Scott "Serge" Bernhard - tour director Elroy "Elroi" Christenson - managing director

"Belgium and Eastern France"
(click for enlarged image for each)

Day 1 - August 25 Mon. - Paris We will gather and begin this tour in Paris.

Days 2 - August 26 Tues. - Reims (the Champagne region) Leaving Paris this morning, we'll head north to visit the château/museum of Chantilly with its impressive art collection and enormous stables.  After a nice picnic, it's back on the road to Compiègne and a brief visit to the spot where the armistice was signed to end WWI and where Hitler forced the French to surrender in June of 1940.  A short hop away from Compiègne lies Reims, the capital of the Champagne region and our home for the next two nights.  After checking into our hotel, you'll be free to wander the town before our group dinner or participate in some pre-dinner "boules" in the park across the street.	Reims Cathedral
Champagne Region	Day 3 - August 27 Wed. - Reims, France This morning we'll take a walking tour of Reims, including its impressive cathedral where most of the kings of France were crowned.  After lunch we will take a short trip south to Epernay through the National Park of the Montagne de Reims (it’s really more like a big hill) and through the vineyards that produce the grapes for the great champagnes of France.  We’ll visit one of the oldest and most pretigious wineries in the region – Moet & Chandon – where the legendary Dom Perignon first discovered bubbly.  Free time back in Reims.  Boules anyone?  Art class / French class?  Dinner on your own.
Day 4 - August 28 Thurs. - Bruges(this is the local spelling, you'll also see this as Brugge), Belgium On the way into France we will stop at Ypres and the monuments of WWI. There were more casualties and destruction in Ypres than anywhere else during World War I. It's incredible to compare the photos of the rubble that remained after the war to the reconstructed town. Day 5 - August 29 Fri. - Bruges, Belgium After a guided tour of Bruges, possibly a canal ride, and visit to a chocolate factory, you'll have the afternoon free to hang in Bruges.  Art class, French lessons.	Yepres WWI Memorials Bruges canals
Francious and Gerdje	Day 6 - August 30 Sat., Genk, Belgium As promised two years ago, Francois' wife, Gerdje, and he will give us a special mussel feed this evening in this small mining suburb of Brussels, Genk. You will find this dinner something special. We have previewed the mussels which proved to be incredible along with their friends.

Day 7 - August 31, Sun. - Luxembourg The schedule for this morning is still a bit up in the air.  We may be doing our brewery visit this morning, but we'll probably be making a beeline for the beautifully situated Luxembourg City, capital of the Grand Duchy.  After checking into our hotel, we’ll take a short tour of the city and visit some of the "casemates," the amazing underground network of passages dug into the cliffs below the city.  You'll then be free for wandering and dinner on your own.  Sleep one night in Luxembourg City.

Day 8 & 9 -  Sept. 1 & 2 Mon & Tue -  Obernai, northern Alsace region, France Out of Luxembourg we go toward northern Alsace, we'll stop at Simserhof gun emplacement for a tram tour and history lesson about the Maginot line.  We'll continue east to the ruins of Fleckenstein castle near the border with Germany. Fleckenstein view spot	Obernai
Day 9 - Free in Orbernai, time for art,  French, wine tasting.  Also available is bike riding. Day 10 Sept. 3, Wed -  Ribeauvillé, - Today we head south through the Alsatian vineyards to villages that haven’t expanded their boundaries in hundreds of years.  On our way we’ll visit the heavily restored, but impressive nonetheless, castle of Haut Koenigsberg.  You'll be free to wander and have lunch in the unbelievably cute and flowery Riquewihr before we go on to Ribeauvillé, another gorgeous Alsatian village on the "Route du vin," where we'll spend our last night in Alsace.  (You may remember that we originally had planned to go to Strasbourg.  Unfortunately, nobody took our itinerary into consideration when they planned the early September session of the European parliament.  The roads into and out of Strasbourg will be jammed with notables, tourists and police; restaurants, hotels and streets will be packed.  We elected to avoid Strasbourg.)	Ribeauvillé
Ornans                                      Chateau-Chalon for wine	Day 11 - Sept 4, Thurs.  -  Lons-le-Saunier/Chille We go from one wine area to another. We pass by the lion sculpted by Bartoldi ( sculptor of the Statue of Liberty) Ronchamp designed by Le Corbusier. Ornans is the birth place and spiritual center for Gustave Courbet. As one of the most important artists of the 19th century, precusor to Impressionism. This is an important pilgrimage for many artists.

Beaume-les-messieurs

Day 12- Sept 5, Fri. -  Lons-le-Saunier/Chille On the full day out of Chille we’ll start with a visit to the perched village of Château-Chalon which also happens to be the mecca for lovers of the famous “vin jaune” (yellow wine) of the Jura region.  After a wine tasting with one of the local vintners, we’ll walk a few blocks through the village to sample the the products of one of the  local comté cheesemakers.  Baume-les-Messieurs, spectacularly situated at the juncture of three glacially-formed blind valleys, will be our next destination where we'll have lunch and visit the village and its medieval Abbey.  Art/French class before dinner.

The old town in Annecy	Day 13  - Sept 6, Sat. -  Annecy  The villages are tucked into limestone canyons that have been carved out by the rivers over millenium.  From the Comté cheese tasting and lunch we will visit the cave of Beaume-les-messieurs and the medieval abbey in the town
Day 14 - Sept 7, Sun.-  Annecy We'll stay here at the foot of the Alps on a beautiful lake.  Annecy has won the prize as most beautiful village of France so many time that they are no longer allowed to compete.  Shopping is everywhere here.  We'll also have a fondue dinner here as a local specialty.  Some may want to take the train to visit Chamonix on a day trip or a boat trip to Menthon Saint-Bernard, the birth place of the patron saint of Alpine travelers.  Art lessons, French lessons are available along with paddleboat race on the lake in the afternoon.	The old town in Annecy

	Day 15 - Sept 8, Mon. Vaison-la-Romaine We'll head south out of Annecy for the Vaucluse region of France stopping in Pérouges for a walking tour of a beautiful cobblestoned village.   Vaison-la-Romaine is an old Roman town in northern Provence that has been overbuilt and added onto many times up to the 20th century.
Day 16 - Sept 9, Tue. Vaison-la-Romaine Tuesday market is one of the biggest and best in Provence.  You can choose to spend your entire morning at the market, or you may want to leave mid-morning for a hike over the hill of the Dentelles de Montmirail.  The hikers will have the option of stopping in the vineyards for another wine tasting on their way to meet the rest of the group for lunch on a shaded terrace just outside of the wine village of Gigondas.  We will also schedule an afternoon visit of the Roman town in Vaison with a local guide for those who haven’t yet seen it or those who would like to see it again.  Art/French class.  Boules. Dinner on your own tonight.	Market Day in France
Day 17-18 - Sept 10 - 11 Wed. & Thur. Villefranche-sur-Mer We'll wind our way through it on our way down to the autoroute du soleil that will take us to Villefranche-sur-Mer. There is a great deal to explore here on the Mediteranean.  The region was the home to Matisse, Picasso, Renior and many others.  The hill towns of Eze, Roquebrune, La Turbie are worth exploring not just for the view.	Villefranche-sur-mer
Villefranche-sur-Mer from Eze	Day 19 Sept. 12, Fri.- Tours ends after breakfast. An easy taxi ride to the Nice airport, as many of you know.