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Special Group Tours

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kate@specialgrouptours.com

GARDENS AND CHÂTEAUX OF FRANCE
This superb tour of some of France's most striking gardens and châteaux is a sublime treat for both the gardens and stately homes enthusiast and for the more casual tourist wanting to see northern France's major icons.

We have selected a perfect mix of attractions. There are the grand houses and châteaux of the Loire Valley, covering many different styles and designs, sitting in magnificent gardens and boasting everything from water features to lavish landscapes.

Then there's Monet's world famed 'impressionist' Giverny and the eccentric mosaic of Chartres.

Our tour commences from our Lille, France hub and can be easily reached via train from Paris or London via the Eurostar.

Available at any date for private groups of 2 – 15 people. Price available upon application.

Rates are based upon vehicle and guide hire per day; groups of 7 - 15 would have a per person rate same/similar to one of our scheduled tours of the same length.

Please note, this is a suggested itinerary. It may be revised to suit your individual group needs.

If you do not have a group of traveling companions and are still interested in this custom tour itinerary, you are welcomed to join a waitlist…

We record who is looking for travel companions to make up a tour with them. We need between 6 and 8 persons minimum to operate a tour without it being uneconomic for us or too expensive for you. Back-Roads Touring Co Ltd will be happy to run the occasional special departure IF there is sufficient interest.

If you would like to check on or join a waitlist for this itinerary, please email us for full information: kate@specialgrouptours.com

TENTATIVE ITINERARY

Day One - Monday

Participants join the tour in Lille, catching an early morning (07.00) Eurostar train from London, or alternatively take the train independently from Paris to arrive in Lille by 10.00.

We depart Lille at approximately 10.15. Our first stop is at Chantilly for the Chateau de Chantilly. Few gardens make such spectacular use of tranquil water as Chantilly. The chateau is moated with water, the dramatic and all-pervasive element. There are fountains, cascades, a water parterre and basins. The River Nonette becomes a garden canal during its passage through the site. There are ponds in the Jardin Anglais, designed by Victor Dubois c1817.

Next, to the Parc Jean-Jacques Rousseau, at Ermenonville. This a park in the Serpentine style, made by the Marquis Rene de Girardin. He wrote a book on the 'nature and means of art'. Rousseau admired the landscape style and came to live here. He became a key figure in European culture and his tomb is on an island in the park. There is also a Temple of Philosophy, left unfinished to symbolise the incompleteness of human knowledge.

ACCOMMODATION: Maincy

Day Two - Tuesday

Breathtaking gardens are the order today. First up, the Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte, at Maincy. This most elegant and geometrically harmonious of all high Baroque gardens was designed, before Versailles, by Andre le Nôtre and Louis II le Vau. The composition is perfectly proportioned and soothingly harmonious. Brilliant use of the landform allows many surprises. Yet, the composition is balanced from every point of view. The garden was laid out for a rich financier, Fouquet, and had many statues which Louis XIV removed after casting the owner into jail for being overly ambitious. Vaux was designed as place of show, and remains splendid for a day's promenade. It was not designed, or used, for domestic pleasure. Vaux fell into disrepair after Fouquet's arrest. It was carefully restored after 1875.

This afternoon we visit Courance, probably the most beautiful formal garden in France. When you first see the symmetrical canals and the double avenue of plane trees leading to the chateau you know that you are in for some spectacular enjoyment. From here we tour through the Foret d'Orleans, following the Loire through Orleans to our overnight base in the Loire Valley Beaugency. Depending on time, we'll see Joan d'Arc's Orlean as we pass through.

ACCOMMODATION: Beaugency

Days Three & Four - Wednesday & Thursday

The Loire Valley is justly famed for its incredibly rich chateaux. In truth, there are almost too many to choose from! Over the next two days we'll be visiting a selection from the following, determined by the weather and group interests. The mediaeval city of Tours is also one of our sightseeing jewels. Some tour participants will enjoy wandering at leisure around the old town, while others may simply find it a time 'to sit and stare'. As ever, within the framework of a Back-Roads Touring Co. tour, there will be an opportunity of doing either with some 'organised independence'.

The Château we'll be choosing to visit will include Blois, the early renaissance castle of Amboise and Château Chambord, one of the loveliest Renaissance buildings in the Valley of the Loire, and a retreat for French kings, especially Louis XIV. Then there's the Château de Chenonceaux and the Château d'Usee which, reputedly, inspired the 'Sleeping Beauty' story.

Perhaps one of the best known, and everyone vote for a visit, will be Château de Villandry, the imaginative twentieth century re-creation of a renaissance castle garden. The moated Chateau dates from c1536 and had a formal garden in the eighteenth century. The present garden dates from the years after 1906 when it was bought by a Spaniard, Dr Joachim Carvallo. Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, he wished the garden to have a sixteenth century character. Great horticultural skill was deployed, especially in the use of vegetables.

ACCOMMODATION: Beaugency

Day Five - Friday

We turn from the Loire with a visit first to Chartres. Here we've two highlight visits. First, we have the Maison Picassiette. This amazing mosaic garden was built by a road mender (Ramond Isidore) using chards of broken pottery. It has something of the character of a grotto and something of the texture of Gaudi's Parc Guell. Then to Chartres Notre-Dame Cathedral. Pilgrims have been coming here for eight centuries to admire and seek inspiration from the most magnificent, and certainly most extensive stained glass windows to be seen anywhere in the world.

Our final garden of this magnificent five days is Monet's wonderful Giverny. This atmospheric country garden was planted and painted by the leading spirit of French impressionism, Claude Monet.

We take our leave of Giverny and drive the short distance to central Paris where those who are going to stay on and enjoy a Paris extension will be dropped at a central location.

Remaining participants can return to London via Eurostar from Paris or return to Lille to join our Weekend on the Western Front tour options.

NOTE: Paris Extension ideas
If you wish to continue your garden theme then the following parks and gardens can be highly recommended!

Parc de Bagatelle on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne. This is to France what Stourhead is to England and Annevoie is to Belgium - the 'par exellence' from which all other landscapes are judged! The Palace of Versailles - nothing more need be said!
Roseraie de l'Hay les Roses - the idea of making a section of a garden devoted to roses (a rosary or roseraie) is older but this Roseraie lays claim to the distinction of being the first complete garden in which the rose is the only flowering plant. Late May, June and July are the best months for visiting.

This tour is operated by Back-Roads Touring Co Ltd