Best of France: Paris to Loire Valley & Normandy

Itinerary

• Day 1: Arrival, Paris

  Welcome to Paris! Your personal licensed guide-driver will greet you at the airport or train station and then transfer you to your hotel. After check-in and a short rest, you probably can't wait to have a walk along the Seine River or around the numerous architectural landmarks.

  • Paris

• Day 2: Private Sightseeing Tour & Cruise on the Seine

  Today, follow your guide-driver to explore the city of Paris. Starting from the hotel, you will first head to visit the Louvre Museum, which is the world's largest art museum and has collected 460,000 objects. Afterward, drive past Champs Elysees until its westernmost end, where you can stop to take some pictures of Arc de Triomphe. Continue the sightseeing to the Eiffel Tower and have lunch at "58 Tour Eiffel" on its first floor.
  After lunch, enjoy a 1-hour cruise on the Seine to see some famous bridges and Paris's iconic monuments along the river. Later, set off to Montmartre to visit the Basilique du Sacre-Cœur. After the tour, be escorted back to the hotel.

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  • Paris

• Day 3: Paris - Versailles - Tours (Loire Valley)

  After breakfast, your driver-guide will transfer you to the Palace of Versailles. As the former French royal residence and center of government from 1682 to 1789, the palace is renowned for its magnificent architectures, luxurious interior furnishings, artistic decoration, ingenious French-style garden, and graceful fountains.

  In the afternoon, continue to drive to Tours, a traffic hub city in the Loire Valley with many famous castles nearby. After arrival, check in to your hotel.

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  • Tours

• Day 4: Loire Valley Castles & Winery Visit

  Spend the day traveling deep into two castles and a winery in the Loire Valley. You will first drive to explore the Chenonceau Castle. Spanning the River Cher, it is the most elegant and romantic one among all the castles in the valley. Later, pay a visit to a winery at Cheverny to learn about the winemaking process and taste wine if interested.

  After lunch, head toward the Chambord Castle, a French Renaissance architecture as well as the grandest and largest one in the valley. With forests everywhere and rich in wood and wine, the area has a strong flavor of French nobles' life.

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  • Tours

• Day 5: Tours - Le Mont-Saint-Michel - Bayeux

  A 3.5 hours drive will take you to Le Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay, where you will marvel at the Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey, an essential part of the island as well as the city. The mountain now is a natural wonder and the third holiest site for Catholics after Jerusalem and Vatican. After the tour, another 1.5 hours drive takes you to Bayeux. Only 24km far away from Omaha Beach, it was the first city liberated in the Battle of Normandy.

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  • Bayeux

• Day 6: Bayeux - D-Day Beaches - Caen

  This day, you can choose to take in some of the five D-Day Beaches or all of them, and the Normandy American Cemetery above Omaha Beach. Utah and Omaha were firstly broken into by United States Army, Gold and Sword were by the British Army, and the Juno was by the Canadian Army.

  Afterward, drive to Caen for an overnight stay.

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  • Caen

• Day 7: Caen - Giverny - Paris

  Today, on the way back to Paris, stop at Giverny to visit the Fondation Claude Monet, the former residence of the famous French painter Claude Monet, who completed his famous works Water Lilies and Japanese Footbridge here. The lake, weeping willow trees, and bridges in Monet's paintings will jump into your sights.

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  • Paris

• Day 8: Paris, Departure

  Bid farewell to France! Your guide-driver will escort you to the airport for your flight back home.

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