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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.
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 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. Easy to print version of the entire tour on this page.
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The region of the Dordogne is one of the most important areas of France. It is the center of Paleolithic period of French history. Only a few miles from one cave art center to another and we would expect to visit several of them. Also nearby is the 12c pilgrimage city of Rocamador (at left). Through here travelers from far and wide would stop for prays and food on their way to San Juan Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Vaison-la-Romaine is in the northern part of Provence still only a brief trip to Arles and St. Remy where Van Gogh and Gauguin worked. Vaison is a old Roman town that has a later Medieval castle constructed by the Counts of Toulouse. The city today is not on many tourists routes and therefore maintains its own laid-back French cultural charm. There is much great wine and food in the region along with one of the great Sunday markets France. |
