Switzerland & Paris

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Stroll down the cobblestone streets of Zurich and Lucerne before giving traditional Swiss fondue a try. In Geneva you’ll learn about the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum and visit the United Nations European Headquarters and CERN. Make your way to Paris on the TGV to experience the City of Lights.
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Day 1 Start tour
Day 2 Guten Tag Zurich
Meet your tour director and check into hotel
Zurich tour director-led sightseeing
Old Townquays of ZurichBahnhofstrasse
Details: Zurich tour director-led sightseeing
Get out your credit card -- you’re in the capitalism capital of the world. Zurich’s enormous banking system and well-funded residents guarantee fantastic shopping (even if it’s only window shopping!). Explore the city with your Tour Director, who will lead you away from temptation and toward Zurich’s Old Town, a medieval pedestrian zone hugging the Limmat River. On either side of the river stand the Fraumünster and Grossmünster churches, their Gothic towers and amazing stained-glass windows eternally watching over the city.
Day 3 Zurich--Lucerne
Chocolate workshop
Travel to Lucerne
Traditional Swiss dinner
Day 4 Lucerne landmarks
Optional  Mt. Pilatus excursion  $80
Details: Lucerne tour director-led sightseeing
Before a backdrop of snow-capped Alpine mountains and green, cow-filled pastures, join your Tour Director on a trip to Lucerne’s famous sights. Weave your way through a maze of narrow, winding streets until you reach the River Reuss and the Medieval Kapellbrücke Bridge. Stop to marvel at the bridge walls, decorated with murals that recreate the 14th-century originals destroyed in a fire. Journey down the cobblestone streets in the Old Town to see the Löwendenkmal (Lion Monument), the somber sandstone wild cat gazing down into a reflecting pool, and ponder this artfully chiseled statue created to honor the Swiss Guards who died defending the Tuileries in 1792.
Details: Chapel Bridge
One of the city's famous landmarks is Chapel Bridge, or Kapellbrücke, a wooden bridge first built in the 14th century. It has also been voted as the 5th most popular tourism destination in the world.
Details: Lion Monument
View the Lion Monument, or Löwendenkmal, created in 1820 in honor of the Swiss Guards who lost their lives in 1792 during the French Revolution.
Details: Jesuit Church
View the impressive Jesuitenkirche which was the first large baroque church built in Switzerland. The ostentatious baroque style architecture is meant to represent the power and glory of the Catholic tradition.
Details: Weinmarkt and Kornmarkt Squares
Stroll through the picturesque medieval Weinmarkt Square and the Kornmarkt Square in the historical heart of Lucerne.
Day 5 Lucerne--Geneva
Travel to Geneva via Interlaken
Details: The Grindelwald ZipRider
You'll begin your ZipRider journey by riding up the scenic, 3-stage Grindelwald First Gondola. During the summer months, the mountains are covered by what looks like a perfectly manicured green carpet with mountain cows grazing over the landscape. The rugged Alps and glaciers are in view from any direction and the Eiger is visible to the right from the top of the ZipRider®. Once the gates open, customers fly down the mountain, over the ski runs below, at speeds up to 55 mph! The views are spectacular and breathtaking, to say the least.
Day 6 Geneva
United Nations European Headquarters visit
Details: International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum visit
 A museum experience like none-other, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum presents the history of humanitarian action as well as an in-depth analysis of contemporary issues. The main permanent exhibitions, The Humanitarian Adventure, is separated into three main topics Defending Human Dignity, Restoring Family Links, and Reducing Natural Risks, which represent the main challenges faced in today’s world.
Details: CERN visit
Visit the European Organization for Nuclear Research and the birthplace of the World Wide Web. Please note that our standard visit includes a visit of the Universe of Particles exhibition, the CERN grounds and the visitor center. CERN does not permit tour operators and travel agencies to book guided tours of the underground Large Hadron Collider. Schools must arrange their visit directly with CERN as early as possible as it sells out. Tours are only available to students over 13 years old.
Day 7 Geneva--Paris
Travel to Paris on the TGV
Paris city walk
Île de la CitéNotre-Dame CathedralÎle St. LouisLatin Quarter
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.)
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 8 Paris Landmarks
Paris guided sightseeing tour
Arc de TriompheChamps ÉlyséesEiffel TowerLes InvalidesOpera 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 and the Place de la Concorde, where in the center you’ll find the Obelisk of Luxor, a gift from Egypt in 1836. 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) and the École Militaire (Napoleon's alma mater).
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Day 9 Flight home from Paris

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    Day 9 Start extension to Normandy
    Travel to Normandy via Honfleur & Rouen
    Rouen tour director-led sightseeing
    Rouen Cathedral visitOld Clock
    Dinner
    Details: Rouen tour director-led sightseeing
    Like Paris, the port city of Rouen is divided in two by the Seine. Your Tour Director will take you through the medieval cobblestone streets of the city where Joan of Arc was burned in 1431. See the Old Clock surrounded by half-timbered houses and shops, and visit Notre Dame cathedral, a favorite subject of Claude Monet. With its lacy Gothic façade and mismatched spires, Rouen’s cathedral is one of the most compelling in France. Hitler certainly thought so—the first time it caught fire in WWII, he ordered his troops to save it. See the inspired interior, with its columns topped by carved faces, and learn about the history of the church. Fun fact: one of the steeples is called the Tour de Beurre. It was built with money donated by a group of wealthy people who wanted to eat butter during Lent.
    Day 10 Normandy
    Dinner
    Details: Arromanches D-Day Museum visit
    Ingenious military engineering allowed the Allied forces to land at Arromanches on D-Day. Barges towed 600,000 tons of concrete across the English Channel, sinking them to create an artificial harbor, and then 33 jetties and 10 miles of floating roadways allowed the troops to land in France. Learn about this feat and other at the Arromanches Museum, where dioramas, interactive displays, and models detail the Allied landing.
    Details: Normandy D-Day landing beaches
    See the D-Day beaches where on June 6, 1944, thousands of Allied troops landed in an effort to recapture the coast from Germany. All along the beaches, deserted German bunkers have been turned into memorials and the stark white crosses and stars that mark the cemeteries are grim reminders of the war.
    Day 11 Normandy--Paris
    Travel to Paris
    Day 12 Flight home from Paris
    Map of Switzerland & Paris
    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
    • High-speed TGV train to Paris
    • Guided sightseeing tours and city walks as per itinerary
    • Visits to select attractions as per itinerary
    • 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
    4029.00 total fee
    Basic Options


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