Welcome to Enchanting Journeys

There simply is no way to tour Europe and not be awestruck by its natural beauty, epic history and dazzling artistic and culinary diversity. From the thrill of fresh powder on the mountain top to the peace of a twilight stroll through a gorgeous medieval town, Europe is a place that stimulates your sense of curiosity. Through shared history, cultural diversity, and natural beauty, this continent inspires connections, experiences and memories that stretch beyond borders.

Whether you wish for the serenity of a quiet trip in the countryside or the excitement of a music festival, it’s all here in Europe, waiting just for you. In a continent where travel is free-flowing, adventures are limitless.

Ah…France - there is simply no place like it. Encompassing medieval & port cities, tranquil villages, mountains & Mediterranean beaches. Paris, its capital, is known worldwide for its couture fashion houses & monuments like the Eiffel Tower.

Whether you are strolling down a small cobblestone street in Nice, sitting in a cafe in Avignon, or wandering around the streets of Paris, between the food, the wine & the plethora of amazing cafes, a trip to France is always a good idea.

France’s cultural repertoire is staggering - in volume & diversity. World-class art & architecture, outstanding classical art Museums including the iconic Louvre, Roman Temples & Renaissance chateaux seduces with both iconic landmarks known the world over & rising stars yet to be discovered.

And this is where the beauty of la belle France lies: when super stars like Mademoiselle Eiffel, royal Versailles & the celebrity-ridden French Riviera have been ticked off, there is still plenty more to thrill. France is, after all, the world's top tourist destination, with more than 80 million visitors a year, who flock to the land of the Gauls to feast on its extraordinary wealth of Museums, Galleries, Ateliers (artist workshops) & hands-on cultural experiences

Arrive in the enchanting City of Love, one of those iconic cities known all over the world for its quaint cafes, the art, the culture & of course, the many gastronomic restaurants.

After you exit in the Arrival Hall at Terminal? – Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, subsequent to Immigration & Customs, you will be welcomed by The Journeys representative who will ensure your comfort, transfer you to the hotel, help you settle in & provide you with some useful tips for exploring the area as well as discuss the program for the next day.

If, for any reason you are unable to make contact with our representative within 30 minutes of waiting, please call the local Emergency telephone # listed on your Contact List. Please follow the advice given by our 24 / 7 Duty Officer.  Please do not exit the Airport & make your own way to the hotel.

Reach the hotel & Check-in.

*Check-in time is 02.00 pm. For earlier arrivals in the morning, we will request the hotel for a complimentary early Check-in but cannot be guaranteed unless reserved & paid for ‘immediate occupancy’.

Balance of the morning / afternoon is at leisure to relax or independent exploration or optional activities (we shall be happy to offer suggestions & make arrangements). 

City of Love | Iconic Architecture | Culinary Delights | Stylish Shopping

Paris has a timeless familiarity for first-time and frequent visitors, with instantly recognisable architectural icons, along with exquisite cuisine, chic boutiques & priceless artistic treasures - it is no wonder that millions of people flock here every year.

The wrought-iron spire of the Eiffel Tower piercing the clouds, the broad Arc de Triomphe guarding Paris’ most glamorous avenue, the Champs-Elysees, the gargoyled Notre Dame Cathedral, lamplit bridges spanning the Seine & art nouveau cafes spilling on to wicker-chair-lined terraces are indelibly etched in the minds of anyone who’s visited the city - and the imaginations of anyone who hasn’t (yet). But despite initial appearances, Paris’ cityscape isn’t static: there are some stunning modern & contemporary icons too, from the inside-out, industrial-style Centre Pompidou to the mur vegetal (vertical garden) gracing the striking Musee du Quai Branly.

Paris’ dining is iconic: France’s reputation for its cuisine (the French word for ‘kitchen’) precedes it & whether you seek a cosy neighbourhood bistro or a triple-Michelin-starred temple to gastronomy, you will find every establishment prides itself on exquisite preparation & presentation of quality produce, invariably served with wine. Enticing patisseries, boulangeries (bakeries), fromageries (cheese shops) & crowded, colourful street markets are perfect for packing a picnic to take to the city’s parks & gardens. A host of culinary courses - from home kitchens through to the world’s most prestigious cookery schools - offers instruction for all schedules, abilities & budgets.

Parisians are synonymous with style & fashion shopping is the city’s forte. Paris remains at the forefront of international trends, and browsing emerging & established designer boutiques & flagship haute couture houses is a quintessential part of any visit. You will also find uberhip concept stores, quirky homeware shops & resplendent art nouveau department stores, along with a trove of vintage shops & flea markets, atmospheric bookshops (including the dark-green bouquiniste stalls - secondhand bookshop - lining the riverbanks), adorable children’s wear & toy shops, art & antique dealers, venerable shops selling state-of-the-art professional cookware, and, of course, gourmet food & wine shops galore.

With an illustrious artistic pedigree - Renoir, Rodin, Picasso, Monet, Manet, Dalí & Van Gogh are but a few of the masters who lived & worked here over the years - Paris is one of the great art repositories of the world, harbouring treasures from antiquity onward. In addition to big hitters like the incomparable Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay’s exceptional impressionist collection, and the Centre Pompidou’s cache of modern & contemporary art, there are scores of smaller Museums housing collections in every imaginable genre & a diverse range of venues mounting major exhibitions through to off-beat installations.

The City of Love is a place everyone must see at least once in their lifetime. Immerse yourself in the living history of this world-class destination as you stroll narrow cobbled streets with your Tour-guide, visit the vast Palace & gardens of an icon of Parisian grandeur at Versailles, and explore the innumerable landmarks that make Paris the most coveted city in the world.

Stroll the tree-lined Champs-Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe, peruse world-famous artworks in the Louvre with your own personal guide, visit the hushed cathedral of Notre Dame & the Eiffel Tower & indulge in a little boutique shopping in this fashion-conscious city.

Indulge in a meal fit for a king in one of Paris's famous restaurants, or perhaps a cruise or a late-night cabaret show.

Why not begin your discovery of Paris by taking a stroll along some of the charming Parisian avenues & boulevards, shop in charming boutiques or simply people-watch from a Parisian cafe (we would be happy to offer suggestions & make arrangements).

Overnight.   

Morning, you are free to relax or walk around on your own.

Later you will proceed (on your own, we will guide you, how to) & reach the Pick-up point - before 12:00 pm to commence your 4 hour sightseeing tour which gives you an opportunity to discover Paris's famous tourist sights & monuments. Experience the beauty & heritage of the French capital in different ways.

First, you will board a panoramic coach & drive around the city for an hour, learning about the city's history & its well-known monuments, listening to an audio guide commentary on your individual headsets. Commentary in English takes you through the centuries & tells you about the history of Paris & the richness of the city’s cultural, architectural & artistic heritage.

You will drive around ‘some’ unique sights, such as Place de l’Opera Square, Place de la Concorde Square, the Champs-Élysees, the Arc de Triomphe, Place du Trocadero Square, the Invalides, the Pont-Neuf Bridge, the Bastille Opera House & its square, Notre Dame de Paris, the Luxembourg Gardens, and Saint Germain des Pres (all from outside only).

Next stop will be the iconic 1024 feet Eiffel Tower. Here you will have the time to walk around on your own. You will be able to take the elevator to go up to the 1^st floor Observation Deck for uninterrupted views of Paris stretching out as far as the eye can see.  

The Tower was built by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the French Revolution. It took 2 years, 2 months & 5 days to finish & was a veritable technical & architectural achievement, a demonstration of French engineering personified by Eiffel, a symbol of technological prowess & a defining moment of the industrial era. It was met immediately with tremendous success. Only intended to last 20 years, it was saved by the scientific experiments that Eiffel encouraged & in particular, by the first radio transmissions, followed by telecommunications.

An engineer by training, Eiffel founded & developed a company specializing in metal structural work, whose crowning achievement was the Eiffel Tower. He devoted the last 30 years of his life to his experimental research.

His outstanding career as a constructor was marked by a large number of fine buildings, among which 2 of the most outstanding are the twin edifices of the Porto viaduct over the river Douro in 1876 & the Garabit viaduct in the Cantal region of France in 1884, Pest Railway Station in Hungary, the dome of the Nice Observatory & the ingenious structure of the Statue of Liberty in New York, culminating with his final triumph building the Eiffel Tower.  

From the esplanade to the 1^st floor at 187 feet (going higher requires another Admission Fee, extra payment), you will experience a whole series of emotions. Soak in the breathtakingly unique views of Paris from every floor, feel the goose bumps as you walk the glass floor on the 1^st floor, experience the incredible ascent by stairway or lift, the indescribable awe at the tonnes of iron above you as you stand on the esplanade. Vertigo grips you as you leave the lift & see the people down on the Champs-de-Mars & the cars driving along Trocadero!

The Tower’s speciality shops on the esplanade & 1^st & 2^nd floors sell a wide range of products & souvenirs (gourmet, fabrics, home, etc.).

We have also arranged for a memorable lunch at the contemporary trendy Madame Brasserie restaurant on the 1st floor. Taste fresh seasonal produce with our 2 course menu.

On the specified time, you will proceed (on your own, no Tour-guide) to the Pier located at the foot of the Eiffel Tower & step aboard a glass covered boat with an open-air terrace.

Enjoy a fantastic - 1 hour - audio guided cruise along the Seine River. Admire the stunning architecture of the capital's most prestigious monuments that line the banks - pass by the Louvre Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Orsay Museum, the Conciergerie, etc. Be captivated by this river trip under Paris's bridges, past Parisians going about their business as they walk or cycle by. The Boat will return to the boarding point at Eiffel Tower’s Pier where the Tour ends.

And you will find your own way to the hotel.

Balance of the day is at leisure (we will be happy to offer suggestions & make arrangements for any Optional activities).  

Overnight.  L 

Morning, you will proceed (on your own) & reach the Pick-up point - before 08:30 am - to commence your half day 4 hour excursion to the town of Versailles to see one of the most iconic monuments of French history. 

Make the most of the - 45 minute - journey by the luxury coach, listening to the Guide’s introduction to the history of the Palace.

Arriving at the Palace, follow the Tour-guide straight to the front of the line to see the Palace’s most beautiful rooms.

In the mid-17^th century, King Louis XIV - the Roi Soleil (Sun King) decided to transform a hunting lodge in the leafy, bourgeois suburb of Versailles, 22 km southwest of central Paris, belonging to his father, into the monumental baroque Chateau de Versailles, to project the absolute power of the French monarchy, which was then at the height of its glory. Some 30,000 workers & soldiers toiled on the structure, the bills for which all but emptied the kingdom’s coffers. To this day, it remains France’s most famous & grand Palace.

Work began in 1661 when workers flattened hills, drained marshes & relocated forests as they laid out the seemingly endless gardens, ponds & fountains. Painter & interior designer Charles Le Brun & his hundreds of artisans decorated every moulding, cornice, ceiling & door of the interior with the most luxurious & ostentatious of appointments: frescoes, marble, gilt & woodcarvings, many with themes & symbols drawn from Greek & Roman mythology.

Amidst magnificently landscaped formal gardens, the splendid & enormous Chateau became the Kingdom’s political capital & the seat of the royal Court & Government when he moved the capital from Paris to Versailles in 1682.

The next 2 French Kings added their own special touches but the transformation cost was so excessive that the starving French people they revolted in 1789, leading to the French Revolution & the fateful events when revolutionaries massacred the Palace guards & dragged the then King Louis XVI & his wife Marie Antoinette back to Paris, where they were brutally guillotined.

The seat of power moved back to Paris & after 1830, the Chateau was converted into the Museum of the History of France.   

The huge Chateau, with 700 rooms are replete with gilded cornices, frescoed ceilings & carved details, has undergone relatively few alterations since its construction, though almost all the interior furnishings disappeared during the Revolution. The King’s Suite of the Grands Appartements du Roi et de la Reine (King’s & Queen’s State Apartments), for example, includes rooms dedicated to Hercules, Venus, Diana, Mars & Mercury. The opulence reaches its peak in the Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors), a 75 metres long Ballroom with 17 huge mirrors on one side & on the other, an equal number of windows looking out over the Gardens & the setting sun. Many of the rooms were rebuilt later by King Louis-Philippe (r 1830 - 48).

Any visit to Versailles must include seeing the King's Grand Chambers, the Grand Trianon & Marie-Antoinette's famous estate where she went to play at being a simple country girl. Also, admire the spectacular Hall of Mirrors, a unique room in which guests were received & impressed and overlooks the Palace’s breath-taking famously formal gardens with geometrically designed walkways, fountains, canals & terraces.

The section of the vast Gardens nearest the Palace, laid out between 1661 & 1700 in the formal French style, is famed for its geometrically aligned terraces, flower beds, tree-lined paths, ponds & fountains. The 400 odd statues of marble, bronze & lead were made by the most talented sculptors of the era.

Oriented to reflect the sunset, the Grand Canal, 1.6 km long & 62 metres wide, is traversed by the 1km long Petit Canal, creating a cross-shaped body of water with a perimeter of more than 5.5 km. On the southwestern side of the Palace, the Orangerie, built under the Parterre du Midi (Southern Flowerbed), shelters tropical plants in winter. At the eastern end of the Grand Canal, built in 1688, is Apollo’s chariot pulled by rearing horses - Bassin d’Apollon, emerging from the water in the centre.

The Gardens’ largest fountains include the 17^th century Bassin de Neptune, a dazzling mirage of 99 spouting gushers 300 metres north of the Palace, whose straight side abuts a small pond graced by a winged Dragon (Grille du Dragon). On the same days as the Grandes Eaux Musicales fountain displays, the Bassin de Neptune is also activated to flow for 10 minutes.

Northwest of Versailles’ main Palace is the Domaine de Trianon which includes the pink-colonnaded Grand Trianon, built in 1687 for Louis XIV & his family to escape the rigid etiquette of the Court; the ochre-coloured 1760s Petit Trianon, redecorated in 1867 by consort of Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie, who added Louis XVI style furnishings & the 1784 completed Hameau de la Reine, a mock village of thatched cottages where Marie Antoinette played milkmaid. The English-style Jardins du Petit Trianon are more pastoral & have meandering, sheltered paths.

Enjoy your free time strolling through the Gardens of Versailles and admire the 386 works of art (including more than 200 statues), fountains, ponds, flower beds, and trees. During the Summer months, a range of activities are organised, such as the Grandes Eaux Musicales, when the fountains are made to dance to music.

The tour of Versailles concludes & you hop on the bus to return to Paris at the starting point by 12.45 pm.

Immediately, board another vehicle (same Departure Point) & accompanied by the Tour-guide, proceed to see world's largest Museum. Your priority access ticket will allow you to follow your Guide straight into the world's largest museum. No need to stand in line!

This - 2.5 hour - Tour offers the perfect opportunity to learn about the Louvre Museum's huge collection & its greatest works of art, such as the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo & the Coronation of Napoleon.

It isn’t until you’re standing in the vast courtyard of the Louvre, with its glass Pyramid & ornate façade, that you can truly say you have been to Paris.

Spend time discovering these collections with the Tour-guide, who will show you some of the Museum's most famous works & narrate stories that lie behind them.

Holding tens of thousands of works of art - from Mesopotamian, Egyptian & Greek antiquities to masterpieces by artists such as da Vinci (including his incomparable Mona Lisa), Michelangelo & Rembrandt - it is no surprise that this is one of the world’s most visited Museums. The Louvre contains works of art & artisanship from all over Europe as well as priceless collections of antiquities. The Louvre’s raison d’être is essentially to present Western art (primarily French & Italian, but also Dutch & Spanish) from the Middle Ages to about 1848 - at which point the Musee d’Orsay takes over - as well as works from ancient civilisations that formed the West's cultural foundations.

Long before its modern incarnation, the vast Palais du Louvre originally served as a fortress constructed by Philippe-Auguste in the 12^th century; it was rebuilt in the mid 16^th century as a royal residence in the Renaissance style. The Revolutionary Convention turned it into a National Museum in 1793. When the Museum opened in the late 18^th century it contained 2500 paintings & objets d’art; the ‘Grand Louvre’ project inaugurated by the late President François Mitterrand in 1989 doubled the Museum’s exhibition space and both new & renovated Galleries have opened in recent years devoted to objets d’art such as the crown jewels of Louis XV. The Islamic Art galleries are in the restored Cour Visconti.

After your guided tour concludes, the Tour-guide will leave & you can spend time exploring other parts of the Museum at your own pace.

The sheer size of the place can be overwhelming. However, there is an array of self-guided 1½ hours thematic trails ranging from a Louvre Masterpieces Trail to the Art of Eating, plus several for kids (hunt lions, galloping horses). Even better are the Louvre’s self-paced multimedia audio-guides. Conventional English language guided tours depart from the Hall Napoleon Hall, which has free English-language maps. The main entrance is through the 21 metres high Grande Pyramide, a glass Pyramid designed by the Chinese-American architect IM Pei (1917 -2019).

In case you plan to come back again, long security queues outside the Pyramid can be avoided by entering the Louvre complex via the underground shopping centre Carrousel du Louvre, or the Porte des Lions entrance.

Return to the hotel (on your own).

Balance of the day is at leisure to relax or for independent exploration (we would be happy to offer suggestions & make arrangements for any of the Optional program if you want to go out again).

Overnight.   

Today, you have a day at leisure to explore independently (we will of course, be happy to offer suggestions & make arrangements for any Optional activities).

You can start your breakfast with a delicious hot baguette & butter croissants. You can enjoy the village atmosphere between cafes & good food stalls.

Coming to Paris is a taste of the Parisian way of life, synonymous with style & fashion shopping is the city’s forte. Paris remains at the forefront of international trends and browsing emerging & established designer boutiques & flagship haute couture houses is a quintessential part of any visit.

The best way to explore Paris is to start with the Ile de la Cite, the cradle of the ancient Lutece where Notre-Dame de Paris, a jewel of Gothic art, has watched over the Seine for more than 850 years. In the nearby Latin Quarter, the vestiges, Baths of Cluny unfold the thread of ancient history while the streets, Mouffetard in the lead, evoke the Middle Ages.

To get up to speed, nothing like Paris, the smart city! You can smell the wildest trends of urban tourism, between perched vegetable gardens & immersive exhibitions. And one watches for the new places that are inventing themselves, giving the beautiful part to young creators of all kinds, of stylism or night: the Ateliers de Paris, dedicated to the crafts of arts, design & fashion and their ephemeral boutiques, hangars turned into electro clubs or “popu” balls in former Municipal Funeral Home!

In the afternoon, you may take an obligatory break at the Cafe de Flore, the capital of literary Paris.

In the evening, take out your Louboutin pumps to listen to an Opera in the modern setting of the Bastille Opera or under the ors of the Opera Garnier. You can also go to the Moulin Rouge or the Lido to applaud the dancers of the new French Cancan.

Overnight. 

Alas, like all good things, the wonderful experience comes to an end. Time to say to say au revoir to this enchanting country & go home

Check-out of the hotel by 11:00 am (if the departure time is later in the evening, we will request the hotel to allow the usage of the facilities & to leave the luggage at the Bell Desk). 

From the baguette, the bicycle & the beret, to the cutting contemporary edge of art, architecture & fashion, France is a country that dances to the contrasting tunes of tradition & modernity with perfect poise. Steeped in history, but not stuck in it, it delivers the expected & the unexpected in equal measure, making your 50^th visit as fun as your 1^st.

We are sure that this short glimpse will entice you to come back & discover rest of this enchanting destination.

 “Travel is like knowledge. The more you see the more you know you have not seen” - Mark Hertsgaard

In time, you will be met by The Journeys Driver & transferred to Terminal? – Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

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