D-Day London & France

D-Day London & France
Peer inside the war rooms where Winston Churchill lived and worked during the WWII air raids on London. Then, trace the history and influence of modern war at the Imperial War Museum. Journey across the Channel to France and visit the Canadian monument at Vimy Ridge, and walk along the dazzling beaches of Normandy to commemorate fallen Canadian troops.
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Day 1 Overnight Flight to England
Day 2 Hello London
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: London city walk
Step outside your hotel for a stroll through the heart of the English-speaking world. In this city of nearly seven million, you'll see everything from 12th-century fortifications to modern skyscrapers, royal parks to street art. Your Tour Director will lead you to some of the most famous sites. Walk along the Thames River. Cross Trafalgar Square. See bustling Piccadilly Circus. Pass trendy shops and cafés in Bohemian Soho on your way to Covent Garden, a 13th-century fruit and vegetable garden transformed into a maze of narrow streets and pedestrian walkways burgeoning with street performers, open-air markets and boutiques.
Details: Trafalgar Square
See Trafalgar Square, often used for community gatherings and political demonstrations.
Details: National Gallery visit
Visit the National Gallery, which contains an unrivaled collection of Western art spanning seven centuries, from the late 13th to the early 20th. The largest portion of the collection is devoted to the Italians, including works by da Vinci, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto and Botticelli; but the collection also features works by the Spanish giants El Greco, Goya and Velázquez. The Flemish-Dutch school is represented by Brueghel, Jan van Eyck, Vermeer, Rubens and Rembrandt; and there is also an immense French impressionist and post-impressionist collection that includes works by Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir and Cézanne.
Details: Piccadilly Circus
Visit Piccadilly Circus, a shopping and entertainment area brightly lit with video displays and neon signs.
Details: Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House, which itself may be referred to as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centered on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the historical buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the London Transport Museum and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
Details: Leicester Square
Leicester Square is perfectly situated in the heart of London's West End, with Trafalgar Square to the south, Piccadilly Circus to the west, Covent Garden to the east, and China Town to the north.
Details: Cabinet War Rooms with Churchill Museum visit
Explore the basement of the Whitehall building that became the air raid shelter and famous cabinet war rooms of Winston Churchill during WWII. See the fully restored Churchill Suite, where the Prime Minister and his wife lived and worked during the air raids on London and learn about the life history of this heroic man, from his childhood, to his finest hour and beyond.
Details: Classic fish & chips dinner
Nothing’s more British than fish and chips—there are eight fish and chip shops (“chippies”) for every McDonald’s in the country. Head to an authentic pub with your Tour Director for a taste of this national food, generally served with malt vinegar.
Day 3 London landmarks
London guided sightseeing tour
Buckingham PalaceBig BenHouses of ParliamentWestminster AbbeyTower BridgeHyde ParkSt. Paul’s Cathedral
Details: London guided sightseeing tour
Join a licensed local guide for an in-depth look at London, from the royal haunt of Buckingham Palace (the official London residence of King Charles III) to the slightly more democratic Speakers’ Corner of Hyde Park, where anyone can pull up a soapbox and orate to his heart’s content. You’ll see the changing of the guard (season permitting), the clock tower of Big Ben with its 14-ton bell, and Westminster Abbey, where almost every English king and queen since William the Conqueror has been crowned. After a stop at the Houses of Parliament, continue on to the magnificent St. Paul’s Cathedral, the masterpiece of London architect Christopher Wren.
Details: Imperial War Museum visit
Explore this unique museum, dedicated to covering conflicts from World War I through the present. Tanks and aircraft, paintings, letters, films, and other exhibits trace the influence of modern war and its effects on our lives.
Day 4 London--Paris
Paris city walk
Île de la CitéNotre-Dame CathedralÎle St. LouisLatin Quarter
Dinner in Latin Quarter
Details: Eurostar Chunnel crossing
Take the Eurostar under the English Channel. Faster than you can say... anything, in French, you'll whiz through a tunnel and arrive in Paris.
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 5 Paris landmarks
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.
Day 6 Paris--Normandy
Travel to Normandy
Dieppe tour director-led sightseeing
Details: Caen Memorial visit (Peace Museum)
Caen’s Mémorial, a contemporary museum for peace, tells a complete story of D-Day in interactive displays.
Day 7 Normandy
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: Juno Beach Centre, park and bunker guided visit
The innovative Juno Beach Centre is one of the first museums dedicated solely to chronicling Canada's extensive role in World War II. The museum takes advantage of its setting near the D-Day Beaches to show visitors how the landings were accomplished, as well as detailing Canada's contributions to the entire war, both at home and abroad.
Details: Batterie de Merville
Before the amphibious assault on the beaches of Normandy, Allied paratroopers landed behind enemy lines to take out the guns firing on the approaching troops. The Merville Battery was taken out by 150 brave British paratroopers, with protection from the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion. Now, it stands a tribute to paratroops everywhere, and through the exhibit students can even experience the lights and sounds seen and heard on the early hours of June 6th 1944.
Day 8 Normandy--Lille
Travel to Lille
Details: Canadian Military Cemetery visit at Beny-sur-Mer
Pouring onto the beaches of Normandy, Canada's 3rd Division and 2nd Armoured Brigade represented the entire nation, with regiments from Ontario, Manitoba, and Quebec. They secured the beachhead and held on against six days of counterattacks, when more troops were able to come ashore at the secured sight. The Beny-sur-mer Canadian War Cemetery contains more than 2,000 graves of the soldiers from the 3rd Division and the 15 airmen lost during these attacks.
Day 9 Lille--Paris via Vimy Ridge
Vimy Ridge Memorial visit
Vimy Trenches visitVimy Tunnels visitMemorial Museum visit
Travel to Paris
Details: Vimy Ridge Memorial visit
Visit Vimy Ridge and the World War I trenches and tunnels. View the endless graves made famous in the poem 'In Flanders Fields'. The Canadian War Monument is the largest monument from World War I honouring the Canadian soliders who lost their lives.
Details: Vimy Trenches visit
Learn the meaning of trench warfare at the reconstructed trench line at Vimy Ridge. Stand where Canadian troops fought in the spring of 1917, and see the view of how little land stood between them and their German enemies. See the frontlines of the Canadian Corps victory that helped shape Canada’s national identity.
Details: Wellington Quarry visit
Travel twenty metres below the streets of Arras to the Wellington Quarry, where thousands of soldiers hid underground before a surprise attack on the German front lines on April 9, 1917. Learn about the Battle of Arras and the troops who built and lived in the tunnels below the town. Discover the military strategy behind the tunnels and how it helped win the First World War.
Day 10 Flight home from Paris
D-Day London & France Educational Tour
Tour Includes:
  • Round-trip airfare
  • 8 overnight stays 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 Eurostar Chunnel crossing
  • 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.
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3816.00 total fee
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