Paris, the Côte d'Azur and Barcelona

Paris, the Cote d'Azur and Barcelona
Explore both the bustling, ultra chic streets of Paris and the pristine beaches and sparkling waters of the Mediterranean Côte d’Azur, and experience Barcelona’s famed Las Ramblas with its dynamic street performers and lavish flower stalls.
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Day 1 Overnight flight to France (Paris)
Day 2 Bonjour Paris
Paris city walk
Île de la CitéNotre-Dame CathedralÎle St. LouisLatin Quarter
Dinner in Latin Quarter
Details: Meet your tour director and check into hotel
Your 24-hour Tour Director will meet you at the airport and remain with your group until your final airport departure. You’ll also have a private coach and driver while touring .
Details: Paris city walk
This city was made for walking. Stroll grand boulevards with sweeping views of the city, pristine parks with trees planted in perfect rows, and narrow streets crowded with vendors selling flowers, pastries and cheese. Then head to the Île de la Cité, a small island in the Seine, to see Notre Dame Cathedral. Please note Notre Dame Cathedral is currently closed due to fire damage.
Details: Notre-Dame Cathedral
View the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Work began in 1163 on a spot that had been a holy shrine since Roman times. Over the centuries, the cathedral has been the scene of some of France's most momentous occasions, including the coronation of Napoleon.
Details: Louvre visit
The world's largest art museum, the Louvre is housed in a Medieval fortress-turned-castle so grand it's worth a tour itself. You walk through the 71-foot glass pyramid designed by I.M. Pei and added in 1989, and step into another world--one with carved ceilings, deep-set windows, and so many architectural details you could spend a week just admiring the rooms. The Mona Lisa is here, as well as the Venus de Milo and Winged Victory (the headless statue, circa 200 BC, discovered at Samothrace). The Louvre has seven different departments of paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures and antiquities. Don't miss the Egyptian collection, complete with creepy sarcophagi, or the collection of Greek ceramics, one of the largest in the world. (Please note the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays.)
Day 3 Paris
Paris guided sightseeing tour
Arc de TriompheChamps ÉlyséesEiffel TowerChamp de MarsÉcole MilitaireLes InvalidesConciergerieTuileries GardenPlace VendômeOpera House
Optional  Versailles guided excursion (pre-book only)  $80
State ApartmentsHall of MirrorsGardens of Versailles
Details: Paris guided sightseeing tour
What's that huge white arch at the end of the Champs-Élysées? The Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 after his victory at Austerlitz. Your licensed local guide will elaborate on this, and other Parisian landmarks. See some of the most famous sites, including the ornate, 19th-century Opera, the Presidential residence, the ultra-chic shops of the Rue du Faubourg St-Honoré, and the gardens of the Tuileries. You'll pass the Place de la Concorde, where in the center you’ll find the Obelisk of Luxor, a gift from Egypt in 1836, and the Place Vendôme, a huge square surrounded by 17th-century buildings. Spot chic locals (and tons of tourists) strolling the Champs-Élysées. Look up at the iron girders of the Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 World's Fair to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution. See Les Invalides (a refuge for war wounded), the École Militaire (Napoleon's alma mater), and the Conciergerie (the prison where Marie Antoinette was kept during the French Revolution).
Details: Tuileries Garden
Tuileries was originally the name of an old tiles factory. Yet, in the sixteen century, the queen of France, Marie de Medicis, ordered to build a castle with a long French garden at this place. Parisians used to call this new building the Tuileries Palace. During three centuries the garden was exclusively reserved for the court and the King. During the nineteen century, the Tuileries palace became the residence of Napoleon I, Louis XVIII, Charles X, Louis-Phillipe and Napoleon III. In 1871, Parisians burnt down the castle of Tuileries, during the last French Revolution and the insurrection of Paris.However, the garden kept its 17th-century design and became a popular place, always crowded in summer time.
Details: Seine River cruise
See the city from the water on an hour-long cruise along the River Seine. The Seine cuts right through Paris, dividing the city in half. See the Eiffel tower rising up on the Left Bank, the walls of the Louvre on the Right Bank. A guide will point out other monuments and architectural marvels as you pass, many of which are illuminated by clear white light at night.
Day 4  Paris--Côte d'Azur
Travel to Nice on the TGV (one of Europe’s fastest train)
Day 5 Monaco, Èze & Nice
Monaco & Èze tour director-led sightseeing
Prince’s PalaceParfumerie visit in Èze
Details: Monaco & Èze tour director-led sightseeing
On the Mediterranean coast, five miles from the Italian border, lies the tiny, glittering independent state of Monaco. Ruled by the Grimaldi family since the 13th century, Monaco is the epitome of French Riviera glamour. Your Tour Director will lead you on this brief adventure. Charles III opened a casino in the 1850’s to avert financial straits; needless to say, his plan worked--so well, in fact, that Monaco is a nearly tax-free state. Drop in on Prince Rainier (OK, see his house, the Palais du Prince), and visit a parfumerie in nearby Èze, where rich scents are made from local flowers such as jasmine, rose, and lavender.
Details: Nice tour director-led sightseeing
The Côte d'Azur's largest city spills down the hillsides to pebble beaches that line the shore. Your Tour Director will show you around the narrow pedestrian streets and tiny squares of "Le Vieux Nice" (Old Town), which is sprinkled with old palaces and mansions. Stroll down the Promenade des Anglais, which runs parallel to the water. Backed by Nice's grand hotels, the Promenade was built in the 19th century for the British who flocked here en masse.
Details: Promenade des Anglais
Stroll The Promenade des Anglais, named for the English who paid for it, is a seven kilometer walkway along the seafront. Called "La Prom" by locals, it's the best place to people-watch.
Day 6 Côte d'Azur--Provence
Travel to Provence
Provence tour director-led sightseeing
AvignonPont du Gard visitNîmes amphitheater visitLes Baux de Provence
Details: Provence tour director-led sightseeing
Lush lavender fields, olive groves, terra-cotta roofs, and ochre walls lit by golden sunlight...Your Tour Director will guide you through the splendor that is Provence. Explore legacies of the Roman Empire like the Pont du Gard aqueduct, a sophisticated work of engineering that is intact after more than 2,000 years, and visit the Nîmes amphitheater. Built by the Romans, it was once the site of gory gladiator and animal combat, and is still used today for performances and bullfights (some things never change). See the medieval ruins of Baux-de-Provence, a fortress sitting in the Alpilles mountains that was once used to protect the three bordering villages.
Details: Pont du Gard visit
A true masterpiece of ancient architecture, the Pont du Gard aqueduct is one of the most beautiful Roman constructions in the region. Discover more about this startling monument as you follow the course of its history through the ages.
Day 7 Provence--Barcelona
Details: Travel to Barcelona via Collioure
Imagine a perfect jewel of a Mediterranean village, bright boats bobbing on azure water and pastel houses providing shade from a lollipop sun. You’re in Collioure. Hidden between the Pyrenees and the sea, this laidback town has combined the best of Spanish and French resort cultures to become the perfect relaxation spot (and a former favorite of both Matisse and Picasso).
Details: Tapas dinner
Tapas purportedly originated when bartenders set a small plate (''tapa'') over patrons' glasses of sherry and wine to keep the flies out. The bartenders starting piling the plate with cold cuts, olives, or salad, and the bite-size snack was born. (We're unsure how they kept the flies out of the cold-cuts... maybe that's how the sandwich was invented?) Over time these working-class snacks have become more elaborate, with each region adding its own specialties and cooking techniques to create unique tastes and combinations.
Day 8 Barcelona landmarks
Barcelona city walk
Mercat de la BoqueríaLas RamblasColumbus Monument
Details: Barcelona guided sightseeing tour
See brilliant Barcelona, a city of graceful Gothic churches, wrought-iron balconies and wide, grand avenues filled with outdoor cafés. Throughout the city, daringly innovative buildings sit side-by-side with the medieval past. A licensed, local guide will show you some of the high points of this architectural showcase. First stop, the pointy spires of the La Sagrada Familia (Church of the Holy Family), a half-finished church complex that became the obsession of Barcelona's famously eccentric architectural genius, Antoni Gaudí. At the top of Güell Park, another of Gaudí's masterpieces, is a terraced area where you get a wonderful view of the park and Barcelona City. The vibrant colors of the tiles are breathtaking. Then step back to the past with a journey up to Montjuïc (Hill of the Jews), a fortress built atop an ancient Jewish cemetery. This was the site of numerous battles to control Barcelona, and also the location of the 1992 Olympics.
Details: Montjuïc Hill visit
Explore Barcelona’s mountain of Montjuïc, the focal point of two of the city’s key international events: the World’s Fair of 1929, of which many structures still remain; and the 1992 Olympic Games. Montjuïc features the largest "green zone" in the city with miles of forests and parks.
Details: Park Güell visit
Spend time in Parc Güell, part of the UN ESCO World Heritage Site, 'Works of Antoni Gaudi'. Designed primarily by Gaudí, particularly interesting areas of the park include a mosaic pagoda, a lizard fountain spitting water, an undulating bench decorated with ceramic fragments, and an array of unique Doric columns, which are hollow and serve as part of Gaudí's drainage system.
Details: Barcelona city walk
Flowers, pedestrian boulevards, and decorative pavement make Barcelona a great walking city, and your Tour Director will show you where to stroll. See the Mercat de la Boquería, where the bright colors of fruits and vegetables, spices, fresh seafood and meat -- not to mention about a hundred different types of cheese -- vie for space in the market stalls. In the city center you'll see the Monument a Colom, a towering statue of Christopher Columbus. Gaze at the city stretched out before you, the mountains in the distance, and the Mediterranean Sea at your back. Then it's on to the best walk in the city, Las Ramblas, a mile-long pedestrian street that offers up the carnival of urban Barcelona. Have your palm read or browse through the strip's famous open-air shops. Enough walking for one day? Pull up a chair, order a café con leche, and watch the parade of street performers from your seat.
Details: Las Ramblas
Stroll along Las Ramblas, Barcelona's most colorful and interesting street. This pedestrian mall extends almost a full mile and is lined with shops, cafés, and markets.
Details: Paella dinner
Paella is a Valencian rice dish with ancient roots that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century near Albufera lagoon on the east coast of Spain.
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Day 9 Flight home from Barcelona

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    Day 9 Start extension to Madrid
    Travel to Madrid via Zaragoza
    Basilica of the Virgin of Pilar visit
    Day 10 Madrid landmarks
    Details: Madrid guided sightseeing tour
    Get a taste of Spain's cultural, political and economic center with a tour led by a licensed local guide. See Madrid's mix of traditional and modern as you visit the Royal Palace, an 18th-century masterpiece. The enormous Baroque palace currently has more rooms (2,800) than any other European palace, but it was originally supposed to be four times as large. The palace is dripping with porcelain, jeweled clocks, amazing ceiling frescoes—the most magnificent, in the Throne Room, was done by the Venetian artist Tiepolo when he was in his seventies. Next take a look at the Neoclassical architecture of the Prado Museum and the Puerta de Alcalá triumphal arch, built to honor Carlos III’s entry into Spain.
    Details: Gran Vía
    Stroll down the Gran Via, Madrid’s lively signature boulevard featuring magnificent shopping and cafés.
    Details: Cibeles Fountain
    The Fountain of Cybele, one of the most recognizable fountains in Madrid, depicts Cybele, a Phrygian earth and fertility deity.
    Details: Puerta de Alcalá
    See the Puerta de Alcalá, the ceremonial gateway to Madrid commissioned by Carlos III. The Neo-classical structure is located in the Plaza de Independencia and is named for the old path leading from Madrid to nearby Alcalá de Henares.
    Details: Royal Palace visit
    Browse through the 3,418 rooms in the largest palace in Europe. Art lovers will marvel at the walls lined with priceless paintings, but don’t expect to catch a glimpse of the Spanish royal family—they reside elsewhere.
    Details: Madrid city walk
    Life in Madrid is centered around talking, toasting and tapas-eating. In a walk through this crowded and social city, your Tour Director will help you get to know the lay of the land. Then stroll over to the Puerta del Sol, the bustling city center. Next, you'll relax at the Plaza Mayor, a grand square where every sort of human drama has taken place—trials of faith, public burnings of heretics, royal marriages, the canonization of saints, and countless balls and bullfights. End at the Plaza de España for a stop at an outdoor café.
    Details: Puerta del Sol
    Explore the Puerta del Sol, one of Madrid's busiest and most historic squares. While here we will view the Kilometre Zero marker, from which all distances in Spain are measured, and Madrid’s symbol, the Madrono.
    Details: Plaza Mayor
    Spend time in the Plaza Mayor, Madrid's most famous square. Throughout its long history the square has hosted markets, bullfights, soccer games, public executions, and the Spanish Inquisition. It is now ringed by shops and cafés and is often filled with artists and musicians.
    Details: Plaza de España
    The Plaza de España is a popular place to gather in Central Madrid. It features a large monument to Miguel de Cervante, author of Don Quixote.
    Details: Reina Sofia Museum visit
    Officially recognized as Spain’s National Museum of 20th Century Art, The Sofia—as it is more commonly known—is home to an impressive collection from Spain’s two greatest 20th century masters. Hosting works of both Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, it’s no wonder that The Sofia has risen to such a prominent place in the world of art. Certainly the most famous piece in the museum is Picasso’s Guernica, but in addition to this wonderful masterpiece, you’ll also find a vast library, archive, bookstore and restaurant.
    Day 11 Toledo
    Details: Toledo guided excursion
    Long the spiritual capital of Spain, Toledo still captures the heart with its spectacular surroundings of ochre-colored mountains. El Greco created some of his greatest works here, including his most famous painting, "The Burial of Count Orgaz." You’ll also see the city's cathedral, St. Mary's Synagogue, and the Church of Santo Tomé.
    Details: Toledo Cathedral visit
    Walk to Toledo Cathedral, considered one of the greatest Gothic structures in Spain. The cathedral actually reflects several architectural styles and features many art treasures, including: the Transparente, a Last Supper in alabaster, El Greco's Twelve Apostoles, and works by Juan de Borgona. The Treasure Room features a 500-pound, 15th Century gilded monstrance, allegedly made with gold brought back from the New World by Colombus. It is still carried through the streets of Toledo during the feast of Corpus Christi.
    Details: Church of Santo Tomé visit
    Make a brief visit to the Iglesia de Santo Tomé, where you will view El Greco's masterpiece, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz.
    Details: St. Mary’s Synagogue visit
    Visit The Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca, the oldest intact synagogue building in Europe. As it was constructed by the Christian Kingdom of Castile and designed by Islamic architects for Jewish use, it is considered a symbol of cooperation among the three religions.
    Details: Flamenco evening
    Originating from gypsy music and dance in Southern Spain, flamenco dancing has become a Spanish institution. Dancers use intricate footwork and elaborate arm gestures to convey the mood of the music, which can range from lamentation to celebration. Learn about the history of Flamenco, watch dancers perform and give it a whirl yourself!
    Day 12 Flight home from Madrid
    Map of Paris, the Cote d'Azur and Barcelona Educational Tour
    Tour Includes:
    • Round-trip airfare
    • 7 overnight stays (10 with extension) in hotels with private bathrooms
    • Full European breakfast daily
    • Dinner daily
    • Full-time services of a professional tour director
    • Guided sightseeing tours and city walks as per itinerary
    • Visits to select attractions as per itinerary
    • High-speed TGV train to Nice
    • Tour Diary™
    • Local Guide and Local Bus Driver tips; see note regarding other important tips
    • Note: On arrival day only dinner is provided; on departure day, only breakfast is provided
    • Note: Tour cost does not include airline-imposed baggage fees, or fees for any required passport or visa. Optional excursions, optional pre-paid Tour Director and multi-day bus driver tipping, among other individual and group customizations will be listed as separate line items in the total trip cost, if included.
    We are better able to assist you with a quote for your selected departure date and city over the phone. Please call 1.888.310.7120 to price this tour with your requested options.
    Please select a postal code
    3807.00 total fee
    Basic Options


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