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Prefer an Italy Performance Tour? |
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Day 1 : Overnight flight to Paris-Nice |
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Depart for flight to Paris and then to Nice. Meals on plane. |
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Day 2 : |
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Welcome to Nice! Upon arrival at Nice airport you will be welcomed by your tour escort |
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Guided city tour of Nice, including a visit of the stunning Russian Orthodox Cathedral and the Monuments des Morts. Opened in 1912, thanks to the generosity of Tsar Nicholas II, it is the largest Russian Orthodox cathedral outside Russia. The Monument des Morts is a monument to France's war dead, found at the base of Colline du Chateau (Castle Hill) across from the Port of Nice |
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Welcome dinner – included. Overnight Nice. Possible hotel: Mercure Grimaldi |
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Day 3 : Arrival Nice |
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Morning free time to visit the markets in Nice |
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Follow the Moyenne Corniche, (the road runs east from Nice to Menton on the Italian border) to the village of Eze and visit (depending on time of arrival, visit will be before or after lunch) the Fragonard Parfume Factory. |
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Continue journey to Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, a small sovereign city-state. The Grimaldi family has ruled over Monaco since 1297. The old city is located on a rocky promontory extending into the Mediterranean, known as the Rock of Monaco, where the palace is located. Monaco is the world's most densely populated sovereign country, and the world's smallest French-speaking country with a total area of 3/4 square miles a land border of a land border of 2.7 miles |
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Return transfer from Monaco to Nice. Overnight Nice |
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Day 4 : Nice /Cassis / Aix-en Provence |
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Depart for Aix-en Provence, with stop in Cannes for lunch on your own |
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Second stop will be at cheese farm, for cheese-tasting and explanation of the process |
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PM: Cassis- Upon arrival, enjoy a 1 hour cruise (5 calanques) through the Calanques. Calanque is a geologic formation in the form of a deep valley with steep sides, typically of limestone, in part submerged by the sea |
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Dinner in Aix-en Provence – included. Overnight Aix-en Provence |
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Day 5 : Aix-en Provence |
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Tour of Aix |
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Visit Calissons factory. Calissons are a traditional French candy consisting of a smooth, pale yellow, homogeneous paste of candied fruit (especially melons and oranges) and ground almonds topped with a thin layer of white icing (royal glaze). (demonstration +tasting) |
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Afternoon cooking class (demonstration + semi-hands on and tasting): Max 35 people. |
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Remainder of day free to spend enjoying Aix |
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Enjoy group dinner at local restaurant. Overnight Aix-en-Provence |
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Day 6 : Aix-en-Provence – TGV Paris |
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Morning visit of (one of) the markets of Aix. The "big" markets of Aix take place three times a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays) in the city center squares: Place des Prêcheurs and Place de la Madeleine and in the surrounding areas (Encagnane, Jas de Bouffan...).
Afternoon TGV from Nice to Paris; check-in to hotel. Possible hotel: Mercure Gare de Lyon |
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Dinner at your hotel – included |
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Visit the Eiffel Tower, an iron tower built on the Champ de Mars beside the Seine River in Paris. The tower has become a global symbol of France and is one of the most recognizable structures in the world. Named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Paris. More than 200,000,000 people have visited the tower since its construction in 1889 making it the most visited paid monument in the world. Including the antenna, the structure is 1,063 ft high. When completed in 1889 it was the world's tallest tower — a title it retained until 1930 when New York City's Chrysler Building (1,047 ft tall) was completed. The tower is now the fifth-tallest structure in France and the tallest structure in Paris. The structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution. Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years, meaning it would have had to be dismantled in 1909. The City had planned to tear it down but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiration of the permit. The military used it to dispatch Parisian taxis to the front line during the First Battle of the Marne, and it therefore became a victory statue of that battle. |
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Overnight in Paris |
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Day 7 : Paris |
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Enjoy walking tour, including visit of Notre Dame Cathedral. Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. It was restored and saved from destruction by Viollet-le-Duc, one of France's most famous architects. Original construction began in 1163, during the reign of Louis VII. Notre Dame de Paris was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress [arched exterior supports]. The building was not originally designed to include the flying buttresses around the choir and nave, but after the construction began and the thinner walls (popularized in the Gothic style) grew ever higher, stress fractures began to occur as the walls pushed outward. In response, the cathedral's architects built supports around the outside walls, and later additions continued as such. The cathedral suffered desecration during the radical phase of the French Revolution in the 1790s, when much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. During the 19th century, an extensive restoration project was completed, returning the cathedral to its previous state. Under the 1905 French law on the separation of Church and State, Notre Dame remains state property, like all cathedrals built by the Kingdom of France, but its use is granted to the Roman Catholic Church |
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Afternoon visit to the Louvre. Nearly 35,000 objects from the 6th millennium BC to the 19th century AD are exhibited over an area of 652,300 square feet. The museum opened on August 10, 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings. The size of the collection increased under Napoleon when the museum was renamed the Musée Napoléon. After his defeat at Waterloo, many works seized by Napoleon's armies were returned to their original owners. The collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and gifts since the Third Republic, except during the two World Wars. As of 2008, the collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; and Prints and Drawings. The Louvre Palace is an almost rectangular structure, composed of the square Cour Carrée and two wings which wrap the Cour Napoléon to the north and south. In the heart of the complex is the Louvre Pyramid, above the visitor's center. The museum is divided into three wings: the Sully Wing to the east, which contains the Cour Carrée and the oldest parts of the Louvre; the Richelieu Wing to the north; and the Denon Wing, which borders the Seine to the south. In 1983, French President François Mitterrand proposed the Grand Louvre plan to renovate the building and relocate the Finance Ministry, allowing displays throughout the building. Architect I. M. Pei was awarded the project and proposed a glass pyramid for the central courtyard. The pyramid and its underground lobby were inaugurated on October 15,1988. The second phase of the Grand Louvre plan, La Pyramide Inversée was completed in 1993 |
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Optional evening concert event |
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Day 8 : |
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Morning transfer by coach to guided visit of the Versailles Palace, one of France’s foremost tourist attractions. The palace, however, still serves political functions. From 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789, the court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France. Versailles is famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancient Régime. By moving his court and government to Versailles, Louis XIV hoped to extract more control of the government from the nobility, and to distance himself from the population of Paris. All the power of France emanated from this centre: there were government offices here, as well as the homes of thousands of courtiers, their retinues, and all the attendant functionaries of court. By requiring that nobles of a certain rank and position spend time each year at Versailles, Louis XIV prevented them from developing their own regional power at the expense of his own and kept them from countering his efforts to centralize the French government in an absolute monarchy. The meticulous and strict court etiquette that Louis established, which overwhelmed his heirs with its petty boredom, was epitomized in the elaborate ceremonies and exacting procedures that accompanied his rising in the morning, known as the Lever, divided into a petit lever for the most important and a grand lever for the whole court. Like other French court manners, étiquette was quickly imitated in other European courts. After the death of the Louis XIV in 1715, the five-year old king Louis XV, the court, and the Régence government of Philippe II d’Orléans returned to Paris |
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Afternoon guided panoramic coach tour of Paris |
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Free time at the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the most prestigious avenue in Paris. With its cinemas, cafés, and luxury specialty shops, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets in the world, and with rents as high as $1.50 million a year for 1000 square feet of space, it remains the most expensive strip of real estate in Europe. The name is French for Elysian Fields, the place of the blessed in Greek mythology. The arrival of global chain stores in recent years has slightly changed its character, and in a first effort to stem these changes, the Paris City government (which has called this trend "banalisation") decided in 2007 to ban the Swedish clothing chain H&M from opening a store on the avenue. In 2008, however, American clothing chain Abercrombie & Fitch was given permission to open a store |
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Seine River Cruise |
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Day 9 : |
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Morning visit of the Orsay Museum exhibiting mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography, and best known for its extensive collection of impressionist masterpieces by such painters such as Monet, Degas, Renoir, and Cezanne. |
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Continue to Montmartre; enjoy the remainder of the day free in this fascinating quarter. A part of the Right Bank, Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit. The other, older, church on the hill is Saint Pierre de Montmartre, which claims to be the location at which the Jesuit order of priests was founded. Many artists had studios or worked around the community of Montmartre such as Salvador Dalí, Modigliani, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh |
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Farewell dinner: Butte en Vigne (including an accordionist) |
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Day 10 : Departure |
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Breakfast at hotel – included; early checkout |
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Departure to the airport for your return flight |
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WELCOME HOME! |
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* All clinics and performances are based on availability and acceptance. |
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OPTIONS: |
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“Recontres de la Villette” (Paris) Two-week festival. The line-up consists of hip-hop dance, theatre, gigs, performances and workshops
Hands-on cooking workshop: (max 15 pax in 1 group) |
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Inclusions: |
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Motorcoach transfers from Incline Village, to & from San Francisco Airport |
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Roundtrip air from SFO non-stop to Paris |
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8 night accommodation in 3 star hotels based on triple rooms with private facilities |
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Daily continental breakfast |
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Daily 3-course dinners excluding drinks |
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Tour manager throughout |
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Private luxury coach for all transfers according to itinerary, including all costs |
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TGV train from Aix-en-Provence (1 way, 2nd class ticket from Aix-en Provence directly to Paris |
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2 metro day pass Paris |
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Local guides: Nice, Paris (2x), Versailles |
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Entrances of: Parfurmerie (free), Russian Orthodox cathedral, Eiffel Tower, Seine River cruise, Eiffel Tower Versailles Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, Louvre Museum, Orsay Museum |
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Visit of Calisson factory in Aix-en Provence |
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Calanques 1 hour cruise |
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Visit and tasting at Cheese Farm |
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Cooking Class/workshop (demonstration!+ semi-hands-on workshop + tasting) |
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Evening concert Paris |
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Driver’s daily tip; tour leaders’ daily tip |
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On Trek staff representative |
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All admissions, taxes, and gratuities per itinerary |
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Insurance and financial protection |
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Tiered pricing note: Tiered pricing gives you a smaller price per student as your group grows to fill more of your bus. At about 90 days before travel, we review your group for tiered pricing. Counting those who are on schedule with payments, we will decrease your price if you’ve reached a lower tiered price. Trips are usually billed on a higher tiered price. We hope for price decreases, rather than increases. Should you reach a lower tier, you and your group may decide to add something to the trip rather than have a price decrease. If there are overpayments, they are refunded before the trip travels. |
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Trip tuition is based upon three variable factors which may increase or decrease the final price: 1) the actual cost of airfare when booking flights; 2) the rate of exchange between the U.S. dollar and the Euro, and 3) the number of paying passengers. Trip price will be refigured at 90, 60 and 45 days prior to departure. If group falls outside of minimum group size, On Trek retains the right to recost the tour based on actual passenger count.*** |
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* Subject to availability, audition, and acceptance.
"People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas,
at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean,
at the circular motion of the stars,
and yet they pass by themselves without wondering."
~ St. Augustine |
View our site map / Contact us for more information
Our Travel Support Staff are available by phone from
8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Pacific Time, Monday through Friday.
Toll Free: 877-613-717
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Tips for planning your trip |
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