LA FRANCE - 2010

15 days incl. air, or 14 days from Paris to Paris (RA)

Return to France Vacations

Vacation Overview

This is the ideal vacation for an in-depth exploration of France! Begin with a 2-night stay in Paris that includes guided sightseeing of all the famous landmarks and a bird’s-eye view of the city from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. Via Rouen—where Joan of Arc was burned in 1431—visit Caen, the Normandy landing beaches, Bayeux to admire Queen Matilda’s tapestry, and monumental Mont St. Michel. Pass through Châteaubriant and in the Loire Valley, visit Chambord and Chenonceau Castles. In picturesque St. Emilion, attend a wine tasting before continuing to Bordeaux, the walled town of Carcassonne, and Nîmes. On to Pont du Gard, Avignon, and the film festival town of Cannes to Nice. Head north through the French Alps to Grenoble. In Lyon, enjoy a panoramic view from Fourvière Hill and enter Burgundy for an overnight in pretty Dijon. Board the high-speed TGV train back to Paris for the end of your tour.

Things to see on your vacation: View Vacation Photo Slideshow

A Vacation Story Notre Dame Cathedral

Europe’s most famous cathedral, whose twin Gothic towers loom above France’s most beloved river, the Seine, actually owes a lot of its international success to the author Victor Hugo. Back in 1831, when Hugo wrote his classic novel about a hunchbacked bell-ringer at Notre Dame who falls in love with a beautiful gypsy, the medieval cathedral had fallen on hard times. During the Revolution in 1789, it had been seized, looted of its treasures and converted into an atheistic “Temple of Reason.” Even worse, after the monarchy was restored in 1815, Notre Dame was used as riverside warehouse – its once-splendid glass windows now dimmed and its facades decaying pathetically above the Île de la Cité. But Parisian’s indifference to their landmark ended suddenly in 1831, when Victor Hugo published his romantic novel the “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” (called “Notre-Dame de Paris” in French). The book was an international bestseller and lured armies of tourists to Paris in search of its Gothic cathedral setting. Hugo used this groundswell of public interest to lobby the French government for renovations of his beloved Notre Dame. From 1845 to 1864, repairs were indeed carried out – the clogged medieval streets nearby were cleared, revealing the marvelous edifice we see today.