Best of France

Welcome to France. Your driver meets you at Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) and transfers you into the city. Check in to your hotel — typically in the 6th (Saint-Germain), 7th (Eiffel Tower views), or the Marais (3rd/4th, the most walkable neighborhood).

Afternoon at leisure. A first Paris walk: cross the Pont des Arts, stroll the Tuileries, and end at a café terrace on the Île Saint-Louis. Welcome dinner at a specialist-selected bistro.

Morning: the Louvre (pre-booked timed entry — your specialist has the route that covers the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, and Venus de Milo in 2 hours without the crowd crush). Walk through the Tuileries to Place de la Concorde.

Afternoon: Musée d’Orsay (the Impressionists — Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, all in a converted railway station) or the Rodin Museum. Evening: Seine river cruise at sunset — the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame (exterior, under reconstruction), and the Musée d’Orsay illuminated from the water.

Morning: Palace of Versailles (pre-booked timed entry — 8:30am first entry avoids the afternoon crowds). The Hall of Mirrors, the King’s Grand Apartments, and the formal gardens. Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet (the rustic retreat in the Petit Trianon gardens) is the part most visitors skip and the part most worth seeing.

Afternoon return to Paris: Montmartre — the Sacré-Cœur basilica, the Place du Tertre artists’ square, and the cobblestoned lanes where Picasso, Modigliani, and Toulouse-Lautrec lived. Evening: dinner in Le Marais or Saint-Germain. Final Paris night.

Morning: private transfer from Paris to Normandy (approximately 3 hours). Stop en route at Giverny — Monet’s house and the water lily gardens that inspired his most famous paintings (seasonal, April–October). Continue to Bayeux.

Afternoon: the Bayeux Tapestry — the 230-foot embroidered cloth depicting the 1066 Norman conquest of England, displayed in its own dedicated museum. Walk through Bayeux’s medieval center. Check in to your Normandy hotel. Evening at leisure.

Morning: D-Day beaches with a private guide. Omaha Beach, the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer (9,387 white marble headstones overlooking the beach), Utah Beach, and Pointe du Hoc (the cliff the Rangers scaled). The guided tour puts the scale and logistics of June 6, 1944 into context that the beaches alone cannot convey.

Afternoon: Mont-Saint-Michel — the tidal island abbey that is the single most iconic image of France outside Paris. Your specialist has timed the visit for when the causeway is walkable and the crowds are thinnest (late afternoon light on the abbey is the photographer’s window). Return to Bayeux by evening.

Morning: private transfer from Bayeux to the Loire Valley (approximately 3.5 hours). The landscape shifts from the Normandy hedgerows to the flat, wide river valley lined with châteaux.

Afternoon: Château de Chambord — the largest château in the Loire, built as a royal hunting lodge with 440 rooms, 84 staircases (including the famous double-helix staircase attributed to Leonardo da Vinci), and 13,000 acres of parkland. Check in to your Loire hotel or château accommodation. Evening at leisure.

A full château day with your private driver. Morning: Chenonceau — the ‘Château des Dames,’ spanning the River Cher with its elegant gallery bridge. Then Amboise — the royal château where Leonardo da Vinci spent his final years (his tomb is in the chapel, his house Clos Lucé is a 5-minute walk away).

Afternoon: Loire Valley wine tasting — Vouvray (Chenin Blanc), Sancerre, or Chinon (Cabernet Franc) depending on your route and preferences. Your specialist arranges private tastings at small-production domaines. Return to your château hotel. Final Loire evening.

Morning: transfer to Tours or Saint-Pierre-des-Corps station. high-speed rail to Avignon (approximately 2 hours). The train crosses the heart of France — the landscape shifts from the green Loire to the sunbaked stone villages of Provence.

Arrive Avignon early afternoon. The Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes — the largest medieval Gothic palace in Europe, seat of the papacy for nearly a century during the 14th-century schism) and the Pont d’Avignon (Pont Saint-Bénézet). Walk the ramparts. Check in. Evening: dinner inside the walled city.

A full Provence day with your private driver. Morning: Pont du Gard — the Roman aqueduct bridge (UNESCO, built in the 1st century AD, 161 feet high, one of the best-preserved Roman structures anywhere). Then into the Luberon — the hill villages of Gordes, Roussillon (the ochre-red village), and Lacoste.

Afternoon: Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine tasting — the most famous wine appellation in the Rhône Valley, named for the popes’ summer residence. Private tasting at a family domaine. If visiting June through August: the lavender fields of the Luberon plateau (Valensole, Sénanque Abbey). Return to Avignon by evening.

Morning: high-speed rail from Avignon to Nice (approximately 3 hours along the Mediterranean coast). Arrive Nice early afternoon. Check in to your hotel on or near the Promenade des Anglais.

Afternoon: the Vieille Ville (Nice’s old town — the Cours Saleya flower and food market, the baroque churches, the narrow Italian-influenced lanes), the Colline du Château viewpoint over the Baie des Anges. Optional: the Matisse Museum or the Chagall Museum. Evening: Niçois dinner — socca (chickpea crêpe), salade niçoise, pissaladière.

Morning: day trip to Monaco and Èze. Monaco — the Monte Carlo Casino district, the Prince’s Palace (changing of the guard at 11:55am), and the Oceanographic Museum. Èze — a medieval perched village between Nice and Monaco with the Jardin Exotique at the summit and views that justify every step of the steep climb.

Afternoon: transfer to Nice Côte d’Azur Airport (NCE) for your departure flight. Eleven days from Paris to the Riviera — the Louvre to the lavender, Normandy’s history to the Mediterranean’s light. Your Juniper specialist remains reachable throughout departure day. Safe travels home.