Tour Code

Arrive Paris

Depart Paris

CHAT

Saturday

Saturday

CHAT 1

28 May

04 Jun

Price: GBP £975 pp twin share     Single Supplement:  GBP £155

Click here to work out prices in other currencies http://www.xe.com/ucc/

TENTATIVE ITINERARY

DAY ONE - SATURDAY

Arrive Paris. You’ll be met at the airport and transferred to our Paris hotel base. You’ll be free for the remainder of the afternoon to explore this great city and to recover from your travels. Dinner is not included this evening, leaving you free to make your own arrangements.

Departing Paris at 0.8.30, we commence our tour with a visit to a palace that perhaps best illustrates the wealth of pre-revolution France, Versailles. Both the gardens and interiors display an ornamentation and lavishness almost beyond the comprehension of the average person. That such incredible riches should have existed also boggles the mind (until we think of Bill Gates!).

We drive westward through lower Normandy stopping at some of the small towns and villages en route choosing from such as Évreux, with its fine stained glass cathedral windows and Roman ramparts, Sées, and the Orne forests around Bagnoles.

Our second day sees us first in Brittany’s Fougères. It's dominated by a 12th century castle and, although this mighty structure was partly demolished by Richelieu, it is still an imposing fortress. Fougères has a pretty town centre and retains a distinctly different cultural feel to it, perhaps as a result of long being the border town between Bretons and Franks.

Our next major stop is Angers, once the capital of the great Angevin (Plantagenet) empire of the 12 century which extended from Scotland to the Basque country. Once again, an imposing castle dominates the mediaeval town.

Another highlight of our stop in this centre of tapestry will be the famed ‘Apocalypse Tapestry’. This amazing, hand-woven, work of art dates back to the late 1300s. There’ll be time here to enjoy a late lunch and to explore the narrow streets of the old quarter or visit museums.

And finally to Saumur, our nightstop.

A word about evenings in France:  our dinners will be taken later than you’re perhaps used to. The French famously take their food seriously and you’ll find our three-course dinners spanning the evening. It’s a civilised time to enjoy not only the excellent food that you’ll find on one of our tours but also some dinner table conversation.

This is our first day on the Loire.

The pretty and peaceful town of Montsoreau makes an excellent base for our explorations of the eastern Loire. Our filled day will include a visit to the local wine caves, seeing the troglodyte hill dwellings, visiting the fine local chateaux at Saumur, and spending time in the wonderfully picturesque Chinon, the 16^th century birthplace of the great comic writer, Rabelais.

Naturally, as this is a Back-Roads Touring Co. tour,  you can expect a few hidden treasures despite this region being one of France’s most visited tourist regions.

The Loire Valley is justly famed for its incredibly rich chateaux. In truth, there are almost too many to choose from! One we shall definitely be visiting today will be Villandry, justly famed for its magnificent gardens. And not far away is the château that reputedly inspired the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ story, Château d’Usee. Believe it or not, there’s even a local château with the largest collection of cadillacs outside of the USA!

We’ll also include the serene Azay-le-Rideau where the Renaissance exterior of the local château is a sight to behold.

The mediaeval Tours is also one of today’s jewels. Some tour participants will enjoy wandering at leisure around the old town, while others may simply find it a time ‘to sit and stare’. As ever, within the framework of a Back-Roads Touring Co. tour, there will be an opportunity of doing either with some ‘organised independence’.

The whole development of secular French architecture, from feudalism to classicism, can be traced at Blois Château. Medieval towers, gothic roofs and walls, Renaissance interiors, sumptuous interiors. They are all here.

It’s almost unbelievable that just a few kilometers away is yet another at Ambois, and a few kilometers further Chambord, the first great, classical French palace. Or perhaps the jewel of Renaissance architecture, Chenonceau châteaux.

There’s even a small palace in Beaugency itself!

There can be little doubt that the palaces of the Loire, set as they are in some of the most splendid gardens, and these set amidst wonderful countryside, will have given you several never-to-be-forgotten days (and several rolls of film or hours of video footage!).

Our final day takes us first through the city of Orléans, made famous, of course, by Jean, Maid of Orléans. We’ll only briefly visit this fairly modern city before driving on the short distance to Chartres.

Here you’ll have time to enjoy shopping in the ancient, picturesque streets. We’ll explore the St-André quarter and some of the fine houses and restored mill-races and laundry-houses.

The undoubted highlight, however, will be our visit to Chartres Notre-Dame Cathedral. Pilgrims have been coming here for eight centuries to admire and seek inspiration from the most magnificent, and certainly most extensive stained glass windows to be seen anywhere in the world.

Tonight we enjoy a farewell dinner together.

Airport transfers or extend your time in the ‘city of light’ until joining (or travel to join) one of our other super French tours. Most departures of this tour combines with our Alsace tour and three departures combine with our Provence tour.

© As we publish full tour descriptions, you may find others offering our unique itineraries.  But, just as you find when others sing the songs of Paul McCartney, they're often not quite as good as when sung by the original composer!