Normandy

Tours

Escape the busy city and visit the enchanting home and gardens of the famous impressionist painter Claude Monet. Stroll through the beautifully landscaped gardens with your knowledgeable guide and learn more about the flora as well as the importance of the gardens in Monet's paintings.  Meet with your small group (max. 9 people) and your guide before entering the gardens. First, visit the water garden with the water lilies that inspired many of his paintings and then the 'Clos Normand'. Your guide will point out different species of flowers and features of the garden. As you wander through the gardens and visit Monet's house also learn more about Claude Monet's life, and why he became the master of impressionism.  At the end of the tour, you can stay longer to stroll on your own or take a look in the big gift shop before you exit. From early spring till the first days of November, Monet's gardens are a fairy of colors and fragrances. Feel free to ask your guide about the picturesque village of Giverny and what more there is to see.

Explore the village of Mont Saint Michel, located on a picturesque tidal island, with a licensed local tour guide. First, meet your guide and take the shuttle bus to the village, where you will learn more about its history during a 2-hour walking tour. Walk the narrow cobblestone streets of the village along the Grande Rue on the way up to the Abbey. See the parish church of Saint-Pierre, surrounded by a cemetery, housing a silver statue dedicated to Saint-Michel. Stroll along the ramparts and enjoy the beautiful views of the coast and a stunning panorama over the bay. Choose to include an entrance ticket to the Abbey, to explore it at your own pace.

Depart Paris and travel by luxury air-conditioned coach to the amazing fortified city of Mont Saint-Michel off the Normandy coast. Sit back and relax and get stunning views of the countryside along the way. Stop for a break at a nearby village that dates back to the days of the Normans, and stroll the winding streets and narrow pathways to find the best views of the bay. Continue to the mouth of the Couesnon River, where Mont-Saint-Michel was built on an islet just a few hundred meters from the mainland. Explore the fantastic architecture and remarkable monuments of the walled city at your own pace. Climb along the ramparts to make your way up to the abbey at the top of the town. Built in the 11th century by William of Volpiano, the monument has played a vital role in the history of the commune and feudal society it represents. Depart Mont-Saint-Michel in the late afternoon and drive back to Paris to get dropped off at the starting point.

Enjoy a half-day trip to the former home of Claude Monet, one of the most famous painters of French Impressionism. Located in the tiny hamlet of Giverny on the banks of the River Seine, 50 miles west of Paris, the house and gardens were bequeathed to the Académie des Beaux-Arts by his son in 1966. They were opened as a public museum in 1980 following large-scale restoration work. Depending on the option you choose, your tour will either be guided, audio guided or at your own leisure.  Depart Paris and travel by comfortable air-conditioned coach. As there is no direct public transport to Giverny, this is the ideal way to get there. You will drive via the western districts of Paris and take the Normandy motorway as far as Bonnières. After crossing the River Seine at Vernon, continue to Giverny through the wooded plateaus of Eure. Giverny attracted several Impressionist painters in the 19th-Century, most following the lead of the movement’s founder, Claude Monet, who lived there for 43 years. During the tour, you will visit the Master’s house, where the spectacular colors and enchanting garden were designed like a work of art. Be dazzled by the flowerbeds and plants and get a sense of the artist’s feelings and inspirations as you stand in front of the famous water lilies and weeping willows in the delightful water garden.

Visit Mont Saint-Michel on a guided day trip from Paris. Discover the highlights with your guide before taking an audio-guided tour of Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey. Enjoy some free time after to explore on your own. From Paris, board a private bus to the island of Mont Saint Michel. On the journey, listen as your guide provides interesting stories from the history of the abbey. Follow your guide on an orientation tour to ensure you see the most important attractions, including the hilltop Abbey of Mont Saint Michel. Enjoy a few hours at your leisure to explore the abbey and soak up the splendor of its interior with an audio guide tour, or stroll in the picturesque streets. Choose from a variety of lunch options ranging from dining rooms with rustic meat to sophisticated restaurants with bay view terraces specializing in seafood. Or, stop by one of the Mont Saint Michel's creperies to feast on galettes (buckwheat pancakes) with Normandy cider. In the late afternoon, board the bus for a return journey to Paris.

Stroll the streets of the charming village of Giverny and discover the grave of Claude Monet in the churchyard. Then, skip the long lines to Monet's house and gardens to hear the story of the artist's life and how he led the Impressionist movement from the village between 1883 and 1926. Learn how artists such as John Singer Sargent, Paul Cézanne and Mary Cassatt joined him in the sleepy village to form an unofficial artists’ colony. Be enchanted by the ponds and gardens that inspired his paintings, and see the Japanese bridge and lilies of the Oriental water garden Savor the scent of flowers in season, such as wild roses, hollyhocks, poppies and honeysuckle. Admire the water lilies and weeping willows, instantly recognizable from his classic paintings and look inside the thatched roof house to find the cheerful kitchen and his collection of 18th and 19th century Japanese prints.

Explore the beautiful village and home in Upper Normandy where the Impressionist artists, Claude Monet spent the last 40 years of his life. Visit the charming village of Giverny, and discover why it proved such a source of inspiration for Impressionist artists. Following your transfer from Paris, look inside the house where Monet lived and worked. Set within an exquisite valley of the River Seine, the gardens and surroundings formed a great part of the subject matter for his paintings after he moved there in 1883. Once your have seen the rooms where the artist lived with his family, stroll through 2 unique gardens that Monet designed and modified throughout his life. See more than 100 different types of flowers, and intertwined foliage in Monet’s Flower Garden. Then, feel as if you have stepped into one of his paintings in the Japanese Garden. Go to the lake full of water lilies, and getter a better appreciation of why Monet used this garden as the inspiration for over 250 of his paintings.

Meet your guide at Place de Québec and then begin your D-Day exploration adventure, retracing history as you uncover the day of June 6, 1944. The first stop of the tour is Omaha beach, where the deadliest landings of the day took place. From your guide, learn about the landings here and the soldiers who risked their lives. After Omaha, visit Utah beach, the second location where American troops landed on D-Day. Next, visit the US military cemetery and for the chance to pay respect and honor the soldiers of World War ll. The tour continues to Point du Hoc next, a breathtaking cliff offering lunar landscapes and a magnificent viewpoint over the English Channel. The site was built as a key point of the Atlantic Wall by the Germans because it was the highest point between the Omaha and Utah beaches and provided a great observation spot to notice any arrivals from the sea. Your D-Day sightseeing tour of Normandy ends with a visit to the village of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, the heart of the jump zone for the 82nd Airborne U.S. forces. Listen to stories of how paratroopers rained on the village, and how one of them famously got caught in the tower of the church. With options for both half- and full-day tours, tailor your experience to your meet interest and schedule.

Visit Monet’s Giverny estate and the Palace of Versailles on this day tour from Paris by air-conditioned coach. Stop at the Monet Foundation for a short introduction to the estate. Take a walk around the lily pad pond and visit the artist’s ivy-clad house. Take a lunch break in town before the short drive to Versailles, a perfectly preserved example of French royal extravagance. Skip the lines at Versailles on your guided tour of the rooms where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette threw lavish soirées. Visit the private royal chambers. Enjoy a short tour of the gardens and then explore at your leisure. Depending on the day, you may experience the Fountain Show or the Musical Gardens.

Walk through Honfleur’s picturesque city blocks on a 1.5-hour walking tour with an expert guide by your side. See important historical sites and famous monuments and discover hidden gems loved by locals.  Meet your guide at the old-washhouse (Le Lavoir), next to the tourist office where and begin your walking tour with an introduction to the origins of Honfleur. Next head towards "L'Enclos", where Charles V built fortifications to protect the town against England during the Hundred Years' War. Continue towards the Old Harbour (Vieux Bassin) and stop at the salt warehouses, the butcher shops district, and the prison of Honfleur. Afterward, discover the Lieutenancy and end the tour at St. Catherine’s Church made famous by the shape of its roof and being built solely out of wood.