's home and gardens have been substantially restored, and they offer a glimpse into the master's private life, his
daily routine, his place of work and (especially during the summer) into the sources of inspiration for so many of his most famous paintings, including the unique water lily series now housed at the Marmottan and Orangerie Museums in Paris.
Those sensitive to the special relationship between French and American art will also enjoy including in this private tour of Giverny a visit to the American Art Museum located next door. Others with a more gourmet predilection will not want to miss a fabulous lunch at the 'Auberge du Prieure Normand' in near-by Gasny, an unforgettable bargain.
Paris Luxury Tours usually suggests combining this escorted tour of Giverny with a tour of Honfleur or Rouen, to make a complete day excursion from Paris. For descriptions of those tours, please click on the links at the upper left of this page.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Honfleur Tour
|
A tour of Honfleur is a visit to one of France's most reliably
enchanting spots, a visual delight. From the sailing craft in the
 Old Dock, to the surrounding, improbably narrow, seven-story timber-framed and slate-shingled houses, to the eccentric wooden Ste. Catherine's Church, everywhere you look something appeals to your eye in this lovely town.
This tour of Honfleur takes you on a casual walk through its narrow cobbled streets, past animated cafes and filled restaurants, to docks where fishing vessels unload their fresh catch, and to the Eugene Boudin Museum that honors the painter who so influenced Claude Monet by exposing him to painting in the open air. This museum also displays works by such as Dufy, Monet, Jongkind and Van Dongen, to name a few.
Honfleur has a long history of attracting artists, including the Impressionists who often joined Boudin at the St. Simeon Inn, now a swank four star hotel that few painters can afford to approach! This charming port also was home to the likes of Baudelaire and Erik Satie, and you can visit a museum that is devoted to the composer.
Paris Luxury Tours usually suggests combining this tour of Honfleur with a tour of Giverny and/or Rouen, to make a complete day of touring from Paris. For descriptions of those tours, please click on the links in the upper left of this page.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 850 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Impressionist Art in Paris & the Ile de France Tour
|
You may not need a personal bilingual guide to find the more famous museums and galleries in Paris that exhibit fabulous collections of Impressionist art; but you will be delighted to discover, through a Paris Luxury Tour of Impressionist art in Paris and the Ile de France, the many smaller museums that are home to wonderful Impressionist works.
Moreover, if Impressionism is a passion, you may be fascinated to know that many of the subjects of famous Impressionist works survive, virtually unchanged, to this day; so it is possible to compare what the artist painted with the original.
 Let us drive you to Monet's Argenteuil bridge, Vetheuil church, and his Gare St. Lazare. Visit Renoir's Bougival and Chatou, Sisley's Port Marly, Moret-sur-Loing, Louveciennes, and Courances, Pissarro's Voisins and Pontoise, Seurat's bridges at Courbevoie and Asnieres or Van Gogh's church at Auvers-sur-Oise.
Amazingly enough, some of the old haunts of the Impressionists can still be visited: the Closerie de Lilas in Montparnasse (where Bazille and Renoir quaffed beer and exchanged ideas with Fantin-Latour), La Grenouillere bathing spot on Croissy Island (which Kenneth Clark described as 'the birthplace of Impressionism,' where Monet and Renoir painted side by side), and the White Horse Inn at Chailly-en-Biere (where Sisley, Monet and Renoir lodged on the edge of the Fontainebleau forest and set up easels in the open air).
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Loire Valley Chateaux Tour
|
This escorted tour of Loire Valley Chateaux, one of the most delightful day excursions from Paris, takes you to visit two of the most legendary chateaux of France. It also introduces you to the beautiful Loire Valley (often called the cradle of France), and leads you into the realms of some of the most colorful personages of French royal history. It further gives you the opportunity to sample the wine and cuisine of one of the country's most renowned regions.
 A one hour drive from Paris takes you past Blois, to the magnificent Chateau de Chambord, the personal creation of François I, using designs possibly drawn by Leonardo da Vinci. In scale, this is the most grandiose of the Loire chateaux and the stunning first view of it often remains burned indelibly in the eye of the visitor. This is one of the first chateaux to reflect the influences of the Italian renaissance in French architecture, and is also one of the first to be built primarily for the pleasure of its use, instead of defense.
The Chateau de Chenonceau could hardly offer more of a contrast:
 although built at virtually the same time as Chambord, in the early 16th century, there is a feminine refinement in the lines of Chenonceau that reflects the roles in its creation of Catherine Briçonnet, the wife of its builder, and Catherine de Medici, who later transformed it. Chenonceau was also the home of Henri II and Diane de Poitiers, whose lifelong affair colors and suffuses its history. Diane's Italian garden and Catherine de Medici's park are equally attractive highlights of this tour.
To relax between visiting these two chateaux, this tour offers the chance to lunch at either of three Michelin one star restaurants in either near-by Amboise (Choiseul), Blere (Cheval Blanc) or the village of Chenonceaux, (Bon Laboureur) or at the modest but lovely Restaurant de l'Ecole at Pontlevoy, with its excellent regional cuisine at moderate prices.
The tour of Loire Valley chateaux concludes at the end of the visit to Chenonceau with a one and three quarter hour drive back to Paris.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 850 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Mont Saint Michel Tour
|
This escorted tour of Mont Saint Michel could easily become the most enduring memory of any place that you will ever visit,
 thanks to its unique location in the middle of a sea-filled bay, its extraordinary assemblage of architectural styles and the sheer romance of its creation. Its legends date all the way back to the first millennium. There is something magic about seeing it which words do not convey: you have to see for yourself to understand its attraction. It is one of our planet's few truly world class monuments, and the reward of beholding it more than justifies the three hour drive from Paris that it takes to reach it.
The natural history of the site dates to a period when the current island was probably surrounded by a forest, instead of the sea. Its human history begins as a place of worship at the end of the 7th century, with ties to Italy. From then on, its story flows like a river through the histories of France and Britain: the Vikings, the Norman Conquest, the Hundred Year's War, the Crusades and even the French Revolution. It played a role in each of these epochal periods.
 This day tour from Paris of Mont St. Michel is performed by your personal bilingual guide/driver, who is an expert in its history, in a comfortable upscale vehicle. It reveals the entire history of its creation, relates its role in the many wars that swirled over the centuries around it, and also helps the visitor avoid the downsides (rip-offs) of visiting one of the world's favorite tourist attractions. The round-trip from Paris involves over six hours of motoring, so (if there is sufficient daylight) Paris Luxury Tours recommends combining this tour with another, such as a tour of Chartres, to break up the monotony of the return drive to Paris.
Prices available upon request.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Normandy Landing Beaches Tour
|
Paris Luxury Tours offers two day tours from Paris to the Normandy Landing Beaches. For those interested in the US sector of the D-Day invasion, we offer a tour that focuses on Omaha and Utah Beaches. You will visit the memorials to the 1st Infantry Division and the 5th Engineer Special Brigade, at the spots where Bloody Omaha was taken with such sacrifice. You also see the Coleville cemetery and Omaha D-Day Museum before completing this Normandy Landing Beaches tour at Utah Beach.
To behold the full scope and ambition of the Allies' objectives in launching the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion, we propose a tour that begins at Pegasus Bridge and the Café Gondree and all five Allied Beaches: Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah. You will visit a Horsa glider, and elements of the Atlantic Wall: the Great Bunker at Ouistreham, and the long range artillery battery at Longues-sur-mer. This complete tour of the Normandy Landing Beaches includes views of the Mulberry Harbor at Arromanches and a stop in Port en Bessin, before assuming the itinerary of the U.S. sector described above.
 You may choose to add a visit to Ste Mere Eglise and its Airborne Museum to either tour of the D-Day Beaches. To also see the Peace Museum in Caen, the Bayeux Tapestry and William the Conqueror's castle, we suggest converting this day tour of the Normandy Landing Beaches into a two-day Normandy tour with an overnight lay-over, which could then be combined with tours of Mont Saint Michel, Honfleur, Rouen or Giverny.
Prices available upon request.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
In the Steps of Monet:
Le Havre, Honfleur, Rouen and Giverny Tour
|
Requite your passion for Monet's art with this exclusive tour, which includes visits to his place of birth, Le Havre, then to Honfleur, Rouen, and to his last home, Giverny.
This Paris Luxury Tour starts by driving you to Le Havre, where Monet grew up and discovered his passion for outdoor painting. This is also where he painted Impression, Sunrise, the tableau that eventually lent its name to an entire artistic movement.
 Our tour continues across the Seine at Honfleur, where Monet visited, lived, painted and returned repeatedly throughout his long career, in the company of many of his Impressionist friends. Honfleur is also an excellent place to stop for lunch, perhaps at the starred Terrasse et l'Assiette Restaurant. We then drive on to Rouen's Notre Dame Cathedral, the central doorway of which the master painted no less than 40 times. See for yourself whether, in this series, the artist captured the essence of an instant for viewers.
We finish this Paris Luxury Tour at Giverny, where you will visit the home inhabited by the master for his last 43 years, as well as the studio in which he worked. You will further visit his beautifully restored gardens, Monet's own creation, which were an endless source of inspiration to him, including some of his most famous works such as his famous water lily and poplar series.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 900 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 1000 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Rouen Tour
|
This tour of Rouen takes you to the capital of Upper Normandy, a city as steeped in French history (especially of the Middle Ages and Renaissance), as it is busy being a bustling modern deep water port. Rouen is the ultimate survivor: of repeated Viking raids unleashed up-river on the Seine, of the One Hundred Years War with England, and, more recently, of the German Occupation.
 This Paris Luxury Tour focuses on Rouen's charming Old Town, with its whole streets of renaissance half-timbered buildings, dating from the 15th through the 18th centuries, which flank one of the most famous cathedrals in the world, and the equally renowned medieval Great Clock. We will show you the remains of the chapel where Joan of Arc was tried and the square where she was executed. We will also visit the cathedral and view the portal that so mesmerized Claude Monet that he felt compelled to paint it over eighty times.
 Walking through Rouen's quaint cobbled streets, you will see that this is also a place of great French names in literature, music and art. History oozes from the buildings, and you can almost picture Emma Bovary emerging from one of them.
We usually suggest combining this tour of Rouen with one of Giverny and/or Honfleur, to complete a full day of touring. See those tour descriptions by clicking on the links in the upper left side of this page.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 850 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Senlis Tour
|
 This tour of Senlis is not simply a visit to an ancient royal city. It is a step back into a long distant past not often accessible to the visitor of modern France, as if you have been taken in your personal time machine to a place where time stood still, long ago. Through its charm and its quaint, narrow and winding streets, you are transported to another era, although perhaps not as far back as when the Capet dynasty was established here in 987. Senlis is the ancient capital of Carolingian kings, who built a fortified town on older Gallo-Roman ruins. Much of the original ramparts and many of the original portals can be visited today
And what better way to see it is there than in a private horse-drawn carriage that takes you to the twelfth century Notre Dame Cathedral, the Jardin du Roy (king's garden) situated in the Gallo-Roman moat, the charming place du Parvis, the old royal castle and the old town?
Paris Luxury Tours usually proposes this tour of Senlis in conjunction with its tours of Chantilly and Compiegne, to make a full one day excursion from Paris (for details, click on those selections on the left side of this page). It is also an ideal place to have a leisurely country luncheon, such as in the intimate dining room of the Bourgeois Gentilhomme restaurant located in the old town
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
St. Denis Basilica Tour
|
This tour of St. Denis Basilica, located just 12 kilometers north of Paris, is fascinating not because of any spectacular architectural accomplishment embodied in its structure, but rather for of its role in  the myth of St. Denis and as a resting place for most of the kings and queens of France. As a symbol of the human drama and strife in the evolution of Christianity and political power in France, St. Denis Basilica has few equals.
St. Denis himself was the first bishop of Paris (then still known as Lutece) who, in preaching the heretical new Christian faith, ran afoul of the Roman administration, and paid for it with his life. St. Denis Basilica honors him.
Centuries later, at the height of the French Revolution, the spiteful revolutionaries disinterred the royal tombs and ordered the contents dumped into the Seine River. Fortunately, they were thwarted. This private tour of St. Denis Basilica delves into these dramatic events, and, in the care of your personal driver/guide, illuminates them.
Paris Luxury Tours usually proposes this tour of St. Denis Basilica in conjunction either with private tours of Notre Dame Cathedral in Amiens and/or Beauvais Cathedral, to make a full day of touring from Paris. Alternatives include pairing with a tour Chantilly Chateau and its park and a tour of the royal city of Senlis. For descriptions of those tours, please click on their links at the left of this page.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Stained Glass at Chartres and Bourges Tour
|
|
Notre Dame Cathedral at Chartres and St.Etienne Cathedral at Bourges constitute the two most important collections of stained glass in France. They are also some of the finest examples of religious texts 'written' in glass, intended to be 'read' by the illiterate visitor.
|
Notre Dame Cathedral at Chartres
|
This tour enlists the support of two of the world's greatest experts in stained glass. It begins in Chartres, where Notre Dame is a virtual encyclopaedia of the many styles of stained glass, primarily constituted in its treasure of 12th century panels and three 13th rose windows. Here your guide will explain that "Stained glass is supposed to reflect the soul of man," and you will be confronted with a remarkable selection of 13th century glass along three levels of the choir, as well as some 14th century stained glass in the west façade and later works in the chapels added in the 15th and 17th centuries. This is the home of 'Chartres Blue' stained glass, so well represented in the Royal Entrance, and in the Notre Dame de le Belle Verriere window.
The full range of early stained glass styles, from small modestly ornamented, to elongated clerestory windows, and vivid coloured rose windows are present here. This cathedral is also as one of the first places where the 'silver yellow' style of 'grisaille' stained glass appears in France, and includes some 14th and 15th century windows.
 This Paris Luxury Tour will then drive you two hours away to the ancient royal city of Bourges, capital of the old province of Berry, where you can stop for lunch at the starred Abbaye St.-Ambroix restaurant. After, we will visit the High Gothic St. Etienne Cathedral. Here your guide will explain that "Stained glass is supposed to reflect the soul of man," and you will be confronted with a remarkable selection of 13th century glass along three levels of the choir, as well as some 14th century stained glass in the west façade and later works in the chapels added in the 15th and 17th centuries.
This is the home of "The Annunciation" window, one of the masterpieces of Renaissance stained glass.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 850 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Versailles Chateau and Park Tour
|
When Louis XIV set the architect Le Vau, decorator Le Brun and landscape artist Le Notre to work on creating the Chateau at Versailles, he had a lot on his mind. Not least was simultaneously impressing and imprisoning, in a golden cage, the nobility that gave him such a fright when he was a child living at the Palais Royale in Paris. This tour of the chateau and park of Versailles not only takes you to see them in all their glory, it also provides insights into the psychology that gave rise to them. From hunting lodge to site of the most spectacular festivities, Versailles for centuries was the measure of power and luxury for the entire world, and the Sun King meant it that way. This Versailles tour also drives you through Le Notre's magnificent park to visit the Trianons and Marie Antoinette's flight from gilded reality, her pastoral village.
Paris Luxury Tours usually conducts this Versailles tour in the afternoon after an earlier morning Vaux le Vicomte tour (both chateau and park). To really understand Versailles, it helps a lot to visit the predecessor, where the same Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Notre first exercised their talents. Seeing Vaux as Louis XIV first did evokes his fulgurant jealousy and adds another insight into the many reasons for creating Versailles.
To separate the two tours, we can take you to one of the hundreds of fine country inns that can be found between Melun and Versailles, for a delightful and affordable luncheon in the country.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Vaux le Vicomte Tour
|
Before his death, Mazarin warned Louis XIV to beware the ambition of Nicolas Fouquet, the Sun King's finance minister; and the latter took the warning to heart. Fouquet effortlessly spent only five years (1656-1661) in creating his country home masterpiece, Vaux le Vicomte, an astonishing feat under the circumstances. Not only did Fouquet fill in the valleys between three villages (without bulldozers) to accomplish this feat, he also discovered and launched Louis le Vau, the architect, Charles Le Brun, the decorator, and Andre Le Notre, the landscape artist, all of whom were essential to its creation.
Vaux le Vicomte was by far the most splendid and sumptuous country home in Europe when an unsuspecting Louis XIV was invited to the celebration of its opening in 1661. Outdone by his own minister, livid Louis lost no time putting Fouquet in jail (his trial for embezzlement began 19 days later). He also requisitioned the three artists responsible for Vaux and lost no time in embarking on the creation of an even more astonishing chateau at Versailles.
Paris Luxury Tours usually pairs this tour of Vaux le Vicomte in the morning with an afternoon tour of the Chateau of Versailles (and its park) in the afternoon, because the two chateaux are so intertwined in their histories and creation. Lunch at any one of hundreds of delightful country inns between Melun and Versailles is a pleasant way to relax between the two visits. You will be driven to both chateaux effortlessly and professionally by a bilingual driver/guide who intimately knows the history of both.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 800 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
Includes driver/guide, luxury vehicle, fuel and tolls.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
Vezelay Basilica Tour
|
|
Perched on a hillside over-looking a vast Burgundian panorama, the romanesque Sainte Madeleine Basilica at Vezelay is the site of one of the most tranquil and dreamy landscapes in the world. |
A visitor to Vezelay is often suffused with a sense of peace that seems to emanate from the site itself. Once you are exposed to it, you will want to return.
This tour of Vezelay requires just over a two hour drive from Paris, but it transports you into another age, one of pilgrims performing homage at the church that shelters the relics of Mary Magdalene. Vezelay is associated with a Benedictine order, but it also had ties to Assisi.
The present structure was undertaken in 1150 and finished in 1215. It contains one of the most remarkable assemblages of 12th C. sculptures in the world.
Vezelay is also closely associated with the Crusades: it is where the second crusade was decided, where Philippe Auguste and Richard the Lion-hearted met to depart on the third, and where Saint Louis made several pilgrimages before embarking on the seventh.
Paris Luxury Tours usually proposes this guided tour of Vezelay in conjunction with its tour of Bourges, to make a complete one day excursion from Paris. Almost as worthy of homage is the nearby fabulous Esperance restaurant with its precious three stars in Michelin. Their luncheon set-meal is one of the greatest bargains in the world of gastronomy.
Cost for 1-3 persons: 850 € per group
--- for 4-6 persons: 950 € per group
100 €/hour surcharge applies beyond 8 hours.
Meals, entry fees, drinks not included.
Please fill out our contact form with your exact requirements.
|
|
HOME 
TOURS HOME
CONTACT US 
LINKS 