This tour is 12 days, 13 nights in Paris, commencing 13th July, 2020. During the tour, you may wish to do morning or night photography shoots, using stills, video or time-lapse imaging. Those from the Fine Art backgrounds will have the opportunity to do some painting and drawing. There will also be regular group sessions in the courtyard of our hotel to review planned activities. NB: Please note that itinerary may be altered depending on weather circumstances, new temporary exhibitions or closure of sections within the museum venues due to renovations.

We commence our tour with a stroll around Montmartre, looking at some of the key locations were artists such as Renoir, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Modigliani and Picasso worked, lived and frequented the many cafes & bars. Highlights will be – Place du Tertre, Sacré Cœur Byzantine Church, Moulin Rouge, Bateaux Lavoir, Lapin Agile, Theo & Vincent Van Gogh’s apartment, Toulouse Lautrec’s early studio and where Renoir painted ‘Moulin de la Galette’. Free afternoon http://www.montmartreparisfrance.com/english/

We start our walk from St Michel and walk along the river Seine towards Ile de la Cite. We stop and visit the Shakespearean Bookshop and Notre-Dame Cathedral. This cathedral is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic Architecture. We have lunch along the Seine. We then continue our walk through the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district, passing by the famous Art Deco cafes and brasseries such as Cafe de Flore, Les Deux Magots and Brasserie Lipp. In the early years of the 20th Century many famous writers, politicians, musicians and artists frequented them. We complete our day’s journey by crossing two of the most famous bridges along the Seine – Pont Neuf and Pont des Arts.

We start our day by going to Gare St Lazare and walk around Place de L’Europe. Here artists such as Manet, Caillebotte and Monet produced countless paintings. We then travel by train to Auvers-sur-Oise, a semi rural 19th Century village, about 28 Km north of Paris. We will have our ‘Dejeuner sur l’hebre’ – Luncheon on the grass, in the Van Gogh Park, followed by walks to the many of the sites around the township where Vincent used as motifs for his paintings. We visit the Auberge Ravoux and visit Vincent’s room in the attic of the building. We also walk to Dr. Gachet’s house where he painted the famous ‘Portrait of Dr. Gachet’ and the cemetery where Vincent and Theo are buried. This was also the town where Cezanne, Pissarro, Daubigny and Corot spent quite some time painting the rural scenes of Auvers-sur-Oise. http://www.vangoghgallery.com/in_his_steps/auvers.html http://www.auvers-sur- oise.com/

Free Day. This is an opportunity to visit some your own special location(s), monument(s), garden or do some shopping.

An all day visit to the Impressionist museums – L’Orangerie and the d’Orsay. In the centre of Paris along the banks of the river Seine, there are two museums – L’Orangerie fronting Place de Concord and on the left bank –the Orsay. In the L’Orangerie there are the famous panoramic Nympheas paintings by Monet. Across the Seine the once ‘Orsay Railway Station’ built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition by Victor Laloux, is now the Musee d’Orsay – displaying the worlds largest Impressionists collections of art from the period 1848-1914. http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/home.html http://www.musee-orangerie.fr

Morning stroll through the famous rue Montorgueil in Les Halles district. A traditional Parisian shopping area with many tiny shops and open air markets. We then go to Georges Pompidou Centre, which is a Contemporary museum complex in heart of the Beaubourg area of Paris. http://www.centrepompidou.fr

We start our day in St Paul and walk around the Jewish Quarter in the Marais neighborhood. We then stop for a take-away falafel sandwich from the acclaimed Kosher Middle Eastern restaurant L’As Du Fallafel. After our lunch, we will walk to the recently renovated Picasso Museum. http://www.museepicassoparis.fr/en/

This is an opportunity to visit a part of Paris not on the normal tourist destination track, away from the busy city. The Saint-Martin canal is lined with one-hundred-year-old sweet chestnuts and spanned by elegant footbridges. It’s tuely a haven of peace that you can discover in the calm and tranquility of our boat.

We travel by train to Vernon and then stroll through the town of Giverny. We will then visit the beautiful home and garden of Claude Monet. You will also see the famous lily pond at the rear of the property. http://www.fondation-monet.com/fr/

We go to the Rodin Museum to look at the bronze and marble sculptures of August Rodin. Free afternoon.

An all day visit to the Grand Louvre Museum. You will have the opportunity to view the vast collections of Paintings in the Grand Gallerie as well as the Oriental, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities. You will also have the opportunity to visit Napoleon III Apartments, which is an exceptional record of Second Empire decorative art The Louvre is one of the world’s largest museums, and a historic landmark monument in central Paris. http://www.louvre.fr/en

We visit the Pere Lachaise cemetery. This is one of the most famous cemeteries in Paris where some of the greatest writers, painters, actors and musicians are buried. This is an all day visit and it will be an opportunity to visit some of tombstones and monuments of your favourite heroes from the past.

This morning after breakfast we will depart our hotel.