Depart From: Overnight in transit

Morning: Arrivals at Charles de Gaulle airport and independent transfers to the program hotel in Paris. Please note that rooms are not generally available until early to mid-afternoon, so you should plan to drop off your luggage at the hotel and then take some time to explore Paris or relax and have a leisurely lunch (on your own). There are Paris maps available at the hotel, and your Group Leader and hotel staff will be present to provide recommendations and directions.

Afternoon: Check in at your hotel and take the afternoon to unpack and relax. In the early evening you will meet with your group at the hotel for introductions, a review of the program itinerary and site orientation.

Dinner: In a nearby restaurant.

Lodging: Villa Beaumarchais

Meals Included: Dinner

Note: Walking and standing up to two miles over the course of the day. Use of Paris Metro to return to the hotel.

Breakfast: In the hotel breakfast room.

Morning: LECTURE: “Impressionism and Its Place in Art History”. FIELD TRIP on a private motorcoach: an overview of Paris that focuses on the places frequented or painted by the Impressionists.

Lunch: At the Musée D’Orsay.

Afternoon: FIELD TRIP: Explore the Musée D’Orsay with your Art Historian Study Leader. The museum houses French Art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography and the masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Return to the hotel on the Paris Metro.

Dinner: In a nearby restaurant.

Lodging: Villa Beaumarchais

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Note: Transportation by Paris Metro which involves walking and unavoidable stairs. Walking and standing in the museum. Montmartre is on a hill; there is some walking up hill, at a leisurely pace.

Breakfast: In the hotel breakfast room.

Morning: FIELD TRIP: Using the Paris Metro, head to the Orangerie Museum. Famous for housing Monet’s Water Lily murals, the museum also exhibits masterpieces from the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume Collection, featuring Cézanne, Renoir, Picasso, Rousseau, Matisse, Derain, Modigliani, Soutine, Utrillo and Laurencin. Continue to Montmartre to walk the winding streets of this “village” where many Impressionists lived and worked.

Lunch: At La Bonne Franquette, the restaurant famous for having been the meeting point of artists such as Pissarro, Sisley, Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, Monet, Zola and Vincent Van Gogh.

Afternoon: Continue the field trip as you step inside the Sacred Heart Basilica, where the murals covering the walls and ceiling are made up of millions of tiny mosaic tiles. Take some time to explore Montmartre independently before returning to the hotel by Metro.

Dinner: Your choice to explore local fare.

Lodging: Villa Beaumarchais

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Note: Transportation by Paris Metro. Walking and standing for up to two miles over the course of the visit.

Breakfast: In the hotel breakfast room.

Morning: Free Morning. You may wish to explore your historic neighborhood – the Marais, or take in another museum.

Lunch: Take the Metro to a restaurant near the City Island and the banks of the Seine River.

Afternoon: Walking Lecture: "Seine River, source of Inspiration for the Impressionists" Follow in the footsteps of artists to understand how the Seine River played an important role in Impressionist art. ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Board a river cruise excursion boat to view Paris from a different perspective. Observe the reflection of light and buildings upon the water, the movement of the clouds and imagine the perspectives of the artists. Afterwards, take some time at leisure to stroll along the quays or visit Notre Dame Cathedral.

Dinner: Your choice to explore local fare. Perhaps pick up a crepe or a sandwich and enjoy a “pique-nique” as you watch the boats on the Seine.

Evening: PERFORMANCE: Enjoy a classic music concert in the awesome setting of the Sainte Chapelle. Return to the hotel by Metro.

Lodging: Villa Beaumarchais

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Note: Walking and standing in the museum for up to 1.5 hours. Travel by motorcoach. Walking on unpaved paths in Giverny. The Rouen hotel is situated in the heart of the historic center, which has limited access for motorcoaches. There is a walk of 0.34 miles (about 7 minutes) from the drop-off point, to the hotel. Your luggage is carried from the coach to your hotel room and back by porters.

Breakfast: In the hotel breakfast room.

Morning: Departure by coach to Rouen. First, a FIELD TRIP explores the Marmottan Museum, housing the works of Claude Monet and friends, including his painting “Impression at Sunrise” that gave its name to the Impressionist movement. LECTURE ON SITE: “Monet and the birth of Impressionism”. Depart Paris to Normandy. Lecture En Route: "The Influence of Japanese Art on Impressionism".

Lunch: In a local restaurant.

Afternoon: FIELD TRIP to Giverny, Monet’s house and garden with its famous water lily pond. Take some free time to explore the gardens at your leisure or walk over to the musée des impressionnismes (former Giverny Museum of American Art.) Continue to Rouen.

Dinner: In a local restaurant.

Lodging: Mercure Rouen Centre Cathedrale

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Note: Walking and standing for up to two miles during the visit. Walking on cobble stone and paved streets.

Breakfast: In the hotel breakfast room.

Morning: LECTURE in the hotel: "The Search for Light in Normandy". FIELD TRIP on foot through the historic center of Old Rouen. Admire the half-timbered houses, the square where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake and the Cathedral, captured in all its shades and angles by Monet.

Lunch: Enjoy Norman cuisine and learn about the typical ingredients used in its preparation.

Afternoon: Free Time

Dinner: Your choice to explore local fare.

Lodging: Mercure Rouen Centre Cathedrale

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Note: Travel by motorcoach. Walking and standing on cobble stone and paved streets.

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel

Morning: FIELD TRIP: Depart by private motor coach for a full day exploration of Honfleur and Etretat. Honfleur, situated across the river from Le Havre, guards the mouth of the Seine estuary about 120 miles from Paris. The town shimmers in reflected coastal sunlight, and it was to capture this purity of light that 19th Century artists escaped from their workshops in the capital and flooded downstream. Normandy became the cradle of Impressionism, and Honfleur a favorite base. The town's timber-framed houses, slate-grey facades, buttermilk-white beaches and Wedgwood blue skies are portrayed in paintings by Monet, Courbet, Cals, Dubourg, Boudin, Bazille, Corot, Sisley and Jongkind. Explore the paintings of local son, Eugene Boudin at the small museum that bears his name. Stroll down the street to the church of Sainte Catherine, one of the largest wooden churches in Europe and admire the view of the Old Port.

Lunch: Your choice to explore local fare.

Afternoon: Continue to Etretat, whose white limestone cliffs and arching formations are depicted in paintings by Monet and Jongkind. Return to Rouen.

Dinner: In a local restaurant.

Lodging: Mercure Rouen Centre Cathedrale

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Vincent van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise and the High-Speed Train to Provence

Note: Travel by motorocoach. Walking up to two miles on cobblestone and paved streets. Travel by train (2.75 hours). No baggage handling is available in the Avignon train station; you must be able to handle your own baggage at the disembarkation. The Hotel du Forum in Arles is located in the heart of the historic center, which is not accessible by coach. Luggage is transported for you from the main boulevard to the hotel, a 7-10 minute walk.

Breakfast: In the hotel breakfast room.

Morning: Depart to Paris. LECTURE en route: “From Daubigny to Van Gogh”. FIELD TRIP to Auvers-sur-Oise, where we pay tribute to Vincent van Gogh’s last days. Walk in van Gogh’s footsteps, along the streets of the town to view places where he planted his easel: the church of Auvers, the house of the painter Daubigny, the house of his friend Doctor Gachet, and the field where he painted his last work, “Wheat Field With Crows” (1890).

Lunch: In a local restaurant.

Afternoon: Continue to Paris Lyon Train Station to board the TGV (High-Speed Train) to Avignon, and then continue by motor coach to Arles, arriving in time for dinner.

Dinner: In a local restaurant.

Lodging: Hotel du Forum

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Note: Travel by motor coach. Walking and standing on cobble stone streets. No coaches are allowed in the historic centers of Arles nor Aix-en-Provence.

Breakfast: In the hotel breakfast room.

Morning: FIELD TRIP on foot through the historical center of Arles, including the café painted by Van Gogh, the Roman Amphitheatre, Antique Theatre, The Cryptoportico and the medieval cloister of Sainte Trophime. Depart to Aix-en-Provence. LECTURE en route: “Paul Cézanne’s Provence”. FIELD TRIP: Explore the studio where Cézanne painted. Cézanne had this studio constructed in 1901, and it is where he created the masterpieces of his final period, including the Large Bathers. A true shrine to Cézanne, the studio-museum, surrounded by a romantic garden, keeps the artist’s memory intact.

Lunch: In a local restaurant.

Afternoon: Free time to explore Aix-en-Provence before returning to Arles.

Dinner: Your choice to explore local fare.

Lodging: Hotel du Forum

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Note: Travel by motorcoach. Walking on cobble stone and paved streets. Walking and standing in the museum. Walking in the market.

Breakfast: In the hotel breakfast room.

Morning: FIELD TRIP to the Provencal village of Saint-Remy-de-Provence, where van Gogh spent the second to last year of his life, after being forced to leave Arles. Stop just outside of the village to take a look at Glanum, an oppidum, or fortified town, founded in the 6th century BCE, containing two Roman monuments of the 1st century BCE, a mausoleum and a triumphal arch. Arrive in the heart of Saint-Remy and wander through the weekly open air market, filled with local products and typical scenes of everyday life.

Lunch: Your choice to explore local fare.

Afternoon: FIELD TRIP to St. Paul de Mausole hospital, where Vincent van Gogh was a self-admitted patient from May 1889 to May 18890. During much of his stay, he was confined to the grounds of the asylum, and painted the landscapes found outside his window and in the local area, including “Starry Night”. Return to Arles.

Dinner: In a local restaurant.

Lodging: Hotel du Forum

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Note: Your luggage will be transported from the Hotel in Arles to where the motorcoach is permitted to pick up passengers on the main boulevard, a 7-10 minute walk.Travel by motorcoach (3 hours plus stops en route.) Walking and standing in the museum.

Breakfast: In the hotel breakfast room.

Morning: Depart to Nice, with rest stops en route.

Lunch: Sample the flavors of Provence: Local produce and cheese, with a wine tasting.

Afternoon: FIELD TRIP: In the medieval village of Haut-de-Cagnes, explore the Renoir collection presently housed at the Grimaldi Castle Museum. Continue to Nice.

Dinner: In a local restaurant.

Lodging: Hotel Nice Riviera

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Note: Walking on unpaved ground, cobble stone and paved streets. Walking and standing in the museum.

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel

Morning: LECTURE in the hotel: “19th and 20th Century Painters on the Riviera”. Learn how the beauty, light and mild winters attracted artists and their impact on the world of art on the Riviera. FIELD TRIP to the Matisse Museum, situated on the hill of Cimiez, in the Hotel Regina where Matisse lived. The museum houses a collection of works left to the city of Nice, where he lived from 1918 until 1954. Return to the center of the city to walk through Old Nice.

Lunch: Your choice to explore local fare.

Afternoon: Free Time

Dinner: Farewell Dinner in a local restaurant.

Lodging: Hotel Nice Riviera

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Breakfast: In the hotel breakfast room.

Morning: Departure transfer by motor coach to Nice International Airport.

Meals Included: Breakfast