tours france artist

Art & History for all

Art and history tours in france.

As you walk down the street, you marvel at a hôtel particulier , side by side with a Hausmannian building and, a little further down, an Art Deco treasure.  Paris is beautiful.  As your Académie des Arts de Vivre (AAV) local guide explains the history, you begin to understand the true wealth of this breathtaking city.

Paris is like a present.  An enchanting box, beautifully wrapped.  The real gift, however, is on the inside, in Paris’ history, art, and culture, accessible only for those who take time to see past the trappings.

I have been working as a guide in Paris for 31 years, and therefore for more than 70 different travel agencies. Marie-Thérèse de Willermin struck me as not only the embodiment of courtesy, but as one of the most thorough, precise, God-is-in-the-details persons I have ever met. Eric is, in every respect, the worthy son of his mother. All I will add is : I wish that everybody, in every industry, would work like AAV does. J-M T. Expert Guide

Experience Art & History in France

AAV’s founder, an art historian, has carefully crafted unique tours and excursions which will help you experience France’s rich art and history firsthand.  You will be accompanied by historians and art experts who will give you an unparalleled understanding of the period in question.

Napoleon’s Paris A very exclusive moment—take a private tour of Paris with one of Napoleon’s descendants, who will show you the monuments the great ruler left in the city and share excerpts of private documents written by the emperor.

Make a stained glass window in Chartres The stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral are held to be one of the best-preserved and most complete set of medieval stained glass in the world.  What better place to take a private class to learn how to make your own stained glass window?

Fabulous French art at Chantilly The Chateau of Chantilly has a first class collection of French paintings, second only to the Louvre.  AAV will arrange for you to meet the curator and tour this exquisite art collection with him.  A rare opportunity!

In the footsteps of Claude Monet One of AAV art experts will take you on a private tour of Monet’s birthplace, his home and workshop in Giverny, museums where you can view his art, as well as places he painted frequently:  the Impressionists Island, Bougival, Gare Saint Lazare, and Rouen Cathedral, among others.

Baccarat Take an inside look at the glassmaking process at the Baccarat Manufacture, one of the world’s most well-known and finest producers of crystal. Since the 18th century, Baccarat crystal has been used by the world’s royal families, aristocrats and celebrities and at the greatest tables.

Discover Art & History

How the Napoleons transformed Paris See the traces that Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon II and Napoleon III left on Paris:  the Colonnades, the Vendôme Column, the two triumphal arches, and the Triumphal Way for military parades.  During your private tour with an expert local guide, you will learn about the history, architecture, art and city planning under these emperors. For more on Paris .

Normandy and WWII Relive the World War II invasion of Normandy at legendary sites:  the American cemetery at Colleville, the Pointe du Hoc, Omaha and Utah Beaches, and Port Winston, the artificial harbor created by British forces, among others.  Your local expert will take you through the Allies’ plan for D-Day and explain all that was at stake.

In the footsteps of the great modern masters Discover the many artists inspired by the Riviera :  Picasso, Renoir, Chagall, Matisse, and Cézanne, among others.  A chauffeur will pick you up for a day trip to visit the workshops, villages and collections of these artists, as well as the celebrated Maeght Foundation in Saint Paul de Vence.

Chateaux de la Loire Azay-le-Rideau, Chenonceau, Chambord.  Legendary names.  When you visit these Renaissance chateaux, your local guide will transform into a storyteller, sharing with you the stories behind the buildings and how that affected their architecture… and their beauty.  Your day trip will include other magical chateaux nearby. For more on the Loire Valley .

Art & History sample itineraries

Art & History experience in Paris and Normandy – 8 days

• Accommodation for 8 nights in luxury hotels in Paris and Normandy
• Private driver in luxury vehicle throughout your stay
• 3 full-days of experiences in Paris with a specialised private art historian guide
• 3 full-days of experiences in Normandy with a specialised private art historian guide
• 2 full-days at leisure
• Our AAV Concierge will be available to help you organize your free time with private tours, restaurant reservations, spa treatments, and whatever else you wish to ensure you have a memorable time

Art & History experience in Paris – 4 days

• Accommodation for 4 nights in luxury hotels in Paris
• 2 full-days and 2 half-days of experiences in Paris with a specialised private art historian guide
• 2 half-days at leisure

Discover the richness of Art and History  with AAV

Art and history have been closely intertwined in France, ever since the Paleolithic period when cavemen painted aurochs on the walls of the caves in Lascaux.  After William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, attacked England in 1066, the celebrated Battle of Hastings was recounted in the Bayeux Tapestry, 70 meters of embroidery in an almost comic-book style. When Napoleon became emperor in 1804, his coronation became the subject of a monumental painting by David, the most famous painter of the  

time. The “Bal du moulin de la Galette”, painted by Renoir in 1876, depicts a typical Sunday afternoon in Montmartre at the time.  And the French playwriter and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol shows us the real France of the 1930s. France’s history is dense, layer building upon layer, and can be daunting for international travellers.  Learning French history through its art, however, is delightful, especially with AAV’s guides who are experts at storytelling.  As they describe the work of art to you, they will make history come alive.

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An Art Lover's Tour of France

From contemporary art in Paris to modern masters along the southern coast, France is a country infused with art. Aficionados can experience an unforgettable trip taking in Paris (2 days), Aix-en-Provence (1 day), and then the Riviera between St-Tropez and Nice (4 days). Museum visits can be interspersed with wonderful meals, sunbathing, and stops at the area’s architectural and artistic highlights.

Days 1 & 2: Paris  

Start Day 1 of your art tour of Paris with a quick check of what’s currently on in the city: The Grand Palais and the Musée du Luxembourg all host excellent temporary exhibitions.

You can attend a show at any of these venues or begin your day at the newly renovated Musée de Montmartre,  formerly home to both Renoir and Utrillo. Then hop onto the Métro and head south to the Jardin du Luxembourg.  After a leisurely stroll in the gardens, head over to tiny Musée Zadkine  dedicated to sculptor Ossip Zadkine and located in the artist’s former house and atelier. Take a minute to rest in the pretty little garden. Enjoy a leisurely lunch at one of the neighborhood’s many bistros. Round out the afternoon by taking in a cutting-edge contemporary exhibition at the wacky Palais de Tokyo,  overlooking the Seine and Eiffel Tower. 

On Day 2, spend the morning admiring the modern art on display at the Centre Pompidou.  After lunching at one of the many nearby restaurants, amble over to the Marais,  and either cruise the art galleries, or visit the Musée Picasso Paris,  set in the sumptuous 17th-century mansion, L’Hôtel Salé. 

Mid-afternoon, jump aboard one of the many TGV trains heading south to Aix-en-Provence. The journey takes around 3 hr., leaving you plenty of time to enjoy a typical Provençal dinner upon arrival.

Day 3: Aix-en-Provence  

Paul Cézanne is Aix’s most celebrated son. Begin your day at his Atelier,  almost perfectly preserved as it was when the great artist worked here more than a century ago. There are regularly scheduled English-language tours of the site. Afterward, a visit to the city’s famed Musée Granet —one of the region’s most superb modern-art museums—is a must.

Aix’s plane-tree-shaded cours Mirabeau is almost a work of art in itself. Be sure to drop into Brasserie Les Deux Garçons,  where Cézanne used to drink and debate with the famous French writer Emile Zola.

After lunch, rent a car and drive to St-Tropez.  Warm evenings are best enjoyed strolling the port’s pretty quays or taking in the million-dollar panoramas from the hilltop Citadelle.

Day 4: St-Tropez  

Since the 1890s, when painters Signac and Bonnard discovered St-Tropez, artists and their patrons have been drawn to the French Riviera. Spend the morning appreciating the Musée de l’Annonciade’s  Impressionist paintings, many of them depicting St-Tropez and the surrounding coast.

After lunch in one of the town’s sidewalk cafes, drive around 100km (62 miles) east along the coast until you reach Nice , where you’ll base yourself for the next three nights. Return your rental car—traffic-heavy roads, combined with excellent public transportation, render your own vehicle unnecessary here.

Day 5: Antibes & Vallauris  

Today you’ll spend the day following in the footsteps of one of the 20th-century’s modern masters: Pablo Picasso. Take one of the frequent trains from Nice to Antibes (20 min.). On the edge of the picturesque, pedestrian-friendly Old Town sits the 14th-century Grimaldi Château, now home to the Musée Picasso.  The Spanish artist lived and worked in this castle in 1946.

Stroll through Antibes’ covered market, then—appetite piqued—stop into a small bistro, such as Le Rustic,  for a light lunch. Next, make your way to Antibes’ bus station, where frequent buses depart for Vallauris (35 min.). Picasso moved to this hilltop village during the 1950s, reviving the local ceramic-making industry and personally producing thousands of pieces of pottery. Visit Picasso’s mammoth paintings in the Musée National Picasso La Guerre et La Paix,  the artist’s tribute to pacifism.

Make your way back to Nice (it’s quickest to simply reverse your route). Spend the evening strolling the promenade des Anglais or wandering the city’s atmospheric Old Town.

Days 6 & 7: Nice

Outside of Paris, Nice is home to more museums than any other city in France. Begin your Day 6 citywide explorations in the neighborhood of Cimiez, where both the famed Musée Matisse  and the Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall  are located. It’s possible to walk between the two (around 15 min.) but be sure to hit the Matisse Museum first—then it’s downhill all the way to see Chagall’s ethereal artworks.

If it’s summertime, spend a couple of hours picnicking on the beach or relaxing with a glass of wine in one of the city’s many sidewalk cafes. Mid-afternoon, make your way over the Musée Masséna,  where a combination of local art and history gives visitors a peek at the ritzy French Riviera of the past.

Use your final day to make a day trip to the hilltop village of St-Paul-de-Vence ,  20km (12 miles) to the north. Wander the St-Paul-de-Vence’s ramparts for 30 min., before descending to the world-class modern art on display at the Fondation Maeght.  En route back to Nice, stop into the Musée Renoir   in Cagnes-sur-Mer, which comprises the artist’s former home and gardens. Note that you can either rent a car for the day or access both St-Paul-de-Vence and Cagnes-sur-Mer via frequent buses from Nice.

Spend your final night in Nice savoring a hearty Niçois dinner, paired with plenty of local wine.

Note : This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.

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On the Trail of Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Matisse in the South of France

A lover of Paris alights for the first time in Provence—and sees how three artists who painted there transformed modern vision and remade Western art. Call it the power of place.

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In the southern French region of Provence, there is, or seems to be, what we call a roundabout and the French call a rond-point every 30 feet. Thirty feet is doubtless a physical exaggeration, but it is not so perceptually: One traffic circle follows another with such relentlessness that you feel you are proceeding not in a straight line but circularly, like a spider racing around its web. You spin around each roundabout looking for the exit for, say, Arles or St.-­Tropez—the A55 or the D44, the latter of which may also be called the D95 or the Boulevard General Léclérc (every French road has at least three names, two cryptically numeric and one grandly historical)—and you often must go around again before finding it. That accomplished, you drive for a bit and come to another circle. Everyone in Provence will tell you that you will find it maddening until you see how functional it is. In almost two weeks of driving in Provence, we never saw how functional it was.

No geographic or, in this case, traffic circle coincidence can be left uninspected by an inquiring writerly mind, and so the spinning advance that my wife Martha and I made across Provence last October came to seem symbolic of our psychological state there. Some famous places serve as time tunnels to the past. You can agreeably imagine in Venice today that you are in Venice c. 1500. Others seem fixed in a steady state, so that Paris, for those who love it, never seems to change, even as it does. But in Provence one lives in spirals—back-phrasing, so to speak, from the region’s contemporary identity as a luxurious Anglo-American resort to its earlier, 1920s role as an even more recherché Anglo-American retreat, then back further to its 19th-century identity as the crucible of modern art, and back to its still more distant and occult past as a redoubt of mystics and Cathar heretics. You spin around again and land squarely once more in the present. You pick an exit and find another path, forward or backward.

Our own journey to Provence was specifically, doubly compensatory. “You have never been to Provence!” a friend had said to ignite the motor of ambition. Her “You!” was as accusatory as it was sympathetic, since the person addressed has a slightly undeserved, entirely Paris centered reputation as a Francophile. But Paris is not France, as one is often told, and so, dutifully and for the first time in 40 years of traveling to France, we would be skipping Paris entirely.

.css-4rnr1w:before{margin:0 auto 1.875rem;width:60%;height:0.125rem;content:'';display:block;background-color:#9a0500;color:#fff;} .css-gcw71x{color:#030929;font-family:NewParis,NewParis-fallback,NewParis-roboto,NewParis-local,Georgia,Times,serif;font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;margin:0rem;}@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-gcw71x{font-size:2.25rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-gcw71x{font-size:2.625rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-gcw71x{font-size:2.8125rem;line-height:1.1;}}.css-gcw71x b,.css-gcw71x strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-gcw71x em,.css-gcw71x i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;} I was curious if seeing the places where this art I loved so much was made would change the way I loved it.

Another urge was even more critically compensatory: an art critic’s comeuppance. I had written often, and with sapient knowingness, about the great figures of the region, from Gerald Murphy to Paul Signac, with major, chewy disquisitions on Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne and the birth of Cubism—but had never actually eaten near the houses they had lived in or seen the view from the studios in which they had painted or tasted the apples they had turned into art. This is a state of empirical embarrassment in which every art writer sooner or later finds himself, but it should be cured when it can. The French word terroir , the distinguishing marks of the soil in which wine is made, applies to art as much as to wine. Art too is indubitably local, material, inseparable from its context. I was curious about the way seeing the places where this art I loved so much was made would change the way I loved it.

Oh, yes: We would all the while be eating, drinking, and sleeping as well and beautifully as possible. It was the Murphys, Gerald and Sara, those great pioneers of the South of France for Americans in the 1920s (about whom I’d also much written), who coined the motto that one should live as well as one could, as revenge on the fates. We might of course have done that without thinking of the Murphys, but hedonism benefits from a superintending deity or two. It gives pleasure, too, an aura of pilgrimage.

We began our journey in the matchlessly pretty town of Gordes, specifically at the Bastide de Gordes , where we looked out over mountains and old Roman walls so picturesque that one wanted to shout a protest at something almost too perfectly realized. Here was Provence just as we had imagined it—blue skies with white clouds so heavy that their underside is a dark violet plane, with a chartreuse ground and green cypresses beyond. The towns where modern painting was born lay just beyond.

Like every lover of modern painting, I have long been fascinated, even obsessed, by what happened to van Gogh in Arles, in 1888. He had fled there a year earlier in the naive belief that Provence was a purer locus of “medieval” piety than anything he could find in Paris, full of unadulterated spirituality and, he hoped, better sex. (Vincent was an unapologetically libidinal man, if only sporadically fulfilled.)

Yet on arrival I sense at once what Vincent learned painfully: that Arles is no kind of radiant center but a solid French provincial bourgeois town, right out of Flaubert. One of the paradoxes of the painters’ Provence is that the great art isn’t here—you can see more of the painting made in Provence in Chicago, a truth for which Americans have a right to congratulate ourselves. Arles has only very latterly claimed the eccentric émigré Dutchman, and the town’s Van Gogh Foundation has on exhibit only a single Van Gogh, Trees, Paris , while the real life café in his Café Terrace at Night has now been…painted yellow, though van Gogh’s yellow was an expressive emotion he added, not a color he saw. Van Gogh, when he was in Arles, was a bit like an American hippie in the 1960s who journeyed to the Southwest in search of indigenous peoples and their mystical truths, the Hopi and their shamans—and found himself in Santa Fe, a lovely town but busy with its own affairs and without a broad welcome for an unconventional artist.

Vincent’s disillusion climaxed in the Christmas crisis of 1888, when—perhaps out of disappointment with his ornery friend Paul Gauguin, with whom he had hoped to work in a collaborative artistic “guild,” like medieval artisans; perhaps out of erotic disappointment; perhaps out of simple bipolar disorder—he mutilated his ear and so shocked the prim bourgeoisie of Arles that they had him sent out of town to an insane asylum in nearby Saint-Rémy.

Following in his steps, I sense that being forced out of Arles was for van Gogh not so much exile as welcome escape. The mystery of his art—that he flowered as the mystic-poet-painter he dreamed of being only after he had been locked away, saw the whirling night skies and piously bent cypresses only in confinement—becomes more easily understood inside the Saint-Rémy hospital. The asylum, I see, wasn’t a prison, exactly, but a converted monastery—a serene and seductive place. Looking around his tiny studio room, with its bars on the windows, its only furnishings a single bed and a bureau, I understand why van Gogh found peace and inspiration here: He was safe among the only authentic community that ever embraced him: the insane. “Although there are a few people here who are seriously ill, the fear, the horror that I had of madness before has already been greatly softened,” he wrote to his brother Theo’s wife, Jo, adding, “I’m thinking of squarely accepting my profession as a madman just as Degas took on the form of a notary.”

At Saint-Rémy van Gogh painted more than 100 pictures, including The Starry Night and all those Cypresses (which will be the subject of a welcome exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art this spring ), as well as the pictures of the gardens that I peer at just below the windows—pictures whose visionary intensity has magically not been made stale by familiarity, perhaps because they were painted with absolute sincerity of purpose. When van Gogh went to the south of France, he thought that, with Gauguin, he would paint in the manner of old medieval religious artists. In the asylum he faced his own solitude and had nothing to think about except what was immediately in front of him, a world, I see now, of essentially benevolent order. No Arles postman, or peasants, just starry nights and cypresses and the carpets in the hallway and the asylum’s cryptic ground floor cloister. He wasn’t trying to make pious pictures, just registering sensations as they struck him, and they struck him fully. Visual sensations had the force on van Gogh that strong smells have on the rest of us—they made him vibrate with hunger in their presence. The piety that rose in this room from his observing eye, which translated everything seen into something felt, was higher than that of his earlier virtuous intentions. He saw cypresses as though they were “Egyptian obelisks,” the night sky as though it were a crowded train station, filled with activity as it transported passengers to eternity, and his own hospital room as though it were the well-ordered precinct of a monk.

The transformation from self-consciously spiritual purpose to realized spiritual presence is one of the great transformations of modern vision. And it happened here. Van Gogh was lucky, I sensed, to get out of Arles—or made his luck from his pain, in ways that still instruct us all. I said a secular prayer in his cell, and we went back on the road.

On the road more mundane but no less urgent matters preoccupied us. Fate and French politics had supplied our tour with that necessity of suspense, a ticking clock: a strike by the French petroliers , the oil workers. For long days there was no gas or diesel to be had in the south of France, and I had semi-nightmarish visions of the car stopping in the middle of one of those roundabouts. I had forgotten this aspect of French life. Someone is always on strike about something. Living in France, one simply accepts it while being glad that the national affliction is an ornery and empowered working class rather than, say, routine massacres in schools. But we were lucky and, many roundabouts later, made it to Aix-en-Provence.

Cézanne’s story is as familiar as van Gogh’s—or so I thought. After a childhood in Aix, he went to Paris to study art and fell into the Impressionist circle. But instead of landscapes he painted difficult romantic, story­telling pictures that were too weird for the academics and too academic for the avant-garde. He tried to share dramatic visions instead of registering the play of light on water and leaf, and at the time, with Impressionism in the ascendant, this seemed peculiar. Defeated, he withdrew to his family home in Aix and painted in solitude for decades, until, just before the end of his life, in 1906, he was rediscovered and became, through his influence on the Cubists, the father of modern painting.

Cézanne has always seemed to me the most unapproachable of painters as a personality, for all that I admire him more than any painter since Rembrandt. The tense, cross-hatched, hesitant apprehensions, the way his telegraphic, repeated taches build beautiful spaces as they work their way across the surface of the canvas… The power of simplification radiates so decisively from his work that, quite apart from inspiring Cubism, he could have taught Hemingway and Simenon how to write with similar minimalism and make plain monosyllables connected by and s more poetic than “poetry.”

But the stern face of Madame Cézanne in his portraits of her (there’s a great one in the Met), the blank bearish look of his rare self-portraits (as in the scowling, forbidding one from 1880 at the Phillips Collection, in DC), and the silent, Provençal nature of his Card Players paintings all act as an iron hedge keeping the viewer out. Where van Gogh seems so approachable and human that we have to be cautious not to miss his strangeness—if he accosted us in a café, we would doubtless be worn out by his limitless voluble excitement—Cézanne stands aside.

On arrival I see that Aix is big —a university town and a market town. And within it, I realize, Cézanne’s family was rich. Not merely well off, which I had known, but truly wealthy. His father had a hat shop on the central square, with a faded painted notice one can still see: Chapeaux Cézanne. From there, Cézanne père moved into banking, foreclosing on a debt-ridden aristocrat (a classic 19th-­century Balzacian form of advancement—there is always an indigent aristocrat to be foreclosed on), and bought his château on the outskirts of Aix: the Jas de Bouffan.

The Jas has been closed to the public for some time (though it is promised to reopen after renovation in 2025), so we were lucky to be allowed inside. On the walls of the dining room are some of the most moving, awkward images I have ever seen: thinly academic renditions of the four seasons that the 19-year-old Paul painted in a desperate attempt to convince his father that he had talent enough to study art in Paris. (It worked: He got to go.) Better yet was to stroll outside, through the grounds of this grandly beautiful classic Provençal bastide. An allée of plane trees, of the kind that line the Luberon roads, leads toward the house, and another of chestnuts faces it. Two smaller outbuildings, for guardians and workers, enclose it.

I had often admired Cézanne’s melancholy portraits of the chestnut trees at the Jas, but I had always assumed, foolishly, that they were in a public park or accessible retreat—like the stone quarry outside Aix that he did visit regularly. Not a bit of it. The Jas is more like a Hamptons estate than a Provençal park. The chestnut trees are a family legacy, and the workmen he painted playing cards are not “caught” in a tavern drinking armagnac at the end of a peasant’s day, they’re the handymen on his father’s estate, roped in as models by the scion of the household.

Cézanne’s studio is small, the objects unprepossessing. The apples grew noble only in his visions.

Cézanne’s famous “retirement from the world” after his rejection by fashionable opinion in Paris in the 1860s (dramatized in his friend Emile Zola’s novel of defeat, L’Oeuvre )was, one sees, a retreat back home to Dad’s money. Van Gogh’s withdrawal was like that of a hermit or poet or, for that matter, a mental patient; Cézanne’s was internal—it was psychological, a defense mechanism. His father was as forbidding to him as Kafka’s was to the Czech writer, and he remade himself in grumpy silence. He had been a disappointment to almost everyone. The monumental painter who totally remade Western art had, as his inner experience, worldly failure—and he retreated into a private world of monosyllabic exactitude, where the slow dignity of scrutiny was all that mattered.

And Cézanne worked, I see now, with such unpromising materials! His studio in Aix, open to visitors, is surprisingly small, the objects within unprepossessing. The table that looms so large in his still lifes was child-size, and the famous apples, judged by the compotier on which they sit, were tiny; they grew noble only in his visions. And when one steps outside and climbs the hill, as we did, to his favorite spot for scrutinizing Mont Sainte-­Victoire, the summit omnipresent in his painting, one sees that it is a scrubby rocky outcropping, not the radiant cone that superintends the Provençal landscape in his pictures. No one except Cézanne would have seen its outlines as heroic.

An artist from a rich family who perceived himself as a failure, Cézanne was pressed forward by a sense of encumbering shame and a need to show them . He had taken the unrewarded path, his first steps still visible on the dining room wall, yet he still believed in it. His mix of stubbornness, resignation, and serenity (sought, against the confusions of life, in the simple act of seeing—of getting it down right, in a new, reduced language) is what moves us so much in Cézanne, and what moves me even more now: his insistence on showing the world, even after the world had told him it didn’t want to be shown.

Chestnuts still fall from the chestnut trees in his father’s garden. We gathered a few.

The Côte d’Azur resort of St.-Tropez was first “seen” by painters, and though the era when it was, like Capri, the dangerous pleasure garden of the Western world may have passed, the pleasures it provides are real. I have never seen a prettier light than along its harbor, and I was dazzled by the pure colors of its roofs, as golden as Venice but softer and more sea-soaked. In its early-20th-century heyday, it attracted painters of the second rank, like Paul Signac, Georges Seurat’s less gifted follower, but in certain periods, painters of the second rank are as rewarding as those of the first, and the Pointillists and Divisionists had no boring painters among them, as the eccentric but choice collection of their work in St.-Tropez’s Annonciade Museum proves. Signac and Henri-Edmond Cross and Maximilien Luce are all here, and all made art out of spots of pleasure.

There are also two exquisite Matisses. Henri Matisse belongs to a later period than van Gogh and Cézanne, and we crowded him into our itinerary as an afterthought—his Chapel of the Rosary is a 90-minute drive from St.-Tropez, in Vence. But now our appetite was sharpened.

I had seen photographs and knew, generally, what it was: a small chapel designed by Matisse late in life, at the urging of his onetime nurse and model (and lover?), who had become a nun. I knew that it contained stained glass windows that radiated diffuse light into a small white room with Matisse’s drawings glazed onto the ceramic walls—a rare attempt at liturgical art in a modern idiom.

Nothing prepared me for its power—its gentle, lucid, tranquil power. Matisse actually did a series of Stations of the Cross on one wall, simple numbered outline drawings of Christ’s passion: the scourging, the judgment, the crucifixion, the deposition. They aren’t exactly good—after 50 years of sublimating action into design, it was a bit late to go back to action, especially agonized action—but they give the whole a kind of ugly anchor in awkwardness and truth that is essential to the serenity of the rest, keeps the radiance from being cheaply earned.

For then you turn from the suffering toward the altar, and at 11 a.m. on an October day, everything is flooded with perfect, piercing rays of lemon-yellow and ­Mediterranean-blue and emerald-green light emanating from the stained glass—not flooding but basting the room, showering it, as though you could catch the light in your white straw hat. Gentle bands of soft color, and near them a simple drawing of mother and child on another wall, the lines of the mother’s shoulders merging elegantly but meaningfully into the contours of the child’s head. Hope and faith, those empty abstractions, suddenly seem as real (or at least as palpable) as the light itself.

To make the whole even more astonishing, upstairs in the robing room I discover that Matisse also designed (and they’re still in use!) a series of vestments for the priests to wear during mass. They’re crazy ! Wild bright limes and hot pinks with Matisse’s signature seaweed squiggles embroidered at large scale up and down. There have never been such gay vestments for the priesthood. There is something about the combined elements of the chapel—awkward agony, achieved serenity, implicit festivity, or, put more grandly, human suffering, God’s light, man’s dance—that seemed to me to make it perhaps the most perfect work of art I have ever experienced.

The entire pilgrimage had become a tribute to the persuasive power of pleasure—the ability of shape and light to make ecstasy, all on their own.

The entire pilgrimage away from Paris had become a tribute to the persuasive power of pleasure—the ability of shape and light to make ecstasy, all on their own. Matisse did not “believe” in religion in the literal sense, but he did believe in the continuity of vision and in the power of mere loveliness to persuade us that the world is worth living in, despite its brutalities. His confidence in the persuasiveness of pleasure was rooted in the light of this particular place, this region, this land. The French cult of terroir is partly sentimental but in large part true. Art, as Provence showed me, is inexpungibly made up of your dad’s house and the chestnut trees in the garden and the dining room you share and the little cell they put you in when you lose it all. It is, first of all, the materials that make it. Understanding them enables us to see the art anew.

Inspired by an expanded Matissean vision of human hope resting on material affirmation, I felt emboldened to finally go out in search of gas. The strike had persisted throughout our time in Provence, but, fortunately, someone had mapped out a kind of resistance route of possibly replenished gas stations said to be full of high-quality contra­band—it felt like going in search of contraband, anyway. After a 20-minute journey we waited in a 30-minute line. Knowing that our car took only diesel, I, very uncharacteristically, found the right tank and, I think to the admiration of my French line-colleagues, decisively gassed up. Unlike American gas stations, where everything is made for impatient people and the nozzle fits neatly, driplessly into the tank, the French diesel pump was potently leaky and spilled fuel. Fortunately, with minimal damage and minimal explosions, I filled the tank, and we drove away, feeling like Bonnie and Clyde after a bank robbery. I have never been prouder of any accomplishment.

We ended our journey at the legendary Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc , in Antibes, where, in straw hats and white linens, we tried, as best we could, to pay our own late-arriving homage to Sara and Gerald. I would like to say that the Hôtel du Cap has been spoiled in the century since the Murphys persuaded its owner to keep it open all summer (at a time when no one from Paris went south in summer), but in truth it was spectacular, and we felt unapologetic about enjoying its luxuries for a night.

Provence for me will always be, as it was for those visionaries, an unlikely gymnasium of spirit, a mountain to climb and cypresses to see and a leaking gas nozzle hanging triumphantly in my hand. Our souls and our stomachs had all had a workout. There is much to be said for plowing perilously forward, but more to be said for going around in beautiful circles, refueled by hope. I keep four chestnuts from Cézanne’s garden on my desk in New York now, where they will remain.

Gopnik is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism .

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France Art and Architecture Tours 2024/2025

47 great art and architecture trips in France. Searching for an art and architecture tour in France? Below you will find 47 curated art and architecture trips taking place in France with 115 reviews. Our art and architecture trips are supplied by 15 hand-picked tour operators in France. With tour prices ranging from 2,220 CNY to 74,077 CNY and tour durations varying from 1 day and to 45 days, there is plenty to choose from.

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47 Art and architecture tours with 115 Reviews

• Starts Paris, France
• Ends Paris, France

Jewels of France including Normandy

• Best price guaranteed
• No booking fees
• Tour Type Group Tour
• Activities City sightseeing & Cultural, religious and historic sites City sightseeing , Cultural, religious and historic sites , Beach , Art and architecture & Farm and plantation visits 'data-more-tripid='21274'>+3 more
• Accommodation Hotel
• Transport Coach
• Age Range 5-99 yrs
• Operated in English
• Brochure Price: US$ 1,575
• Special Deal (10%): - US$ 158
• Total Price from: US$ 1,417
• May 25 Only 8 seats left
• Sep 21 Only 8 seats left
• View More Jan 1, 2019 Jan 2, 2019 Jan 3, 2019

The Treasures of France including Normandy

• Activities City sightseeing & Cultural, religious and historic sites City sightseeing , Cultural, religious and historic sites , Wine tasting tours , Beach & Art and architecture 'data-more-tripid='20958'>+3 more
• Brochure Price: US$ 2,933
• Special Deal (11%): - US$ 312
• Total Price from: US$ 2,621
• Apr 27 Only 10 seats left
• May 04 Only 10 seats left

Normandy, Brittany & The Loire Valley

• Activities Food tours & Cultural, religious and historic sites Food tours , Cultural, religious and historic sites , Wine tasting tours , Art and architecture , War sites & Farm and plantation visits 'data-more-tripid='21122'>+4 more
• Accommodation Hotel & Resort
• Brochure Price: US$ 3,510
• Special Deal (17%): - US$ 600
• Total Price from: US$ 2,910
• Apr 20 10+ seats left
• May 04 10+ seats left

Highlights of France

• Activities Countryside and village visits & Cultural, religious and historic sites Countryside and village visits , Cultural, religious and historic sites , Beach , Art and architecture , Wine tasting tours & Amusement, theme or water parks 'data-more-tripid='21260'>+4 more
• Transport Coach & Bus
• Brochure Price: US$ 2,475
• Special Deal (11%): - US$ 266
• Total Price from: US$ 2,209
• Apr 19 10+ seats left
• Apr 26 10+ seats left

Treasures of France

• Trip customizable
• Activities Art and architecture & City sightseeing
• Transport Boat & Train
• Age Range 8-95 yrs
• Apr 21 10+ seats left
• Apr 28 10+ seats left

French Heritage

• Activities Wine tasting tours & Food tours Wine tasting tours , Food tours , Cultural, religious and historic sites , Mountains , Art and architecture & Shopping and Markets 'data-more-tripid='21220'>+4 more
• Transport Coach, Bus & Private Vehicle
• Brochure Price: US$ 9,625
• Special Deal (15%): - US$ 1,444
• Total Price from: US$ 8,181
• Apr 27 10+ seats left

• Starts London, England
• Ends London, England

Europe Taster

• Activities City sightseeing & Art & architecture tour City sightseeing , Art & architecture tour , Art and architecture , & heritage & Cultural, religious and historic sites 'data-more-tripid='37695'>+3 more
• Transport Coach, Boat & Train
• Age Range 10-99 yrs
• Brochure Price: US$ 1,815
• Special Deal (23%): - US$ 415
• Total Price from: US$ 1,400
• Mar 09 10+ seats left
• Mar 16 10+ seats left

Spotlight on Paris

• Activities City sightseeing & Art and architecture
• Transport Private Vehicle
• Age Range 1-95 yrs
• Apr 23 Only 1 seat left
• Apr 30 10+ seats left

• Starts Bordeaux, France
• Ends Bordeaux, France

Jewels of Southwest France

• Tour Type Small Group Tour
• Activities Art and architecture & Cultural, religious and historic sites
• Transport Coach & Train
• Age Range 18-80 yrs
• Brochure Price: US$ 3,629
• Special Deal (3%): - US$ 100
• Total Price from: US$ 3,529
• May 07 Only 4 seats left
• Jun 25 Only 10 seats left

• Starts Amsterdam, Holland

Glimpse of Europe

• Activities Sightseeing Tours & Art and architecture Sightseeing Tours , Art and architecture & Cultural, religious and historic sites 'data-more-tripid='21253'>+1 more
• Transport Private Vehicle, Coach & Boat
• Brochure Price: US$ 1,695
• Special Deal (19%): - US$ 320
• Total Price from: US$ 1,375
• Apr 29 Only 7 seats left
• May 13 10+ seats left

La Belle France

• Activities War sites & Art and architecture War sites , Art and architecture & Cultural, religious and historic sites 'data-more-tripid='37472'>+1 more
• May 30 Only 4 seats left
• Jun 06 Only 4 seats left

• Starts Nice, France
• Ends Nice, France

Spotlight on the French Riviera

• Accommodation Villa, Resort & Hotel
• Transport Train
• Brochure Price: US$ 2,469
• Special Deal (4%): - US$ 100
• Total Price from: US$ 2,369
• Apr 18 10+ seats left
• Apr 25 10+ seats left

Provence & the French Riviera

• Activities Mountains & Art and architecture Mountains , Art and architecture & Cultural, religious and historic sites 'data-more-tripid='37479'>+1 more
• Accommodation Hotel & Villa
• Brochure Price: US$ 2,799
• Total Price from: US$ 2,699
• Apr 29 Only 10 seats left
• May 13 Only 10 seats left

Classic Europe

• Activities Active and outdoor & Cultural, religious and historic sites Active and outdoor , Cultural, religious and historic sites & Art and architecture 'data-more-tripid='37694'>+1 more
• Transport Coach & Taxi
• Brochure Price: US$ 3,545
• Special Deal (19%): - US$ 690
• Total Price from: US$ 2,855
• Mar 17 10+ seats left
• Mar 31 10+ seats left

France Art and architecture Reviews

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Provence from an Artist’s Point of View Art Tour

Provencal Dreams Come True

My most ardent life dream has always been to live and teach art in France. Just like my favourite art masters, many of my creative inspirations have come from my art sabbaticals to Europe. I fell in love with France at a young age, my very first visit was in 1966, and I have travelled and stayed in this beautiful country many times since. As a professional artist for over 40 years, exploring a new region during each visit to France. Finally, this dream becomes a reality with just a few small alterations in its purpose. I feel that now is the time to share this amazing region full of art, history, and natural beauty in small curated art tours – Provence from an Artist’s Point of View .

Provence Art Tour

In 2011 when I made my annual sabbatical trip to France, I visited the village Gaujac in Southern France, for the first time. I knew then that I had found my home away from home at Rhone Retreat , a French holiday B&B (bed & breakfast). The property consists of a beautiful Château with lovely cottages located in this quiet village near the city of Avignon.

During this trip, I met and befriended Ken Jourdan, the owner of Rhone Retreat. Conversations ensued, and inspirations flowed, with ideas of a joint venture and art tour. We envisioned working together, utilizing our combined talents to form a series of workshops and art tours. We agreed that the Rhone Retreat would be the perfect setting for this endeavour. It’s a beautiful property, established in the early 1800s, located in the quaint village of Gaujac, surrounded by numerous vineyards and historical sites. Our collaborated tours begin this October with the first (of two) Provence from an Artist’s Point of View art tours.

Artist’s Point of View Art Tour

As mentioned earlier, during the last eight (8) years, I travelled to Southern France and surrounding areas many times. Each visit more inspirational than the last. Fast forward to 2019, and I finally realize my dream of curating and sharing my favourite art sites with the Provence from an Artist’s Point of View, an art tour co-hosted with Ken Jourdan!

One of my observations on my artistic visits revealed that many of the local group tours didn’t offer experiences with an authentic artist’s point of view. I wanted to create a tour that offered something different from other trips. A journey that is intimate and personal inspires creativity and explores this region full of creative history. The tour incorporates many of the wonderful experiences I’ve had in the Provence region. My tour’s focus will be visiting some of the most charming and out of the way sites, including private artist studios,  historical cities,  beautiful villages, museums and galleries.

Tour Leaders

During our week together Ken Jourdan , our Rhone Retreat host and chef, will lead us on excursions to the inspiring markets of Uzes, a small town on the edge of the Languedoc-Roussillon region. The market here is quite a treat as you wander through the cobblestone streets to find handmade items and fresh farm food.

Marti Schmidt, a seasoned world traveller and artist for over 40 years, will be your guide through one of the most beautiful parts of Southern France. Marti’s knowledge and love of the Provence region and beyond has developed over the years. She has curated the exclusive tour as an intimate look at her favourite inspirational art locations. Some of these are famous out-of-the-way sites, including artist’s studios, cities, villages, museums and galleries. This region is rich with history, art, architecture, culture and lifestyle.

Come and join us for eight (8) days and seven (7) nights for inspirational adventures of ART and TRAVEL. The trip will hold special memories for a lifetime.

Tour Overview:

• Free travel transfers to and from Marseille Airport.
• 6-nights accommodation in a charming Bed & Breakfast set on picturesque grounds with lush gardens, complete with sparkling pool.
• 1-night stay and accommodations at the historical Hôtel des Augustins in Aix en Provence.
• All meals, artfully crafted by local chefs using fresh seasonal ingredients
• Organized outings ranging from a visit to the Pont du Gard to local village streets of France in the outdoor market and visits to artist studios.
• Prearranged wine tasting with one of the many local wineries.
• One free Massage from Ken Jourdan, Rhone Retreat owner and licensed massage therapist with 25 years experience.
• A variety of free and optional paid add-on excursions.

The tour is limited to a maximum of six (6) people. Guests will be delighted by the tastes and style of the area along with the intimacy and personal service a small group tour offers.

Days are filled with views of the beautiful French countryside while we journey to medieval villages to shop at amazing markets. We’ll enjoy visits to centuries-old UNESCO sites or perhaps travel through the Camargue region were the ancient breed of white horses and flamingos run free. Find inspiration while visiting local artists’ studios, galleries and art museums, or walk in the steps of the art masters. Hang out in a French café enjoying coffee and delicious pastries. Soak up the flavours and culture of the region.

We will visit UNESCO’s World Heritage site, Pont du Gard , a fantastic example of the role that Romans played in the history of our region. We’ll explore the quaint village of Goudargues. A short hike away from the gates of the Rhone Retreat, is l’Oppidum, the remnants of a Roman officer’s bathhouse. These are only a few of the experiences in store for our guests.

The inaugural trip this fall sold out quickly. Future tour dates are to be announced.

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Marti Schmidt is a seasoned traveller and an artist for over 30 years. Let her be your guide through one of the most beautiful parts of Southern France. Marti’s knowledge and love of the Provence region and beyond has developed over the years, and now she has curated the “Provence from and Artists's Point of View Tour,” exclusively as an intimate look her favourite inspirational art locations in the South of France. Some of these are famous out-of-the-way sites, including artists studios, cities, villages, museums and galleries in a region rich with history, art, architecture, culture and lifestyle. Discover Marti's art on her website website MartiSchmidt.com , and her travel writing on L’Artiste Carte Postale and Ink On My Hands . Learn more about her tours here.

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Claude Monet created this garden in Giverny, France, that inspired his water-lily series.

Step into Impressionist paintings on this French tour

During spring, walk across the Japanese bridge in Monet's water garden.

The Impressionists acquired their name from a painting by Claude Monet . It is called “Impressionism, Sunrise,” and shows a hazy scene of Le Havre on the Normandy coast. Monet grew up here and painted in the open air with the older artist Eugène Boudin, so discovering his vocation for capturing light and atmosphere. ( See our travel guide to France .)

Starting in Le Havre , you can visit the beaches of Deauville and Trouville and the fishing village of Honfleur, then follow the “Alabaster Coast” east to Dieppe, taking in the cliffs at Étretat and Fécamp. At various times these places attracted Monet’s fellow Impressionists: Pissarro, Manet, Degas, Renoir, and Berthe Morisot.

The trail then leads inland to Rouen , where Monet produced an epic series of cathedral facade. Farther upriver, on the east bank of the Seine, lies Giverny , Monet’s home for the second half of his life. Here, you can visit the garden that he so lovingly created and which inspired his water-lily series.

Related: these arresting nature photos look like paintings brought to life

Arriving in Paris , you are reminded of the Impressionists’ love of urban subjects. The city was being modernized at the time, so today it looks much as they painted it—imagine people in the 19th-century dress and horse-drawn carriages rattling by, and you have stepped into Renoir’s “Pont Neuf” or Degas’s “Place de la Concorde.”

Visit from March to November, when Monet’s house and garden are open. Spring and early summer show the flowers at their best.

The independent traveler can easily follow the route along the Seine Valley by rail or car. For Giverny by rail from Rouen or Paris, get off at Vernon. In Normandy, the administrative district, or département , of Seine-Maritime arranges excellent Impressionist-themed itineraries along the coast.

The journey from Honfleur via La Havre and the coast to Dieppe and then Paris is about 200 miles (322 km). Allow three days minimum; five for a relaxed tour.

Insider tip

For a really authentic stopover in Giverny, stay at Le Bon Marèchal , a café/bed-and-breakfast with just three rooms, where Monet and his friends used to meet and talk.

Must-see highlights

• Wander the Normandy cliffs and watch the changing northern light.
• In Monet’s house at Giverny, the colorful rooms are hung with his collection of Japanese prints.
• The Musée des Impressionnismes in Giverny displays American painters from 1750 to the present, including Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, and James McNeil Whistler.
• Visit the Bois de Boulogne , a park west of Paris, painted by Renoir and Morisot.
• The Musée Marmottan has the world’s largest collection of works by Monet, and many by Morisot, Renoir, Pissarro, and their contemporaries.
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Bordeaux to the Basque Country (9 days) Bordeaux, Biarritz, San Sebastian with Rioja & Bilbao

Paris & Morocco (9 Days) Paris, Atlas Mountains, Marrakesh

London & Paris (9 Days) London & environs, Paris & Versailles

Paris & Beirut (8 Days ) Paris, Beirut, Byblos, Beiteddine Palace, Baalbek

Food & Wine Tour of France & Switzerland (11 Days) Paris, Reims & Champagne, Burgundy, Lausanne with Lavaux & Emmental

Amsterdam, Brussels & Paris (10 Days) Amsterdam with The Hague & Delft, Brussels with Ghent & Bruges, Paris & Versailles

France & Italy: Best of the Riviera (7 Days) Cote d'Azur, Portofino & Cinque Terre

London, Amsterdam & Paris (12 days) London & environs, Amsterdam & environs, Paris & Versailles

Exclusive Basque Country, Portugal & Morocco Tour (21 Days) Bilbao, Biarritz, San Sebastian, La Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Douro Valley, Porto, Lisbon, Marrakesh, Atlas Mountains

Art Tour of France

(10 Days - Departs Daily on a Private Basis ) Paris & Versailles, Provence, Cote d’Azur

France is a wonderful destination for culture lovers, and this private art tour of France is the best way to experience some of the most memorable masterpieces of French art and architecture. It combines the sophistication of Paris with the inspiring light, landscapes and lifestyle of the South of France.

Begin in Paris , one of the great art cities of the world. During flexible private touring with your expert art guide, visit the most interesting museums and cultural sites according to your interests. Suggested options include the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, L'Orangerie, Rodin Museum, Musee Marmottan Monet, Centre Pompidou, Guimet Museum, Institut du Monde Arabe, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, the Eiffel Tower, the former artist colony of Montmartre, and the Luxembourg and Tuileries gardens. Other private touring options include visiting specialty chocolate shops, cheese shops and bakeries; walking through the exclusive residential streets on Ile St-Louis, the old Jewish quarter in the Marais, or the medieval streets of the Latin Quarter; visiting hidden gardens and parks; and shopping for antiques in flea markets or haute couture in fashionable boutiques.

One day, enjoy a private excursion to Versailles . Tour Louis XIV’s opulent palace, extensive gardens, the town's historic covered market and other highlights such as Le Petit Trianon, and Hameau de la Reine, the mock hamlet created for Marie-Antoinette.

Continue to Chateau La Coste , a beautiful vineyard and winery in the Provence countryside with outstanding contemporary architecture by Jean Nouvel, Tadao Ando and Frank Gehry, and a renowned collection of art by Louise Bourgeois, Andy Goldsworthy and other artists. Stay at Villa La Coste, a luxury hotel and spa among the vineyards. Also enjoy regional touring to see art and architecture highlights in Arles or Aix-en-Provence .

Conclude on the beautiful Cote d’Azur with a stay at a luxurious resort overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. During private touring, visit the art highlights of the region, such as the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence (Matisse Chapel), Fondation Maeght (including a dining reservation at legendary La Colombe d'Or), the Prince’s Palace, and villas in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat such as Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild.  Also explore interesting towns along the waterfront and in the hills of the French Riviera and Monaco, such as Nice, Cannes, Eze, Saint-Paul de Vence, Antibes and Monte-Carlo. Also stroll along waterside promenades, sample local culinary specialties, and browse markets such as the flower and antiques markets in Nice. Another option is a full-day excursion to Fondation Carmignac, a private art collection on a bucolic island in the Mediterranean. We can also arrange special interest activities such as learning to make your own perfume at a workshop in Grasse, chartered boat excursions, wine tasting, biking and more. During leisure time, enjoy your luxury resort and its beach club.

Booking Information >

All Artisans of Leisure tours are private and depart daily.

Please Contact Us for more information regarding the above tour, or to begin customizing your own itinerary.

The Artisans of Leisure Style of Travel:

Testimonials

Our France tour was one of the best trips ever. Our guide and driver were superb. My Artisans of Leisure consultant is the queen of travel plans! ~ A.D., Hollis, NH

Wow! Artisans of Leisure has done it again! We experienced another sensational tour in France. Our accommodations were wonderful…I know it’s not just our good luck that we got upgraded. We can’t express our gratitude enough for the planning process, cooperation and the excellent   implementation. We are huge fans! ~ M.G., Calgary, Canada

My clients’ Artisans of Leisure France tour is the talk of the town! Everything was absolutely perfect…it was the trip of a lifetime. I cannot recommend ANY travel planners or executors of travel plans more highly than Artisans of Leisure. You have extensive knowledge AND know-how. ~C.R. (travel agent), Nantucket, MA

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Luxury Hotels in France

In the Press

Recommended by:

Departures Conde Nast Traveler The New York Times Wall Street Journal Travel + Leisure Town & Country

France On Our Blog

Just Back: A Family Tour of the Iconic Highlights of Normandy, France

Culture, Cuisine & Lavender in the South of France

Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild on the Cote d’Azur

Just Back: French History, Art, Interiors and Fine Dining in Paris & Versailles

Our Favorite Museums in Paris

Touring the Palais Garnier Opera House in Paris

Iconic Image: Mont Saint-Michel in France

Private Perfume-Making Lessons in Grasse, France

Formula 1 Races in Monaco: VIP and Exclusive Access

Lavender Season in Provence

A Private Tour of Veuve Clicquot in Champagne

Chateau Villandry in the Loire Valley, France

Must Visit: La Colombe d’Or in Saint-Paul de Vence, France

Just Back: An Incredible Tour of France, Spain & Portugal

The Hospices de Beaune in Burgundy, France

Just Back: The Best of Paris, Provence & the Cote d’Azur

Exclusive Access to Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte in France

Just Back: Austria, Germany, France & Switzerland

Carcassonne: An Ideal Stop Between Barcelona & the South of France

A Family Tour of Paris, Versailles & the Loire Valley in France

Must Stay: Chateau la Cheneviere in Normandy

Must Stay: La Bastide de Gordes in Provence

Versailles Beyond the Palace: Markets, Gardens, Antiques, Nature, Luxury & More

Family Travel at Its Best

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Painting Workshops: France – Provence

Itinerary-Provence

Teachers- dates & rates, photo gallery-provence, how to book.

On this plein-air workshop in Provence, you will discover why the region has been an inspiration for generations of artists like Van Gogh and Cezanne.

It will be a trip you will never forget!

Day 1: Welcome Champagne Reception

Upon your arrival at our guesthouse, take time to settle in or explore the village.

In the evening, you will enjoy a welcome reception followed by a gourmet dinner.

Day 2: Ochre Village of Roussillon

At the end of the day, we will take a walk inside the park, on the Ochre Trail revealing many fantastic rock and cliff formations.

You will also have time for shopping: don’t miss out on the unique reddish potteries.

Day 3: Most Spectacular Villages in Provence – Gordes and Luberon Villages

The view to the village is a breathtaking panorama out across fields, vineyards and small-perched villages to the Montagne du Luberon.

Although Gordes is beautiful, we will spend more time painting/sketching in the a tiny non touristy village of the Luberon whose name we keep secret!!

Day 4: Market and Canals in ‘Isle sur la Sorgue’

Its colors are nature’s green and the bright reflection of the water shines from the several canals running through its center.

In the morning, we will shop the incredible and colorful market : colorful arrays of Provencal fabric, tablecloths, pottery , silk scarves, natural soaps with dozens of scents and of course lavender products. The afternoon is all yours to paint the canals, the stalls, the village.

Day 5: Painting in the Village

If we are staying at the hotel in St Remy de Provence, you will have time to paint in the olive fields, the same trees Vincent Van Gogh painted 150 years ago.

Day 6: On Van Gogh’s Trail in St. Remy de Provence

Outside the hospital, you will be able to paint the wonderful landscape that inspired the great impressionist with the same olive trees Van Gogh painted and the Alpilles mountains as background.

Day 7: Medieval Village in the Luberon

Back at the hotel, you will be able to work in the garden to finish up some of your paintings and finish the week with a “show and tell” or critique.

Day 8: Departure

After our last breakfast together, we’ll drive you to the TGV Avignon train station by 9:30 am.

Painting Workshop in Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Painting the lavender in the Luberon, Provence during the oil painting workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor sketch by artist Brenda Swenson at the Mausole de St Paul in St Remy de Provence during the travel sketching workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Lavender fields in the Luberon, Provence. Picture taken during the oil painting workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Plein-air painting and sketching workshops in Provence run by www.frenchescapade.com Lavender fields in the Luberon, Provence. Watercolor sketching workshop taught by Leslie Fehling and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Lavender fields in the Luberon, Provence. Picture taken during the travel sketching workshop taught by artist Adrienne Retief and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Plein-air painting and sketching workshops in Provence run by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor sketching workshop taught by Leslie Fehling and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Roussillon, Provence. Picture taken during the watercolor painting workshop taught by Frank Eber and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Roussillon, Provence. Picture taken during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Village in the Luberon, Provence, France. Photo taken during oil painting workshop taught by Cherry Sweig and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor artists in the Luberon, Provence, France the travel sketching workshop taught by Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Oil Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Oil painter in the Luberon, Provence, France during the oil painting workshop taught by Daniel James Keys and run by www.frenchescapade.com

Journal Sketching Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Brenda Swenson in Provence and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor artist Brenda Swenson and organizer Jackie Grandchamps in Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor artists in Gordes, Provence, France, during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Iain Stewart and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Gordes in Luberon, during the sketching workshop run by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor sketching workshop taught by Leslie Fehling and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Artist Daniel James Keys in Gordes, Provence, France, during his oil painting workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Demo by artist Daniel James Keys in Venasque, Provence, France, during his oil painting workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Daniel J. Keys, oil painting teacher in Provence for www.frenchescapade.com Demo by artist Daniel James Keys in Venasque, Provence, France, during his oil painting workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Welcome meeting on our Provence painting workshops, organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Dessert at our hotel in St Remy de Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Painting Vincent Van Gogh's olive trees in St Remy de Provence on the watercolor painting trip organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Vincent Van Gogh's bedroom at the Mausole de St Paul in St Remy de Provence and watercolor sketch by artist Brenda Swenson during the travel sketching workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor sketch from teacher Brenda Swenson in the garden of St-Paul-de-Mausole in St Remy-de-Provence, during the watercolor painting workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com St-Paul-de-Mausole in St Remy-de-Provence where Van Gogh stayed. Picture taken during the watercolor painting workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Van Gogh's hospital St Remy de Provence with www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor sketching workshop taught by Leslie Fehling and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Mont Ventoux, Provence. Picture taken during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Adrienne Retief and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com St Remy de Provence, France. Picture taken during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Venasque, Provence. Picture taken during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Iain Stewart and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com St Remy de Provence, France. Picture taken during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Keiko Tanabe and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Watercolor Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Brenda Swenson in Provence and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Poppy field in Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Iain Stewart and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Artist Iain Stewart in the Luberon, Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Watercolor Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Iain Stewart in Provence and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Roussillon, Provence. Picture taken during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Evelyn Dunphy and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Roussillon, Provence. Picture taken during the oil painting workshop taught by artist Pat Fiorello and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Jackie Grandchamps looking at the breathtaking view her favorite village in the Luberon, Provence, France, where she brought her artist travelers on the watercolor painting workshop taught by Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence with www.frenchescapade.com Market at Isle sur la Morgue, Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by Franck Eber and run by ww.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Nougat on the market in St Remy de Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Market in Isle sur la Sorgue, Provence. Picture taken during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Iain Stewart and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Painting the lavender in the Luberon, Provence during the oil painting workshop taught by teacher Sherril Miller and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor sketch of the lavender in the Luberon, Provence, by artist Brenda Swenson, during the travel sketching workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Painting the lavender in the garden of St-Paul-de-Mausole in St Remy-de-Provence where Van Gogh stayed. Oil painting workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor painting of the lavender in the Luberon, Provence, by artist Keiko Tanabe, during the painting vacation organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Painting vignette in a village in the Luberon, Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Iain Stewart and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Journal sketching in Provence with www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor sketching workshop taught by Leslie Fehling and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Plein-air painting and sketching workshops in Provence run by www.frenchescapade.com Plein air painting and sketching workshops in Provence taught by Kirah Van Sickle and run by www.frenchescapade.com

Plein-air painting and sketching workshops in Provence run by www.frenchescapade.com Plein air oil painting workshop in Provence taught by Jennifer Mc Christian and run by www.frenchescapade.com

St Remy de Provence painting workshop with www.frenchescapade.com Plein air painting and sketching workshops in Provence run by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor artists in Provence, France during the travel sketching workshop taught by artist Benda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Market in Isle sur la Sorgue, Provence. Picture taken during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Keiko Tanabe and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Tour guides of 'French Escapade" during the travel sketching workshop taught by artist Benda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Isle sur la Sorgue, Provence, France. Photo taken during the watercolor painting workshop taught by Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Art teacher Kirah Van Sickle in Provence with www.frenchescapade.com Plein air painting and sketching workshops in Provence run by www.frenchescapade.com

Leslie Fehling, art teacher in Provence with www.frenchescapade.com Plein air painting and sketching workshops in Provence run by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence with www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor painting workshop in Provence taught by Franck Eber and run by ww.frenchescapade.com

Keiko Tanabe, art instructor in Provence for www.frenchescapade.com Artist Keiko Tanabe in Isle sur la Sorgue, Provence, France during her watercolor painting workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com PIcnique in St Remy de Provence, France with watercolor artists on the watercolor painting workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Picnic in the Luberon, Provence, France prepared by Jackie Grandchamps, owner of www.frenchescapade.com and organized for watercolor artists.

Plein-air painting and sketching workshops in Provence run by www.frenchescapade.com Picnic in the Luberon, Provence, France prepared by Jackie Grandchamps, owner of www.frenchescapade.com and organized for watercolor artists.

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com PIcnic in the Luberon, Provence, France with watercolor artists on the watercolor painting workshop taught by Keiko Tanabe and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Picnic by the lavender fields, in the Luberon, Provence, France with watercolor artists on the watercolor painting workshop taught by Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Frank Eber, art instructor in Provence with www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor painting workshop in Provence, France, taught by Franck Eber and run by ww.frenchescapade.com

Watercolor sketching Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Journal sketch of the romanesque ruins in St Remy de Provence, France on the watercolor painting workshop taught by Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Journal sketches of the romanesque ruins in St Remy de Provence, France on the watercolor painting workshop taught by Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Oil Painting Workshop Provence with www.frenchescapade.com Oil painting workshop in Provence taught by Jennifer Mc Christian run by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Secret village in the Luberon, Provence, France painted on the oil painting workshop taught by Daniel James Keys and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Plein-air watercolor workshop in Provence with www.frenchescapade.com Plein air painting and sketching workshops in Provence run by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Jackie's secret village in the Luberon, Provence, France painted on watercolor painting workshop taught by Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Secret village in the Luberon, Provence, France painted on the watercolor painting workshop taught by Sonja Hamilton and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Keiko Tanabe, watercolor painting teacher for www.frenchescapade.com Village in the Luberon, Provence, France painted watercolor artist Keiko Tanabe on her watercolor workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Village in the Luberon, Provence, France. Photo taken on the travel sketching workshop taught by Evelyn Dunphy and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Watercolor Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Journal sketch in St Remy de Provence, France from artist Brenda Swenson on her watercolor painting workshop run by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Journal sketch in St Remy de Provence, France from an watercolor artist during the travel sketching workshop taught by artist Brenda Swenson and run by www.frenchescapade.com

Oil Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Village in the Luberon, Provence, France. Photo taken on the watercolor painting workshop taught by Frank Eber and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Plein-air painting workshop in Provence run by www.frenchescapade.com Oil painter in the Luberon, Provence, France during the oil painting workshop taught by Jennifer Mc Christian and run by www.frenchescapade.com

Watercolor Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Martha Johnson in Provence and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Oil painting workshop taught by Daniel James Keys in Venasque, Provence, France and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Oil painting workshop taught by Daniel James Keys in St Remy de Provence, France and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor Artist Erin Hill in St Remy de Provence, France during the travel sketching workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Travel sketching workshop taught by artist Erin Hill in St Remy de Provence, France and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Travel sketches from participants on the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Erin Hill in St Remy de Provence, France and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Journal sketching workshop Provence with www.frenchescapade.com Plein air painting and sketching workshops in Provence taught by Leslie Fehling and run by www.frenchescapade.com

Plein-air painting and sketching workshops in Provence run by www.frenchescapade.com Plein air painting and sketching workshops in Provence taught by Leslie Fehling and run by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Van Goghs's sky at our hotel in St Remy de Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com PIcnique in the Luberon, Provence, France with watercolor artists on the watercolor painting workshop taught by Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Painting vignette in Provence, France for our watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Evelyn Dunphy and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Breakfast on the terrace of our B&B in Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Keiko Tanabe and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com View from our B&B in Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Evelyn Dunphy and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com On the terrace of our B&B in Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Keiko Tanabe and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence with www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor painting workshop in Provence, France, taught by Evelyn Dunphy and run by ww.frenchescapade.com

Oil Painting Workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com Demo by artist Daniel James Keys in Venasque, Provence, France, during his oil painting workshop organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Painting vignette in Provence, France for our watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Frank Eber and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Street view by our B&B in Provence, France for our watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Frank Eber and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Medieval remparts in Provence, France. Picture taken for our watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Frank Eber and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com View from the terrace of our B&B in Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Adrienne Retief and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence with www.frenchescapade.com Watercolor artists in Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by Evelyn Dunphy and run by ww.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Foot treatment in St Remy de Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Starter at our hotel in St Remy de Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

Painting Workshop Provence organized by www.frenchescapade.com Delicious Starter at our hotel in St Remy de Provence, France during the watercolor painting workshop taught by artist Brenda Swenson and organized by www.frenchescapade.com

1 Fill out the reservation form below. You will receive an email with information on how to pay your deposit. You can pay via ZELLE, credit card (using paypal) or bank transfer

2 Send us a $600 deposit within one week. The deposit is not refundable but $300 is transferrable to a future trip . See our Cancelation Policy below.

3 The remaining balance is due 3 months before departure.

Cancellation Policy

Thank you for traveling with us!

• Recordings of online classes
• Testimonials

• Louvre: Introduction to the Treasures
• Louvre: Paris Muse Clues: A Family Tour
• Louvre: A Nile Family Voyage
• Louvre: Quest for Families with Teens
• Louvre: History of Paris in Paintings
• Louvre: The ‘Hidden” Masterpieces
• Louvre: The History of the Louvre

Versailles Unlocked

• Families Ages 6-12: Time to Explore Paris
• Families Ages 6-12: Paris Muse Clues at the Louvre
• Families Ages 6-12: Meet the Impressionists at the Orsay
• Families Ages 6-12: A Nile Family Voyage at the Louvre
• Families Ages 12+: The French Revolution: A Murder Mystery Tour
• Families Ages 12+: Louvre Quest for Teens
• Families Ages 12+: Historic Heart Walk for Teens

Contemporary Art at the Bourse

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An Art Lover’s Road Trip Through the South of France

By Stefanie Waldek

It’s been said by critics and admirers alike that there’s something special about the light in the South of France, which has long been a draw for artists seeking to capture it in their work. As such, the region has become a haven for art lovers looking to visit the studios of their favorite painters as well as the museums dedicated to their oeuvres. And, given the scenic landscapes—from the lavender fields of Provence to the rocky coastline of the Côte d'Azur—it’s the perfect place for an art lover’s road trip.

Begin the journey in Paris at Gare de Lyon and hop aboard the high-speed TGV train to Nîmes, a comfortable ride that takes just three hours (and has free WiFi!). Pick up the rental car at the main station, but don’t rush out of town right away. Visit the Carre d’Art , a contemporary art museum housed in a striking building by Norman Foster, set across the street from a Roman temple from the 1st century B.C. If time allows, visit some of the other Roman works in town, like the Pont du Gard aqueduct and the well-preserved amphitheater.

View of the Carre d’Art from Maison Carree at dusk.

From Nîmes, drive 40 minutes south to Arles, which was once the residence of Vincent van Gogh . Though the famous yellow house he painted no longer exists, you can visit another location that was the subject of one of his works: the sidewalk café from Café Terrace at Night . And for more context on the artist’s hyper-productive period in the city, visit the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles , which puts the work of the Dutch master in conversation with contemporary artists through its exhibitions. If you’re visiting in the second half of this year, visit the new Luma Arles , a contemporary art center designed by Frank Gehry that is scheduled to partially open in May.

Continue on to the nearby village of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, a 30-minute drive north. Here you’ll find Saint-Paul de Mausole , the asylum where van Gogh sought treatment after his breakdown in Arles. It’s now a museum dedicated to the artist, his works, and the psychiatric treatment he received.

The café that van Gogh painted.

The next stop on your road trip should be Aix-en-Provence, the birthplace of Paul Cézanne, an hour east from Saint-Remy. Follow the Cézanne Trail—maps are available online —to visit the artist’s important sites, including his atelier , which can be toured. Cap the Cézanne tour with a stop at the Musée Granet , which has works by the artist and many others including Rembrandt, Alberto Giacometti, and Paul Klee in its collection. Contemporary art lovers will want to schedule a visit to Château La Coste , a winery, hotel, and architectural sculpture park with works by Tadao Ando, Louise Bourgeois, and Renzo Piano, among many others.

Saint-Paul de Mausole monastery.

By Katherine McLaughlin

By Bianca Giulione

Hop back in the car and drive 40 minutes south to Marseille, France’s second-largest city, to explore their art scene. Visit the Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (MuCEM) to catch one of its rotating art exhibitions, and head to art gallery Marseille Modulor (MAMO) . MAMO is set on the rooftop of Le Corbusier’s social housing project, Unité d’Habitation, also known as Cité Radieuse, which is a must-see for architecture buffs. Cap off your time in the city at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille .

Paul Cezanne’s studio, which is open to the public for visits.

Up next is the French Riviera. Though you might be tempted to sip cocktails all day long in Saint-Tropez after the two-hour drive from Marseille, don’t miss a visit to the Musée de l'Annonciade , a small museum in a 16th-century chapel dedicated to modern artists who frequented the city, like Paul Signac. Keeping heading about an hour and 20 minutes northwest toward Nice to visit the Musée National Picasso in Vallauris, which holds a collection of the artist’s ceramic works that he created in his studio in town, or the Musée Picasso in neighboring Antibes, housed in the former Château Grimaldi. Visitors can also drop by the Musée National Fernand Léger in Biot , the Museé Renoir in the artist’s home and studio in Cagnes-sur-Mer, and the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a private collection of 20th-century art in a building by Spanish architect Josep Lluís Sert.

A view of Saint Tropez.

The final stop on your South of France road trip is Nice, just 30 minutes from Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Though the city is perhaps best known as a gastronomical capital, it also has a flourishing museum scene. Visit monographic museums like the Musée Matisse and the Musée Marc Chagall, or encyclopedic ones like the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice or the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain (MAMAC) .

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Art Lover's Tour of Europe - Italy, Switzerland, France, Netherlands

Grand history tour of europe - france, germany, czech republic, scientific marvels of europe - italy, switzerland, france, england.

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Day 1: Welcome to Rome

Welcome to Rome! On arrival you are met by your Travel Director and transferred to your accommodation. (D)

Day 2: Rome Sightseeing

This morning, visit the Vatican Museum with a Local Expert. Admire the papal art collection and enter the Sistine Chapel and admire Michelangelo’s masterpiece on its ceiling. Next door, in St Peter’s Basilica, see one of Michelangelo’s early works, the Pieta, and the splendid dome, completed after his death. Afterwards, visit the Colosseum, where the gladiators prepared for battle. (B, RD)

Day 3: Tuscan Hills onto Florence

Journey through the picturesque Tuscan Hills towards Florence. On arrival, join a local art historian to see Michelangelo’s David in the Accademia Museum. (B, D)

Day 4: Renaissance Florence

This morning, see the multi-coloured marble cathedral, bell tower and baptistery, adorned by Ghiberti’s ‘Gates of Paradise’. Then join a Local Expert for a visit to the Uffizi Galleries, one of the oldest and most famous art museums in Europe. You'll also enjoy works by Michelangelo, Botticelli and Raphael, among other masterpieces. (B, RD)

Day 5: Leaning Tower of Pisa & Milan

Stop first in Pisa to see the incredible Leaning Tower, as well as its splendid cathedral and baptistery. Continue north to the financial and fashion capital Milan. (B, D)

Day 6: Experience Milan

This morning, visit the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie with a Local Expert. It is an outstanding work of architecture and an emblem within the Catholic tradition, and is perhaps even more famous for its connection to Leonardo Da Vinci’s fresco of ‘The Last Supper’, which is preserved inside its refectory (dining hall). The Church is one of Renaissance art’s most important testimonies and has therefore been included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (tickets to the Last Supper are subject to availability).  Later, for a change of pace, we embark on an alternative visit to Milan to see urban graffiti, murals and street art scattered around the city. Get a glimpse of an alternative Milan, meet colourful characters, learn about modern-day Milan and be inspired by the vibrancy of city life.  (B, D)

Day 7: Milan to Basel

Travel across the border into Switzerland. En route, we stop for a cheese or chocolate tasting before heading to Basel. (B, D)

Day 8: Basel Sightseeing

Explore Basel, with a Local Expert, concluding with a visit to Foundation Beyeler In 1997, the famous collection of Ernst and Hildy Beyeler in Riehen. The collection contains around 200 pictures and sculptures, including works by Cézanne, Picasso, Rousseau, Mondrian, Klee, Ernst, Matisse and Newman.  Famous around the world, the astounding temporary exhibitions are highlights of your visit. (B, D)

Day 9: Basel to Paris

Travel through the French countryside to Paris. (B, D)

Day 10: Best of Paris

After an orientation tour, visit one of the world's best-known art collections at the Louvre Museum. A specialist art historian guides you through the galleries to see the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, Mona Lisa and more (Louvre visit subject to availability). Continue on a visit to the Notre Dame Cathedral, famously protected by its roof-top gargoyles, to learn about over-arching Parisian history. This evening, embark on an illuminations journey in Paris to see iconic sights at night. (B, HD)

Day 11: Musee De L’orangerie & Giverney

This morning, visit the Musée de l'Orangerie, an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. Though most famous for being the permanent home of eight Water Lilies murals by Claude Monet, the museum also contains works by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Rousseau, Alfred Sisley, Chaim Soutine, and Maurice Utrillo, among others. Afterwards, we head to Monet’s garden in Giverney to see the inspiration of some of his most famous works before heading back to Paris. (BB, D)

Day 12: Paris to Amsterdam

Travel through northern France and Belgium en route to Amsterdam. (BB, D)

Day 13: Amsterdam Galleries – Rijksmuseum & Vincent van Gogh Museum

Admire world-famous masterpieces in the Rijksmuseum, which has on display 8,000 objects of art and history. There is a total collection of 1 million objects, spanning the years 1200–2000AD, among which are masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer. Then onto the Vincent van Gogh Museum, which is dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in Amsterdam. The museum is home to the largest collection of Vincent van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.  This evening, enjoy a canal cruise dinner to bid farewell to our time in Europe. (B, FD)

Day 14: Farewell Amsterdam

Your tour concludes after breakfast with a transfer to the airport for your onward flight. (B)

Day 1: Welcome to Paris

Welcome to Paris! On arrival at Charles De Gaulle airport you will be met by your Travel Director and transferred to your hotel.

Day 2: Paris From a History Perspective

Learn about the significance of the French Revolution and visit key sites such as Place de la Bastille, Les Invalides War Museum, the Conciergerie and Place de la Concorde. In the evening enjoy a walk along the Champs-Elysees, followed by a cruise along the River Seine. (BB)

Day 3: Disneyland in Paris

Spend the day at Disneyland Paris. Included in your tour is a full-day, one-park pass to either Disneyland Park or Disney Studio Park. (BB)

Day 4: Versailles & D-Day Memorial

Travel this morning to Versailles and visit the Palace of Versailles to see its opulent rooms and gardens. Experience the extraordinary Hall of Mirrors where the historic Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending World War I.  Continue to Arromanches and visit the D-Day Memorial. It’s then onto Bayeux for our overnight stay. (BB, D)

Day 5: Battle of the Somme

Today we visit Amiens and the nearby Somme Battlefields, where some of the most intense fighting took place during World War I. More than 3 million men fought in this battle with1 million wounded or killed. We visit some of the many interesting memorials and museums dedicated to the fallen. Our overnight stay is in Amiens.  (BB, D)

Day 6: The Lost Territories - Strasbourg

We travel to Verdum where you will visit the Verdum Battlefields and War Memorial.  Our journey continues to Strasbourg, on the border of Germany, for our overnight stay. (BB)

Day 7: Strasbourg to Colmar

In the morning travel to Colmar where you will enjoy a boat tour in the canal quarter, followed by a walking tour around Petite Venise and the historic centre. From Colmar, continue to Riquewihr for a walking tour in the town.  We then visit Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg for a visit to the castle, before arriving back in Strasbourg for our overnight stay. (BB)

Day 8: Europa Park & Friedrichshafen

Spend the day at the Europa Park, one of the best theme parks in Europe. This evening we overnight in Friedrichshafen. (BB, D)

Day 9: Meersburg Castle onto Munich

Begin your morning with a walk up to Meersburg Castle. We then make our way to the well-known Neuschwanstein for a tour to the castle and a horse-carriage ride down the mountain. Then it’s onto Munich where a Local Expert will take you on a walking tour in the city centre, including key sites related to Hitler’s time in Munich and the Third Reich. Finally we visit the Nazi Documentation Centre. (BB)

Day 10: Eagle’s Nest & Obersalzburg

A short drive out of Munich, visit Hitler’s former retreat, known as the Eagle’s Nest. Afterwards, stop for lunch at Obersalzburg (own expense) and continue to the Konigsee for a boat tour on the Lake and a chance to swim in Lake Chiemsee. Return to Munich for your overnight stay. (BB)

Day 11: Dachau & Rothenburg

We start the day with a tour to the Munich Residenz Museum. It is then onto Dachau for a sobering visit to the concentration camp. Our overnight stay is in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. (BB)

Day 12: Explore Medieval Rothenburg

Rothenburg was regarded by the Nazis as the most “German” of German towns. Visit the Museum of Torture, explore the medieval city and battlements, and join a Nightwatchman tour. (BB)

Day 13: Nazi History in Nuremberg

We depart Rothenburg and continue to Nuremburg in the morning. On arrival, join a Local Expert for a tour to city centre. Walk up to the Kaiserburg Castle, visit the Nazi parade grounds and the Albert Speer Documentation Centre to bring to life the history of Hitler’s rise to power. In the afternoon, visit the Palace of Justice and Courtroom 600, the location of the Nuremburg Nazi trials. (BB)

Day 14: Onto Magical Prague

This morning travel to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. On arrival, join your Travel Director for an orientation tour of the old town centre, including the town square, St Nicholas Church and Tyn Church. Afterwards visit Prague Castle and walk to Charles Bridge. (BB)

Day 15: Museum visits in Prague

Visit The Prague Communism Museum, Jewish Museum and the Kepler Museum today. (BB)

Day 16: Military History in Dresden

In the morning we travel to Dresden where we join a Local Expert for a tour of the Dresden’s Zwinger Palace, the Bundeswehr Military History Museum, the Dresden Armoury and Frauenkirche. (BB)

Day 17: Tropical Islands Water Park

Depart Dresden and spend the day at the Tropical Islands Water theme park. (BB)

Day 18: Berlin Sightseeing

Tour to Berlin starts with a visit to the ‘Story of Berlin’ Museum to provide an overview of the city’s tumultuous history. Your journey with a Local Expert includes the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, sections of the Berlin Wall and Alexanderplatz. Visit also the Zeppelin Field and the Jewish Museum, the German Resistance Memorial Centre and the Holocaust Memorial. (BB)

Day 19: Farewell Berlin

On our final morning we visit the Wansee Haus Museum and Documentation Centre of the “Final Solution”. Later, explore the DDR Museum to learn about life under communist rule after the end of World War II. We bid farewell to Berlin and make our way to the airport for flights home. (BB)

Day 1: Welcome to Florence

Welcome to Italy! On arrival at Bologna airport, you will be met by your Travel Director and driver. We continue to our hotel in Florence where you’ll have time to settle in, before enjoying a welcome dinner at the hotel. (WD)

Day 2: Discover Florence

After a restful night’s sleep and breakfast at the hotel, we visit the Basilica di Santa Croce and Museo Galileo, home to the only surviving instruments designed and built by Galileo himself. The remainder of the day is free for you to explore Florence. (BB)

Day 3: Florence at your Leisure

Enjoy a day at leisure. Explore captivating Florence at your own pace or join your Travel Director for a day tour to Vallombrosa to see the Monastery where Galileo studied. (Guided tours only available in July & August). (BB)

Day 4: Bologna to Padua

After breakfast at your hotel, spend the morning at leisure. In the afternoon, we drive through Bologna to Padua where you’ll enjoy a local 3-course dinner alongside a guest lecturer from the Padua University. (Lecturer organised by MTG.)  (BB, HD)

Day 5: Padua to Venice

Today we visit the Il Bo University, the second oldest university in Italy, for a guided tour. The afternoon is free for you to visit the Botanical gardens and St Anthony Basilica. Later in the afternoon, we continue to our hotel, situated in Mestre Venice, where we will stay for 2 nights. (BB)

Day 6: Romantic Venice at your Leisure

After breakfast, the rest of the day is yours to explore romantic Venice at leisure. (BB)

Day 7: Onto Swiss Geneva

Les Nations Hotel After a restful night’s sleep, we cross the border to Switzerland. On arrival into Geneva enjoy a late afternoon cruise on Lake Geneva.   Afterwards we check into our hotel. (BB)

Day 8: Nuclear Science in Cern & Geneva Exploration

After breakfast we travel to CERN (subject to availability) to visit the European Organisation for Nuclear Research and see the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. The remainder of the day is free to explore the city of Geneva. (BB)

Day 9: Geneva to Paris

Enjoy a delightful drive through the French countryside, as we make our way to Paris. On arrival you are free to relax or explore the city of love on your own. Gather for dinner at the hotel, during which you’ll enjoy the company of a guest speaker from the Marie Curie Museum. (Lecturer organised by MTG.) (BB, D)

Day 10: Gardens of Paris

Visit the Botanical Gardens in the morning. Here you will discover the Alpine Gardens, which contain 2000 mountain plants from all over the world. Wander through the rose garden, the iris garden and the Botany School's Garden, where 4500 species are labelled and regrouped by families. (BB)

Day 11: Arts & Metier Museum in Paris

Take time to visit the Arts and Metier Museum and spend the rest of the day at leisure to explore the wonderful city of Paris. (BB)

Day 12: Science in Paris

After breakfast in the morning, visit the Marie Curie Museum. Completely re-designed, the Museum reveals the life and times of a family of unusual physicists and their huge contribution to science. The rest of the day is at leisure. (BB)

Day 13: Paris at your Leisure

Enjoy a day at leisure to explore the city of Paris. (BB)

Day 14: Eurostar to London

Bid farewell to Paris today, as we travel by Eurostar to London. On arrival we will be met and transferred to a local pub for lunch. We’ll then check into our hotel and you’ll have the rest of the day to enjoy at leisure. (BB, L)

Day 15: Day Tour to Kent

Today we travel to Kent to visit the Down House, the home of Charles Darwin, before returning to our London hotel. (BB)

Day 16: Scientific Marvels of London

Enjoy a full day of sightseeing, including a visit to the Royal Observatory, Flamsteed, Meridian Courtyard and Maritime Museum, and a cruise on the River Thames. The remainder of the day is at leisure. (BB)

Day 17: Royal Society & Faraday Museum in London

This morning we visit the Royal Society followed by a visit to the Faraday Museum at the Royal Institution.  Lunch is served at a local restaurant. (BB, L)

Day 18: Westminster & Science Museum in London

We spend the morning visiting Westminster Abbey and the afternoon exploring the Science Museum in Kensington. (BB)

Day 19: Discover Cambridge

After breakfast, we continue to the university town of Cambridge for a 2-night stop. Enjoy a private walking exploration of the town including a visit to Trinity College – the largest of the Cambridge Colleges. (BB)

Day 20: Cambridge at your Leisure

Today is yours to explore at leisure.  We meet again in the evening to celebrate the end of our tour with a farewell dinner at our hotel. (BB, D)

Day 21: Farewell from London

Our science tour has come to an end. Transfer from Cambridge to the London Heathrow Airport for your flight home. (BB)

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Our Art Vacations

Jeannette and Suzy set a new high standard of travel. I joined an ArtWalk Greece with 3 girlfriends. We left Greece with a whole new appreciation of seeing the world by traveling “at the speed of you.” They are fabulous tour leaders. They have a depth of knowledge of the local towns and sites that I have never before experienced. We always felt so well taken care of. We did a lot of walking and art-making. I am looking forward to another Blue Walk in the future!

Prescott, AZ

Travel Journal Art Vacations

Create an experience to remember.

You’ve daydreamed of this: a vacation with time each day to simply create. The destinations are beautiful. The accommodations are welcoming. All the details are taken care of. In the company of like-minded travelers you savor the wonder of the present moment. And you capture it all through your art.

Create as You Travel

Our Art Walk art vacations are the perfect tours for artists of all levels. Talented and engaging teaching artists offer daily classes inspired by stunning locations. Equal parts journey and learning, our art vacations are based on a travel journal format. Art classes are mostly on site. Some programs have “studio” time at our hotels. Space is almost always limited, so you will learn to work with what is available, being able to create wherever and however you may find yourself. Sketchbook, watercolor, collage, and multimedia workshops are all represented in our schedule.

Everyone is Welcome

Join us. Solo travelers love the easy camaraderie our tours provide. First time European travelers and budding artists love the safe, supportive, and welcoming atmosphere. The main requirements are a desire for adventure and gratitude for the opportunity to pursue it. 

Travel at the speed of you.

Stretch your legs and expand your experience.

Find a community. Receive and share inspiration.

Return home renewed, accomplished, and feeling better than ever.

Keeping an illustrated travel journal enhances your trip and opens your mind. Everything around me is fresh and beautiful because I’m drawing it, seeing it truly for the first time.    

Once you return from your trip, your mind remains full of wonder. A quick flip through your journal’s pages keeps those memories alive.  

Danny Gregory

The Art of Keeping a Travel Sketchbook

Explore Our Art Workshops & Retreats

Sketchbook Travel Journal Vacation in Greece with Koosje Koene

Sep 24-Oct 6, 2024 join Koosje Koene’s island-hopping sketchbook journal vacation in Greece.

Art Journal Workshop in Paris, France with Betsy Beier

Sep 16-23, 2024 join Betsy Beier’s art journal workshop in Paris, France. Fill your sketchbook as we walk the neighborhoods of Paris!

Watercolor Sketchbook Art Workshop in Italy

Ohn Mar Win teaches a 7-night watercolor sketchbook art workshop in Italy. We will tour the Italian Riviera and stunning Lake Como. Join us October 2024.

Art and Creativity Workshop in Italy

Join Jill Badonsky for an art and creativity workshop on the Italian Riviera in October 2024. Write, paint, and sketch for an inspired week.

Art workshop in Venice, Padua, and Parma, Italy

Oct 21-27, 2024 Anne Leuck teaches her art workshop in Venice, Padua and Parma, Italy. See Venice like a local! Taste the best of Parma!

Watercolor Workshop in Greece with Angela Fehr

April 22 – May 4, 2025

Mixed Media Art Workshop in Portugal with Tammy Gilley

March 30-April 5, 2025

Mixed Media Art Workshop in Portugal with Mary Beth Shaw

April 6-12, 2025

Art Workshop Vacation in Paris, France with Tammy Gilley

April 12-19 , 2025

Watercolor Workshop in Italy with Angela Fehr

May 5-11, 2025

Mixed Media Art Workshop in Italy with Tiffany Goff-Smith

May 11-18, 2025

Collage Travel Journal Workshop in Greece with Karen Stamper

May 20-June 1, 2025

Sketchbook Art Workshop in Portugal with Anne Leuck

June 9-15, 2025

Watercolor Journal Workshop in Spain with Ohn Mar Win

June 30 – July 6, 2025

Travel Journal Art Workshop in Spain with Julie Snidle

Sep 8-14, 2025

Sketchbook Art Workshop in Spain with Koosje Koene

Sep 14-20, 2025

Mixed Media Art Workshop in Sicily, Italy with Mary Beth Shaw

Oct 19-Nov 1, 2025 (Coming Soon)

Art Workshop in France: Mixed Media Travel Journal

Join teaching artist Tiffany Goff-Smith for a mixed media art workshop in France. Spend a week traveling, collecting, and making memories.

Mixed Media Art Retreat in Italy at Lake Como

Join teaching artist Julie Snidle in April 2024 for a mixed media art retreat on the serene Lake Como, Italy.

Art Workshop in Spain: Barcelona and Costa Brava

Join artist Mary Beth Shaw for a mixed media art workshop in Spain September 2024. Get inspired and renewed in Barcelona and Costa Brava.

Art Vacations Schedule

This is a list of our public art vacations. The Blue Walk offers private and custom small group tours in addition to our advertised tours. 

There is a separate Blue Walk schedule for our walking vacations. 

2024 Art Vacation Workshops

• March 31-April 7: Mixed media with Tiffany Goff- Smith on the French Riviera (7 nights) from $3695 (3 spaces available)
• April 8-15: Mixed media with Julie Snidle on Lake Como, Italy (6 nights) from $3395 SOLD OUT (waiting list available)
• April 14-21: Collage journal with Karen Stamper on the Italian Riviera and Lake Como, Italy (7 nights) from $3795 (1 space available)
• May 14-26: Watercolor with Angela Fehr in Greece (12 nights) from $4595 SOLD OUT (waiting list available)
• Jun 2-8: Mixed media with Tammy Gilley on the French Riviera (6 nights) from $3495 SOLD OUT (waiting list available)
• Jun 9-16: Mixed media with Mary Beth Shaw in Switzerland (7 nights) from $4845  (1 space available)
• September 7-14: Mixed media with Mary Beth Shaw in Spain (7 nights) from $3695 SOLD OUT (waiting list available)
• September 16-23: Sketchbook journal with Betsy Beier in Paris, France (7 nights) from $4295
• September 24-October 6: Sketchbook journal with Koosje Koene in Greece (12 nights) SOLD OUT (waiting list available)
• October 7-14: Sketchbook journal with Ohn Mar Win on the Italian Riviera and Lake Como (7 nights) from $3795 SOLD OUT (waiting list available)
• October 14-20: Art and Creativity workshop with Jill Badonsky on the Italian Riviera (6 nights) from $3595 SOLD OUT (waiting list available)
• October 21-27: Sketchbook journal with Anne Leuck in Venice and Parma, Italy (6 nights) from ($3745)

2025 Art Vacation Workshops

• March 30-April 5: Mixed Media Workshop Vacation in Portugal with Tammy Gilley (6 nights) from $3495
• April 6-12: Mixed Media Art Workshop in Portugal with Mary Beth Shaw (6 nights) from $3395
• April 12-19: Art Workshop Vacation in Paris, France with Tammy Gilley (7 nights) from $3995
• April 22 - May 4: Watercolor workshop with Angela Fehr in Greece (12 nights) from $4745
• May 5-11: Watercolor workshop in Italy with Angela Fehr (6 nights) from $3445
• May 11-18: Mixed media art workshop in Italy with Tiffany Goff-Smith (7 nights) from $3795
• May 20 - June 1: Collage Travel Journal Workshop in Greece with Karen Stamper (12 nights) from $4745
• June 9 - 15: S ketchbook Workshop in Portugal with Anne Leuck (6 nights) from $3495
• June 30 - July 6: Watercolor journal workshop in Spain with Ohn Mar Win (6 nights) from $3595
• September 8-14: Travel Journal Art Workshop in Spain with Julie Snidle (6 nights) from $3445 
• September 14-20: sketchbook workshop in Spain with Koosje Koene (6 nights) from $3445
• Oct 21 - Nov 1: Mixed Media Art Workshop in Sicily, Italy with Mary Beth Shaw (11 nights) Details coming soon. Join interest list.

Book a Private Walking Tour or Art Vacation

Travel with your own tribe! Friends, family or colleagues with groups from 8-20 can reserve private tours. Special pricing or tour leader rates availble. We will work with you to reserve the best itinerary and dates for your own amazing tour.

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How Tesla Planted the Seeds for Its Own Potential Downfall

Elon musk’s factory in china saved his company and made him ultrarich. now, it may backfire..

Hosted by Katrin Bennhold

Featuring Mara Hvistendahl

Produced by Rikki Novetsky and Mooj Zadie

With Rachelle Bonja

Edited by Lisa Chow and Alexandra Leigh Young

Original music by Marion Lozano ,  Diane Wong ,  Elisheba Ittoop and Sophia Lanman

Engineered by Chris Wood

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When Elon Musk set up Tesla’s factory in China, he made a bet that brought him cheap parts and capable workers — a bet that made him ultrarich and saved his company.

Mara Hvistendahl, an investigative reporter for The Times, explains why, now, that lifeline may have given China the tools to beat Tesla at its own game.

On today’s episode

Mara Hvistendahl , an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading

A pivot to China saved Elon Musk. It also bound him to Beijing .

Mr. Musk helped create the Chinese electric vehicle industry. But he is now facing challenges there as well as scrutiny in the West over his reliance on China.

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The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Katrin Bennhold is the Berlin bureau chief. A former Nieman fellow at Harvard University, she previously reported from London and Paris, covering a range of topics from the rise of populism to gender. More about Katrin Bennhold

Mara Hvistendahl is an investigative reporter for The Times focused on Asia. More about Mara Hvistendahl

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