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Scott "Serge" Bernhard - tour director |
We just love this part. "Dinner next to Lake Annecy" in 1999.
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Scott "Serge" Bernhard - tour director |
S & E Tours LLC is a company that specializes in small scale tours for lovers of small French villages, fine French food and fine French wines. Our tours have a maximum of 26 participants which travel France in small buses. "Serge", who teaches French, and "Elroi", who teaches art, at North Seattle Community College are the tour leaders.
S & E Tours LLC has generally been doing only one tour every two years for a special group of travelers. Our activities have usually included bicycling, hiking, sketching, playing boules, singing around a few bottles of wine and generally having a great time. The "Villages of France" was adopted by the Continuing Education Division of North Seattle Community College for travel promotion in 2007. We try to pick locations that are little visited by the common American tourists and enjoy exploring regions for their local flavor.
The Guides of S & E Tours LLC
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"Serge" has been a teacher of French and head of the Language
Department at North Seattle Community College for many years. Although
he teaches Spanish along with French, he adores France and speaks
French as a native Parisian. He has led many tours of France both
independently and as a tour guide for other companys. "Serge" is an
accomplished musician and entertainer who brings his guitar along on
the trips for frequent song fests into the night. He has written books
on French language for the traveler and is an avid historian of French
culture. |
 Elroy |
"Elroi" has been an art teacher for thirty-four years and
head
of the Art Department of North Seattle Community College for about 27
years. He has traveled world-wide but likes France best of other
European countries. "Elroi" has worked with "Serge" on several trips to
the Dordogne, Provence and the Luberon. He handles the teaching of art
history, watercolor and sketching techniques. He was a featured "artist
in action" in a film on travels in Provence. See his watercolors here. |
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The tour begins in Paris and travels to the Champagne
region. After appropriately
tasting the great champagnes of the Reims we go north to Brugge and
Ypres, Belgium then into Luxemborg. After a night there we move
back into the Alsace region of northeastern France. Several
days here tasting more wines and
visiting castles and forts in these battle storied hills. We go south
through Ornans, the village home of Courbet tasting wines and cheese.
Winding roads and major mountain chains give us opportunities to see
places that only bikers like Lance Armstrong will love. We go down
through Moustier and Gorge de Verdun to end in one of our favorite sea
ports, Villefranche-sur-Mer.
Photos of key sites
and preview
of the entire tour on this page. |
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We start the tour in Chartres,
only a short train trip from Paris. From this jumping off point
we can easily get to the chateaux of the Loire River valley. We
leisurely tour our way southward to the Dordorgne and Perigord
region where we will see Paleolithic art, marvelous castles, and lush
landscapes. On our way south we go into the less visited Tarn
Gorges before arriving in the port city of Cassis. We then circle
back northward into the ancient Roman settlement of Vaison-la-Romaine
where we can hike the hills or drink the wine. Annecy is
next and sits on a large lake at the foot of the Alps where we have
memorable meals and time for swim. We will be sure to stop at the
wineries in Burgundy from our walled city of Semur-en-Auxois.
Although the tour ends here we will be taking anyone who wants a short
free ride back to the big city of Paris. Photos of key sites and preview of the entire tour on this page. Easy to print version of the entire tour on this page.
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