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Boss of uk tv diversity body stepping down after eight years, jeremy clarkson says he quit ‘the grand tour’ after running out of ideas & becoming “unfit, fat & old”.

By Jake Kanter

Jake Kanter

International Investigations Editor

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He added that The Grand Tour missions are “immensely physical” and had become increasingly difficult when “you’re unfit and fat and old.” “If you’re Bear Grylls you go to a hotel — there aren’t any hotels in the Sahara desert,” Clarkson said.

Clarkson, Hammond, and May confirmed last November that they had filmed their final installments of The Grand Tour . Two final episodes of the motoring series were recorded in Mauritania and Zimbabwe and will premiere on Amazon Prime Video.

Fozia Khan, Amazon Studios’ head of unscripted in the UK, said the brand could survive with another set of presenters. “It’s come to its natural end,” she said, adding that her team was “thinking about” how the show can live on.

Clarkson will continue to host Clarkson’s Farm for Amazon after the series has become the streamer’s highest-rated UK original. Filming on Season 4 is set to begin this year. Clarkson is also hosting more Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? for ITV.

The Times interviewer Ed Potton wrote that he was told not to ask Clarkson about his reviled The Sun newspaper column about Meghan Markle. Clarkson wrote that he imagines the day Markle is paraded “naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her.” The piece was retracted and Amazon made clear its fury at the article.

Asked if he feels under pressure to be controversial, Clarkson said: “No! I like being controversial. Some people who see a still pond find that peaceful, but I cannot resist throwing a stone in it.”

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The Grand Tour: Lochdown review – Clarkson, May and Hammond drive Scotland out of the union

The patriarchy’s Cheeky Girls bumble their way through a bants-filled Highlands holiday, leaving carnage – and surely a spike in support for Scottish independence – in their wake

I had high hopes for this diplomatic incident masquerading as a TV travelogue through Scotland. Fingers crossed, patriarchy’s answer to Katie Hopkins and the Cheeky Girls would get chucked out of Scotland just as they were from Argentina while filming Top Gear. During that 2014 debacle , Jeremy Clarkson , James May and Richard Hammond were attacked for driving a Porsche whose number plate – H982 FKL – was deemed a reference to Britain’s victory in the 1982 Falklands conflict. In the resulting unpleasantness, the three presenters took a helicopter to safety, like the last chopper out of Saigon, leaving the crew to defend that oxymoron, British honour.

Indeed, there is surely nothing more apt to make Nicola Sturgeon unleash the ancestral claymore than the sight of three English muppets in gas-guzzling Yank tanks (Lincoln Continental, Cadillac Coupe de Ville and Buick Riviera, each more productive of Greta Thunberg’s tears than a cormorant with its beak stuck in a can of Irn-Bru) heading north from Berwick-upon-Tweed.

As soon as the convoy passed the border, the scripted bants began. “Welcome to McScotland,” said Clarkson into his walkie talkie, while May and Hammond cackled like fiftysomething Beavis and Butt-Heads in their vehicles. Why the McPlods (oh dear, this is catching) didn’t ticket the infantilised Murdoch lackey for driving while using a handheld device is beyond me. Presumably, normal rules of the road were waived for this Amazon production, which is not something I imagine the first minister signing off on. If Donald Trump can build golf resorts in Aberdeenshire and Clarkson can roll through the majestic Highlands babbling anti-Scottish slurs and manifold fatuities, clearly her powers to stymie toxic middle-aged man-babies realising their unedifying dreams need enhancing.

PG Wodehouse once claimed it was not hard to tell the difference between a Scotsman with a grievance and a sunbeam. May embellished this theme, suggesting that Scottish police officers never have occasion to say “You’re nicked, sunshine” because – do you see the punchline yet? – there is no sun in Scotland. To be fair, the permadrizzle was unrelenting.

And then there were the meals, prepared by May, in which every item from kipper to carrot was battered. That said, Clarkson cleared his plate and Hammond hailed Scottish culinary genius for congealing peas, so tricky to eat with a fork, into battered clumps.

As a white, increasingly desiccated middle-aged Englishman, I should be in The Grand Tour’s demographic. But I’d rather read Iris Murdoch than watch Clarkson’s belly shot in profile wobbling from Auchtermuchty to Drumnadrochit in sync with the undulating terrain (proof that spending one’s career on, effectively, a series of La-Z-Boys on wheels is deleterious to one’s posture). If I were a middle-aged Scotsman, I’d have been further affronted by the carnage wrought on my homeland. Let’s review: three wrecked caravans, one left unacceptably in a wooded glen; the appalling fumes; the walls in Edinburgh’s old town; the boat sunk off the Hebrides; a pontoon bridge left bobbing off North Uist. None of the trio spoke to a Scottish person on screen, demonstrating, once again, how tourism narrows the English mind.

But what would have narked me most of all if I were Scottish was that my country was here busted down to an away venue for a proxy war between the US and the Soviet Union. Which of these two polities was responsible for manufacturing the worst car known to humankind, Clarkson asked. Oh, obviously the Soviets, you reply. Have you ever tried to put a Lada through hairpin? Of course you haven’t, because the Queen Mary has a tighter turning circle.

In truth, Clarkson was right about one thing in his life: the worst car in the world is American. In a field, six cars including two Chryslers and a Pontiac Aztek raced in circles in a kind of ground-based balloon race cum demolition derby. The loser would be the first car to crash out. It was the Pontiac (a car so terrible it figured in Breaking Bad as Walter White’s ride of choice to show what a loser he was) that was proven – scientifically, mind – to be the world’s worst car.

As the credits rolled, there was time to reflect on the show’s genius. Its success will be measured not by ratings, but by a spike in support for Scottish independence. It makes the SNP’s case more powerfully than Boris Johnson on a meet and greet in Sauchiehall Street. Watching this, Sturgeon must be laughing harder than she did during the England-Italy penalty shootout. Way to break up the union, you McPlums.

The Grand Tour
Jeremy Clarkson
Richard Hammond
Motoring (Money)
Motoring (Technology)

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The Grand Tour

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Watch The Grand Tour with a subscription on Prime Video.

Cast & Crew

Jeremy Clarkson

Richard Hammond

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‘The Grand Tour’ Not Moving Forward at Amazon Prime Video With Hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond

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Amazon Prime Video ’s automotive series “ The Grand Tour ” is not moving forward at the streamer — at least with its current hosts, former “Top Gear” trio Jeremy Clarkson , James May and Richard Hammond.

Popular on Variety

The presenter further confirmed the news in a post on his Instagram , writing: “Been a busy day. No more ‘Grand Tour’ after next year but a LOT more ‘Clarkson’s Farm.'”

Amazon Prime Video declined to comment on the matter.

“The Grand Tour” premiered on Amazon Prime Video in 2016, following Clarkson, May and Hammond’s exit from the BBC series “Top Gear” after Clarkson was fired for punching a producer. The BBC revealed on Nov. 21 that “Top Gear” is also not returning “for the foreseeable future.” The announcement came after presenter Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff was injured in an on-set accident in December, resulting in a pause in production on the show’s 34th season. Flintoff had been a presenter on the series since 2019, alongside Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris.

“Given the exceptional circumstances, the BBC has decided to rest the U.K. show for the foreseeable future,” the BBC said in a statement. “The BBC remains committed to Freddie, Chris and Paddy who have been at the heart of the show’s renaissance since 2019, and we’re excited about new projects being developed with each of them. We will have more to say in the near future on this. We know resting the show will be disappointing news for fans, but it is the right thing to do.”

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The Real Reason Why ‘The Grand Tour’ Is Ending, According To Jeremy Clarkson

Since the beginning of 2023, there’s been plenty of speculation regarding why Amazon Prime Video ‘s The Grand Tour is ending after seven eventful years with Top Gear alums Jeremy Clarkson , Richard Hammond, and James May.

Multiple sources had previously told Variety the streaming platform was ending its partnership with Clarkson following certain comments he’d made about Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, in The Sun (which provoked a record 25,000+ complaints to the British press regulator). After what wrapping up had already been commissioned/was currently in production, of course.

But it would appear that these so-called sources were just two steps left of centre.

While The Grand Tour is indeed concluding this year with two final episodes — one in Mauritania ( The Sand Job ) and another in Zimbabwe (TBA) — as confirmed by both the BBC and Jeremy Clarkson himself last December , this departure is actually on the talents’ terms.

The Real Reason Why 'The Grand Tour' Is Ending, According To Jeremy Clarkson

“I’ve driven cars higher than anyone else and further north than anyone else,” added Clarkson.

“We’ve done everything you can do with a car. When we had meetings about what to do next, people just threw their arms in the air.”

Clarkson continued: “James May thinks there’s never been a more interesting time for how we move around and he’s probably right, but I don’t think it’s very interesting television.”

“An electric car is no different from a chest freezer or a microwave oven. There’s no glamour or excitement. This week on Top Chest Freezer ! I think it suits the written media more.”

RELATED: Jeremy Clarkson’s Story About Why He Loves The Porsche 928 Will Make Grown Men Cry

As mentioned above, before The Grand Tour gets its fairytale ending wherein the boys ride off into the sunset, there are still two more episodes left in the chamber.

The Sand Job is the first proverbial cab off the ranks, scheduled to stream on Amazon Prime Video sometime next month , while cameras have yet to begin rolling on the Zimbabwe instalment.

All up, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May have worked alongside one another for over 20 years now.

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The Grand Tour Could Get New Hosts Because Good Things Aren’t Allowed to Die

Whoever replaces Clarkson, Hammond, and May is going to have a tough time.

NicoDeMattia

The Grand Tour as we know it is ending. There's only one feature-length special left from Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May and then their off to do other separate projects, leaving automotive television behind. However, like Dr. Frankenstein reviving an unwilling corpse, it seems Amazon Prime , isn't willing to let The Grand Tour die and is instead interested in bringing it back but with a new trio of hosts, according to Broadcast .

The Broadcast report suggests that Studio Lambert was given a contract to make a new version of the show, though details are scarce. There's no word on if a new version of The Grand Tour would have three hosts, use the original studio format, or keep the new feature-length special-only format. However, whoever does get the job, in whatever capacity it might be, they're going to have their work cut out for them.

Clarkson, Hammond, and May have had a bumpy ride over these past few years, mostly due to controversy surrounding the former. The only reason they aren't still hosting Top Gear on the BBC is because Clarkson punched a producer in the face, and he's made his fair share of controversial public statements. However, as problematic as he could be, the chemistry between those three hosts is almost impossible to replicate. Just ask the BBC, who went through several different hosting setups before finding one that even mildly worked, and even that never worked as well as the original. People never tuned in to Top Gear to watch people talk about cars, they tuned in to watch Clarkson, Hammond, and May talk about cars and it just wasn't the same without them. While The Grand Tour was never as popular (or as good) as prime Top Gear, it's still going to be incredibly difficult to step into that trio's shoes have have success.

The Grand Tour Could Get New Hosts Because Good Things Aren’t Allowed to Die

Replacing iconic hosts won't be the only challenge, either. What could the new hosts possibly do, what sort of adventures could they go on, that the old trio didn't already? A lack of new ideas is one of the reasons why Clarkson and Co. decided to hang their driving gloves up. “I’ve driven cars higher than anyone else and further north than anyone else. We’ve done everything you can do with a car. When we had meetings about what to do next, people just threw their arms in the air,” Clarkson told The Sunday Times in January.

That's not to say that cars and the car industry aren't still interesting. They are and it is, perhaps more than ever. But TV might be the wrong medium. “James May thinks there’s never been a more interesting time for how we move around and he’s probably right, but I don’t think it’s very interesting television,” Clarkson said. “An electric car is no different from a chest freezer or a microwave oven. There’s no glamour or excitement. This week on Top Chest Freezer! I think it suits the written media more.”

While I think there's still a way to make great automotive TV, I don't think reviving The Grand Tour with new hosts is the way to do it. To do it correctly, it needs a new show, with a new name, new hosts, new ideas, and a completely new format. However, since we as a society can't ever seem to let good things die, and Amazon seems keen on milking The Grand Tour for everything it's worth, let's hope any new hosts are given enough time to earn the chemistry that made the original trio so great.

Got tips? Send 'em to [email protected]

What Was The Grand Tour...

What Was the Grand Tour and Where Did People Go?

Freelance Travel and Music Writer

Nowadays, it’s so easy to pack a bag and hop on a flight or interrail across Europe’s railway at your own leisure. But what if it was known as a right of passage, made no easier by the fact that there was no such modern luxury? Welcome to the Grand Tour – and we’re not talking about Jeremy Clarkson’s TV series …

What was the grand tour all about.

The Grand Tour was a trip of Europe, typically undertaken by young men, which begun in the 17th century and went through to the mid-19th. Women over the age of 21 would occasionally partake, providing they were accompanied by a chaperone from their family. The Grand Tour was seen as an educational trip across Europe, usually starting in Dover, and would see young, wealthy travellers search for arts and culture. Though travelling was not as easy back then, mostly thanks to no rail routes like today, those on The Grand Tour would often have a healthy supply of funds in order to enjoy themselves freely.

What did travellers get up to?

Of course, in the 17th century, there was no such thing as the internet, making discovering things while sat on the other side of the world near impossible. Cultural integration was not yet fully-fledged and nothing like we experience today, so the only way to understand different ways of life was to experience them yourself. Hence why so many people set off for the Grand Tour – the ultimate trip across Europe!

Typical routes taken on the Grand Tour

Travellers (occompanied by a tutor) would often start around the South East region and head in to France, where a coach would often be rented should the party be wealthy enough. Occasionally, the coaches would need to be disassembled in order to cross difficult terrain such as the Alps.

Once passing through Calais and Paris, a typical journey would include a stop-off in Switzerland before crossing the Alps in to Northern Italy. Here’s where the wealth really comes in to play – as luggage and methods of transport would need to be dismantled and carried manually – as really rich travellers would often employ servants to carry everything for them.

Of course, Italy is a highly cultural country and famous for its art and historic buildings, so travellers would spend longer here. Turin, Florence, Rome, Pompeii and Venice would be amongst the cities visited, generally enticing those in to extended stays.

On the return leg, travellers would visit Germany and occasionally Austria, including study time at universities such as Munich, before heading to Holland and Flanders, ahead of crossing the Channel back to Dover.

William Beckford’s Grand Tour route across Europe

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

The grand tour.

Marble sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysos and the Seasons

Piazza San Marco

Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)

Autre Vue Particulière de Paris depuis Nôtre Dame, Jusques au Pont de la Tournelle

Jacques Rigaud

Imaginary View of Venice, houses at left with figures on terraces, a domed church at center in the background, boats and boat-sheds below, and a seated man observing from a wall at right in the foreground, from 'Views' (Vedute altre prese da i luoghi altre ideate da Antonio Canal)

The Piazza del Popolo (Veduta della Piazza del Popolo), from "Vedute di Roma"

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Vue de la Grande Façade du Vieux Louvre

View of St. Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum

Richard Wilson

Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768)

Anton Raphael Mengs

Modern Rome

Giovanni Paolo Panini

Ancient Rome

Portrait of a Young Man

Pompeo Batoni

Gardens of the Villa d'Este at Tivoli

Charles Joseph Natoire

Veduta dell'Anfiteatro Flavio detto il Colosseo, from: 'Vedute di Roma' (Views of Rome)

View of the Villa Lante on the Janiculum in Rome

John Robert Cozens

The Girandola at the Castel Sant'Angelo

Designed and hand colored by Louis Jean Desprez

Dining room from Lansdowne House

After a design by Robert Adam

The Burial of Punchinello

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

Portland vase

Josiah Wedgwood and Sons

Jean Sorabella Independent Scholar

October 2003

Beginning in the late sixteenth century, it became fashionable for young aristocrats to visit Paris, Venice, Florence, and above all Rome, as the culmination of their classical education. Thus was born the idea of the Grand Tour, a practice that introduced Englishmen, Germans, Scandinavians, and also Americans to the art and culture of France and Italy for the next 300 years. Travel was arduous and costly throughout the period, possible only for a privileged class—the same that produced gentleman scientists, authors, antiquaries, and patrons of the arts.

The Objectives of the Grand Tour The Grand Tourist was typically a young man with a thorough grounding in Greek and Latin literature as well as some leisure time, some means, and some interest in art. The German traveler Johann Joachim Winckelmann pioneered the field of art history with his comprehensive study of Greek and Roman sculpture ; he was portrayed by his friend Anton Raphael Mengs at the beginning of his long residence in Rome ( 48.141 ). Most Grand Tourists, however, stayed for briefer periods and set out with less scholarly intentions, accompanied by a teacher or guardian, and expected to return home with souvenirs of their travels as well as an understanding of art and architecture formed by exposure to great masterpieces.

London was a frequent starting point for Grand Tourists, and Paris a compulsory destination; many traveled to the Netherlands, some to Switzerland and Germany, and a very few adventurers to Spain, Greece, or Turkey. The essential place to visit, however, was Italy. The British traveler Charles Thompson spoke for many Grand Tourists when in 1744 he described himself as “being impatiently desirous of viewing a country so famous in history, which once gave laws to the world; which is at present the greatest school of music and painting, contains the noblest productions of statuary and architecture, and abounds with cabinets of rarities , and collections of all kinds of antiquities.” Within Italy, the great focus was Rome, whose ancient ruins and more recent achievements were shown to every Grand Tourist. Panini’s Ancient Rome ( 52.63.1 ) and Modern Rome ( 52.63.2 ) represent the sights most prized, including celebrated Greco-Roman statues and views of famous ruins, fountains, and churches. Since there were few museums anywhere in Europe before the close of the eighteenth century, Grand Tourists often saw paintings and sculptures by gaining admission to private collections, and many were eager to acquire examples of Greco-Roman and Italian art for their own collections. In England, where architecture was increasingly seen as an aristocratic pursuit, noblemen often applied what they learned from the villas of Palladio in the Veneto and the evocative ruins of Rome to their own country houses and gardens .

The Grand Tour and the Arts Many artists benefited from the patronage of Grand Tourists eager to procure mementos of their travels. Pompeo Batoni painted portraits of aristocrats in Rome surrounded by classical staffage ( 03.37.1 ), and many travelers bought Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s prints of Roman views, including ancient structures like the Colosseum ( 59.570.426 ) and more recent monuments like the Piazza del Popolo ( 37.45.3[49] ), the dazzling Baroque entryway to Rome. Some Grand Tourists invited artists from home to accompany them throughout their travels, making views specific to their own itineraries; the British artist Richard Wilson, for example, made drawings of Italian places while traveling with the earl of Dartmouth in the mid-eighteenth century ( 1972.118.294 ).

Classical taste and an interest in exotic customs shaped travelers’ itineraries as well as their reactions. Gothic buildings , not much esteemed before the late eighteenth century, were seldom cause for long excursions, while monuments of Greco-Roman antiquity, the Italian Renaissance, and the classical Baroque tradition received praise and admiration. Jacques Rigaud’s views of Paris were well suited to the interests of Grand Tourists, displaying, for example, the architectural grandeur of the Louvre, still a royal palace, and the bustle of life along the Seine ( 53.600.1191 ; 53.600.1175 ). Canaletto’s views of Venice ( 1973.634 ; 1988.162 ) were much prized, and other works appealed to Northern travelers’ interest in exceptional fêtes and customs: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo ‘s Burial of Punchinello ( 1975.1.473 ), for instance, is peopled with characters from the Venetian carnival, and a print by Francesco Piranesi and Louis Jean Desprez depicts the Girandola, a spectacular fireworks display held at the Castel Sant’Angelo ( 69.510 ).

The Grand Tour and Neoclassical Taste The Grand Tour gave concrete form to northern Europeans’ ideas about the Greco-Roman world and helped foster Neoclassical ideals . The most ambitious tourists visited excavations at such sites as Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Tivoli, and purchased antiquities to decorate their homes. The third duke of Beaufort brought from Rome the third-century work named the Badminton Sarcophagus ( 55.11.5 ) after the house where he proudly installed it in Gloucestershire. The dining rooms of Robert Adam’s interiors typically incorporated classical statuary; the nine lifesized figures set in niches in the Lansdowne dining room ( 32.12 ) were among the many antiquities acquired by the second earl of Shelburne, whose collecting activities accelerated after 1771, when he visited Italy and met Gavin Hamilton, a noted antiquary and one of the first dealers to take an interest in Attic ceramics, then known as “Etruscan vases.” Early entrepreneurs recognized opportunities created by the culture of the Grand Tour: when the second duchess of Portland obtained a Roman cameo glass vase in a much-publicized sale, Josiah Wedgwood profited from the manufacture of jasper reproductions ( 94.4.172 ).

Sorabella, Jean. “The Grand Tour.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grtr/hd_grtr.htm (October 2003)

Additional Essays by Jean Sorabella

Sorabella, Jean. “ Pilgrimage in Medieval Europe .” (April 2011)
Sorabella, Jean. “ Portraiture in Renaissance and Baroque Europe .” (August 2007)
Sorabella, Jean. “ Venetian Color and Florentine Design .” (October 2002)
Sorabella, Jean. “ Art of the Roman Provinces, 1–500 A.D. .” (May 2010)
Sorabella, Jean. “ The Nude in Baroque and Later Art .” (January 2008)
Sorabella, Jean. “ The Nude in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance .” (January 2008)
Sorabella, Jean. “ The Nude in Western Art and Its Beginnings in Antiquity .” (January 2008)
Sorabella, Jean. “ Monasticism in Western Medieval Europe .” (originally published October 2001, last revised March 2013)
Sorabella, Jean. “ Interior Design in England, 1600–1800 .” (October 2003)
Sorabella, Jean. “ The Vikings (780–1100) .” (October 2002)
Sorabella, Jean. “ Painting the Life of Christ in Medieval and Renaissance Italy .” (June 2008)
Sorabella, Jean. “ The Birth and Infancy of Christ in Italian Painting .” (June 2008)
Sorabella, Jean. “ The Crucifixion and Passion of Christ in Italian Painting .” (June 2008)
Sorabella, Jean. “ Carolingian Art .” (December 2008)
Sorabella, Jean. “ Ottonian Art .” (September 2008)
Sorabella, Jean. “ The Ballet .” (October 2004)
Sorabella, Jean. “ Baroque Rome .” (October 2003)
Sorabella, Jean. “ The Opera .” (October 2004)

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Athenian Vase Painting: Black- and Red-Figure Techniques
The Augustan Villa at Boscotrecase
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The Grand Tour: Everything You Need to Know

Gokce Dyson 28 November 2022 min Read

Carl Spitzweg, Englishmen in Campania , ca. 1835, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany.

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Nowadays, it is very common to take a gap year before or after university studies to travel and expand your horizons. Dedicating a year or two before committing to a full-time job means you can experience different cultures, learn languages, and enjoy having a bit of fun before settling down. Back in the day, with similar objectives, many noblemen embarked on a journey across Europe before entering adulthood. It was called the Grand Tour.

The Grand Tour evolved between the 17th and 18th centuries as a custom of a traditional trip. The purpose of the Grand Tour was to provide male members of upper-class families with a formative experience. The term was first used by the Catholic priest and travel writer Richard Lassels in his guidebook The Voyage of Italy . The book came out in 1670 and described young lords traveling to Italy to see art, architecture, and antiquity. Lassels completed the Grand Tour five times during his lifetime.

The Grand Tour: Pompeo Batoni, Portrait of a Young Man on Grand Tour, 1760-65, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA. A wealthy young man posing for a painting during the Grand Tour

In England, for example, the general view held by the aristocrats was that foreign travel completed the education of an English gentleman. However, some people were also quite skeptical about the tour. They feared the amount of money spent to make the Grand Tour possible could ruin the young nobility.

The Grand Tour: Giovanni Paolo Panini, Interior of the Pantheon, Rome, 1734, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA. Interior of the Pantheon painted by Panini

Although the Grand Tour was largely associated with English travelers, they were far from being the only ones on the road. On the contrary, wealthy families in France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark also saw traveling as an ideal way to finish the education of their societies’ future leaders.

Itinerary of the Grand Tour

The traditional route of the Grand Tour usually began in Dover, England. Grand tourists would cross the English Channel to Le Havre in France. Upon arrival in Paris , the young men tended to hire a French-speaking guide as French was the dominant language of the elite during the 17th and 18th centuries. In Paris, they spent some time taking lessons in fencing, riding, and perhaps dancing. There, they became accustomed to the sophisticated manners of French society in courtly behavior and fashion. Paris was a crucial step in preparing for their positions to be fulfilled in government or diplomacy waiting back in England.

The Grand Tour: George Keate, The manner of passing Mount Cenis, 1755, British Museum, London, UK. A Grand Tourist crossing the Alps on a chair

From there, tourists would buy transport, and if they were prosperous enough, they would hire a tutor to accompany them. The travelers would then get back on the road and cross the Alps, carried in a chair at Mont Cenis before moving on to Turin.

Italy was exceedingly the most traveled country on the Grand Tour. A Grand tourist’s list of must-see cities in Italy included Florence , Venice , and Naples . And then, there was Rome . Each Italian city offered immense importance in experiencing art and architecture, and Rome had it all.

Touring Italy

Once arriving in Italy, noblemen traveled to Florence followed by Venice, Rome, and Naples. Florence was popular for its Renaissance art, magnificent country villas, and beautiful gardens. Young aristocrats were able to gain entry to private collections where they could observe the legacy of the Medici family. Venice , on the other hand, was the party city. There was, however, a second reason to visit Venice. During their travels, grand tourists often commissioned art to take back home with them. Wealthy ones brought sketch artists along with them. Others purchased ready-made artworks instead. Giovanni Battista Piranesi created numerous prints and sketches depicting the ancient ruins in Rome. The works of the Venetian artist were popular among noblemen.

The Grand Tour: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, The Piazza del Popolo, 1750, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA. Piranesi's print depicting Piazza del Popolo which was a famous landmark to see during the Grand Tour

Rome was considered the ultimate stop during the Grand Tour. The city had a harmonious mixture of past and present. One could experience modern-day Baroque art and architecture and ancient ruins , dating back thousands of years at the same time. It was lauded as home to Michelangelo’s and Bernini’s most prized works. Gentlemen visited spots like the Pantheon, the Colosseum, and Porta del Popolo. William Beckford described his feelings in a letter when he was on his Grand Tour:

Shall I ever forget the sensations I experienced upon slowly descending the hills, and crossing the bridge over the Tiber; when I entered an avenue between terraces and ornamented gates of villas, which leads to the Porto del Popolo… William Beckford, letter from the Grand Tour, 1780.

The Grand Tour: Giovanni Paolo Panini, Roman Capriccio: The Pantheon and Other Monuments, 1735, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN, USA. Panini's oil painting depicting monuments in Rome

The next stop on the route was Naples. When Italian authorities began excavations in Herculaneum and Pompeii in the 1730s, grand tourists flocked there to delve into the mysteries of the ancient past. Naples became a popular retreat for the British who wanted to enjoy the coastal sun. Travelers such as J. W. Goethe praised the city’s glories:

Naples is a Paradise: everyone lives in a state of intoxicated self-forgetfulness, myself included. I seem to be a completely different person whom I hardly recognize. Yesterday I thought to myself: Either you were mad before, or you are mad now. J. W. Goethe, Google Arts& Culture .

The Grand Tour: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Goethe in the Roman Campagna, 1787, Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany. Goethe painted during The Grand Tour

Returning home, young gentlemen crossed the Alps to the German-speaking parts of Europe and visited Innsbruck, Vienna , Dresden, and Berlin . From there, they stopped in Holland and Flanders before returning to England.

With the introduction of steam railways in Europe around 1825, travel became safer, cheaper, and easier to undertake. The Grand Tour custom continued; however, it was not limited to the members of wealthy families. During the 19th century, many educated men had undertaken the Grand Tour. It also became more popular for women to travel across Europe with chaperones. A Room with A View, written by English novelist E. M. Forster, tells the story of a young woman who embarks on a journey to Italy in the 1900s.

Legacy of the Grand Tour

The Grand Tour: Marble sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysos and the Seasons, ca. 260–270 CE, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA. a marble sarcophagus collected during The Grand Tour

Grand tourists would return with crates full of books, oil paintings, medals, coins, and antique artifacts to be displayed in libraries, cabinets, drawing rooms, and galleries built for that purpose. The marble sarcophagus shown above was brought back from Italy to England by the third duke of Beaufort who found this item during his Grand Tour stop in Pompeii. Impressed by the European art academies on his Grand Tour, Joshua Reynolds founded the Royal Academy of Arts in London upon his return in 1768. The Grand Tour inspired many travelers to take a greater interest in ancient art. The British School in Rome was established to learn more about the Roman ruins and it still exists today.

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Gokce Dyson

Based in Canterbury, Gokce holds a bachelor's degree in History and Archaeological Studies and a master's degree in Museum and Gallery Studies. She firmly believes that art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. If Gokce is not tucked into a cosy corner with a medieval history book, she can be found spending her evenings doing jigsaw puzzles.

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The Grand Tour

By Evan Osnos

In general one should steer clear of the local food the Chinese tour guide advised his charges.

For several millennia, ordinary people in China were discouraged from venturing beyond the Middle Kingdom, but before the recent New Year’s holiday—the Year of the Rabbit began on February 3rd—local newspapers were dense with international travel ads. It felt as if everyone was getting away, and I decided to join them. When the Chinese travel industry polls the public on its dream destinations, no place ranks higher than Europe. China’s travel agents compete by carving out tours that conform less to Western notions of a grand tour than to the likes and dislikes of their customers. I scanned some deals online: “Big Plazas, Big Windmills, Big Gorges” was a four-day bus tour that emphasized photogenic countryside in the Netherlands and Luxembourg; “Visit the New and Yearn for the Past in Eastern Europe” had a certain Cold War charm, but I wasn’t sure I needed that in February.

I chose the “Classic European,” a popular bus tour that would traverse five countries in ten days. Payment was due up front. Airfare, hotels, meals, insurance, and assorted charges came to the equivalent in yuan of about twenty-two hundred dollars. In addition, every Chinese member of the tour was required to put up a bond amounting to seventy-six hundred dollars—more than two years’ salary for the average worker—to prevent anyone from disappearing before the flight home. I was the thirty-eighth and final member of the group. We would depart the next morning at dawn.

I was told to proceed to Door No. 25 of Terminal 2 at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, where I found a slim forty-three-year-old man in a gray tweed overcoat and rectangular glasses. He had floppy, parted hair, and introduced himself as Li Xingshun, our guide. To identify us in crowds, each of us received a canary-yellow lapel badge bearing a cartoon dragon with smoke curling from its nostrils, striding in hiking boots above our motto: “The Dragon Soars for Ten Thousand Li.” (A li is about a third of a mile.)

We settled into coach on an Air China non-stop flight to Frankfurt, and I opened a Chinese packet of “Outbound Group Advice,” which we’d been urged to read carefully. The specificity of the instructions suggested a history of unpleasant surprises: “Don’t travel with knockoffs of European goods, because customs inspectors will seize them and penalize you.” There was an intense focus on staying safe in Europe. “You will see Gypsies begging beside the road, but do not give them any money. If they crowd around and ask to see your purse, yell for the guide.” Conversing with strangers was discouraged. “If someone asks you to help take a photo of him, watch out: this is a prime opportunity for thieves.” I’d been in and out of Europe over the years, but the instructions put it in a new light, and I was oddly reassured to be travelling with three dozen others and a guide. The notes concluded with a piece of Confucius-style advice that framed our trip as a test of character: “He who can bear hardship should carry on.”

We landed in Frankfurt in heavy fog and gathered in the terminal for the first time as a full group. We ranged in age from six-year-old Lü Keyi to his seventy-year-old grandfather, Liu Gongsheng, a retired mining engineer, who was escorting his wife, Huang Xueqing, in her wheelchair. Just about everyone belonged to the sector of Chinese society—numbering between a hundred and fifty million and two hundred million people—that qualifies as the country’s middle class: a high-school science teacher, an interior decorator, a real-estate executive, a set designer for a television station, a gaggle of students. There was nothing of the countryside about my companions—the rare glimpse of a horse grazing in a French pasture the next day sent everyone scrambling for cameras—and yet they had only begun to be at home in the world. With few exceptions, this was everybody’s first trip out of Asia.

Li introduced me, the lone non-Chinese member of the group, and everyone offered a hearty welcome. Ten-year-old Liu Yifeng, who had a bowl cut and wore a black sweatshirt covered in white stars, smiled up at me and asked, “Do all foreigners have noses that big?”

We boarded a gold-colored coach, which shuddered to life. I took a window seat and was joined by a sturdy eighteen-year-old in a black puffy vest and wire-frame glasses. He had long, dark bangs and a suggestion of whiskers on his upper lip. He introduced himself as Xu Nuo; in Chinese, the name means “promise,” which he liked to use as an English name. Promise was a freshman at Shanghai Normal University, where he studied economics and shared two sets of bunk beds with three roommates. His parents were seated across the aisle. I asked him why his family had chosen to travel rather than visit relatives over the holiday. “That’s the tradition, but Chinese people are getting wealthier,” he said. “Besides, we’re too busy to travel the rest of the year.” We spoke in Chinese, but when he was surprised he’d say, “Oh, my Lady Gaga!,” an English expression he’d picked up at school.

In the front row of the bus, Li stood facing the group with a microphone in hand, a posture he would retain for most of our waking hours in the days ahead. In the life of a Chinese tourist, guides play an especially prominent role—translator, raconteur, and field marshal—and Li projected a calm, seasoned air. He often referred to himself in the third person—Guide Li—and he prided himself on efficiency. “Everyone, our watches should be synchronized,” he said. “It is now 7:16 P.M .” He implored us to be five minutes early for every departure. “We flew all the way here,” he said. “Let’s make the most of it.”

He outlined the plan: we would be spending many hours on the bus, during which he would deliver lectures on history and culture, so as not to waste precious minutes at the sights, when we could be taking photographs. He informed us that French scientists had determined that the optimal length of a tour guide’s lecture is seventy-five minutes. “Before Guide Li was aware of that, the longest speech I ever gave on a bus was four hours,” he added.

Li urged us to soak our feet in hot water before bed, to fight jet lag, and to eat extra fruit, which might balance the European infusion of bread and cheese into our diets. Since it was the New Year’s holiday, there would be many other Chinese visitors, and we must be vigilant not to board the wrong bus at rest stops. He introduced our driver, Petr Pícha, a phlegmatic former trucker and hockey player from the Czech Republic, who waved wearily to us from the well of the driver’s seat. (“For six or seven years, I drove Japanese tourists all the time,” he told me later. “Now it’s all Chinese.”) Li had something else to say about the schedule: “In China, we think of bus drivers as superhumans who can work twenty-four hours straight, no matter how late we want them to drive. But in Europe, unless there’s weather or traffic, they’re only allowed to drive for twelve hours!”

He explained that every driver carries a card that must be inserted into a slot in the dashboard; too many hours and the driver could be punished. “We might think you could just make a fake card or manipulate the records—no big deal,” Li said. “But, if you get caught, the fine starts at eighty-eight hundred euros, and they take away your license! That’s the way Europe is. On the surface, it appears to rely on everyone’s self-discipline, but behind it all there are strict laws.”

We were approaching the hotel—a Best Western in Luxembourg—but first Li briefed us on breakfast. A typical Chinese breakfast consists of a rich bowl of congee (a rice porridge), a deep-fried cruller, and, perhaps, a basket of pork buns. In Europe, he warned, tactfully, “Throughout our trip, breakfast will rarely be more than bread, cold ham, milk, and coffee.” The bus was silent for a moment.

We never saw Luxembourg in the daylight. We were out of the Best Western by dawn and were soon back on the Autobahn. Li asked us to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind, because some of his older travellers used to have a habit of hiding cash in the toilet tank or the ventilation ducts. “The worst case I’ve had was a guest who sewed money into the hem of the curtains,” he said. We headed for our first stop: the modest German city of Trier. Though it’s not quite a household name for most first-time visitors to Europe, Trier has been unusually popular with Chinese tourists ever since Communist Party delegations began arriving, decades ago, to see the birthplace of Karl Marx. My Chinese guidebook, written by a retired diplomat, said it once was described as the Mecca of the Chinese people.

We got off the bus onto a tidy side street lined with peaked-roofed, pastel-colored buildings. The cobblestones were silvery with rain, and Li donned a forest-green felt outback hat and pointed us ahead as he started at a brisk walk. We reached No. 10 Brückenstrasse, a handsome three-story white house with green shutters. “This is where Marx lived. Now it’s a museum,” Li said. We tried the door, but it was locked. Things were slow in the winter, and the museum wouldn’t be open for another hour and a half, so we’d be experiencing Marx’s house only from the outside. (“The sooner we finish here, the sooner we get to Paris,” Li had said.) Beside the front door was a plaque with Marx’s leonine head in profile. The building next door was a fast-food restaurant called Dolce Vita.

Li urged us to stay as long as we wanted, but he also suggested a stop at the supermarket on the corner to buy fruit for the ride ahead. We milled around awkwardly in front of Marx’s house, snapping photographs and dodging cars, until one of the kids pleaded, “I want to go to the supermarket,” and tugged his mother toward the bright storefront. I stood beside Wang Zhenyu, a tall man in his fifties, and we looked up at Marx’s head. “Not many people in America know about him, right?” Wang asked.

“More than you might think,” I said, and added that I’d expected to see more Chinese visitors. Wang laughed. “Young people no longer know anything about all that,” he said. Wang was thin and angular, with the bearing of a self-made man. He had grown up in the eastern commercial city of Wuxi and had been assigned the job of carpenter, until economic reforms took hold and he went into business for himself. He now ran a small clothing factory that specialized in the production of wash-and-wear men’s trousers. He didn’t speak English, but he’d wanted a catchy, international name for his company, so he’d called it Ge-rui-te, a made-up word formed by the Chinese characters that he thought sounded most like the English word “great.”

Wang was an enthusiastic tourist. “I used to be so busy that now I want to travel,” he said. “I always had to buy land, build factories, fix up my house. But now my daughter’s grown and working. I only need to save up for the dowry, which is manageable.” I asked why he and his wife had chosen Europe. “Our thinking is, Go to the farthest places first, while we still have the energy,” he said. Wang and I were among the last to arrive at the supermarket. Our group had stayed at the Chinese Mecca for eleven minutes.

Until recently, Chinese people had abundant reasons not to roam for pleasure. Travelling in ancient China was arduous. As a proverb put it, “You can be comfortable at home for a thousand days, or step out the door and run right into trouble.” Confucius threw guilt into the mix: “While your parents are alive, it is better not to travel far away.” Nevertheless, ancient Buddhist monks visited India, and Zheng He, a fifteenth-century eunuch, famously sailed the emperor’s fleet as far as Africa, to “set eyes on barbarian regions.”

Over the centuries, Chinese migrants settled around the world, but Mao considered tourism anti-Socialist, so it wasn’t until 1978, after his death, that most Chinese gained approval to go abroad for anything other than work or study. First, they were permitted to visit relatives in Hong Kong, and, later, to tour Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia. In 1997, the government cleared the way for travellers to venture to other countries in a “planned, organized, and controlled manner.” (China doles out approvals with an eye to geopolitics. Vanuatu became an approved destination in 2005, after it agreed not to give diplomatic recognition to Taiwan.) Eighty per cent of first-time Chinese travellers went in groups, and they soon earned a reputation as passionate, if occasionally overwhelming, guests. At a Malaysian casino hotel in 2005, some three hundred Chinese visitors were issued special meal coupons bearing cartoon pig faces. The hotel said that the illustrations were simply to differentiate Chinese guests from Muslims, who don’t eat pork, but the offended Chinese tourists staged a sit-in, singing the national anthem.

Most countries begin to send large numbers of tourists overseas only when the average citizen has a disposable income of five thousand dollars. But China—where urban residents are at barely half that level—has made travel affordable by booking tickets in bulk and bargaining mercilessly for hotels in distant suburbs. Last year, more than fifty-seven million Chinese people went abroad, ranking China third worldwide in international tourism. The World Tourism Organization predicts that before the end of the decade China will double that.

Europe, initially, was an afterthought. In 2000, more Chinese tourists visited tiny Macao than visited all the countries of Europe combined. But gradually Chinese visitors began staking out a grand tour of their own design. Just as apparatchiks once flocked to Marx’s house, Chinese literature lovers began trooping to a muddy riverbank on the campus of Cambridge University to glimpse a specific stand of willow trees. Xu Zhimo, an adored early-twentieth-century poet who studied in the West, described the willows as “young brides in the setting sun.” When I passed through Cambridge not long ago, Chinese visitors were posing for pictures beside the river while other tourists streamed by. Wang Yixiong, a twenty-three-year-old physicist originally from Henan Province, was on his third visit to town, and this time he had brought a blushing economics student named Chen Si. “We fell in love with each other not long ago,” he told me. “Cambridge is a romantic place.”

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The French hotel group Accor began adding Chinese television and Mandarin-speaking staff. Others were moving beds away from windows, as dictated by feng-shui_._ The more the Chinese went to Europe, the cheaper tours became. By 2009, a British travel-industry report had concluded that “Europe” was such a successful “single, unified” brand in China that individual countries would be wise to put aside pride and delay promoting “sub-brands” such as France or Italy. Europe was less a region on the map than a state of mind, and bundling as many countries as possible into a single week appealed to workers with precious few opportunities to travel. “In China, if you can get ten things for a hundred dollars, that’s still better than getting one thing for a hundred dollars,” Li said.

I strolled back to the bus from Marx’s house with a young couple from Shanghai: Guo Yanjin, a relaxed twenty-nine-year-old who called herself Karen and worked in the finance department of an auto-parts company, and her husband, Gu Xiaojie, an administrative clerk in the department of environmental sanitation, who went by the English name Handy. He had an easy charm and the build of a lineman, six feet tall and barrel-chested. His sweater was maroon and bore an appliqué of a golf bag, but when I asked if he was a golfer he laughed. “Golf is a rich man’s game,” he said.

Handy and Karen had saved up for months for this trip and also received a boost from their parents. Guide Li had urged us not to ruin our vacations by worrying too much about money—he suggested that we pretend the price tags were in yuan instead of euros—but Handy and Karen kept an eye on every cent. Within a few days, they could tell me exactly how much we’d spent on each bottle of water in five countries.

Back on the gold bus, rolling west across the wintry scrub of Champagne-Ardenne, Li wanted to add an important exception to his demands for efficiency. “We have to get used to the fact that Europeans sometimes move slowly,” he said. When shopping in China, he went on, “we’re accustomed to three of us putting our items on the counter at the same time, and then the old lady gives change to three people without making a mistake. Europeans don’t do that.” He continued, “I’m not saying that they’re stupid. If they were, they wouldn’t have developed all this technology, which requires very subtle calculations. They just deal with math in a different way.”

He ended with some advice: “Let them do things their way, because if we’re rushing then they’ll feel rushed, and that will put them in a bad mood, and then we’ll think that they’re discriminating against us, which is not necessarily the case.”

At times, he marvelled at Europe’s high standard of living—bombarding us with statistics on the price of Bordeaux wines or the average height of a well-fed Dutchman—but, if there was ever a time when Chinese visitors marvelled at Europe’s economy, this was not that time. Li made a great show of acting out a Mediterranean life style: “Wake up slowly, brush teeth, make a cup of espresso, take in the aroma.” The crowd laughed. “With a pace like that, how can their economies keep growing? It’s impossible.” He added, “In this world, only when you have diligent, hardworking people will the nation’s economy grow.”

I dozed off, and awoke on the outskirts of Paris. We followed the Seine west and passed the Musée d’Orsay just as the sun bore through the clouds. Li shouted, “Feel the openness of the city!” Cameras whirred, and he pointed out that central Paris had no skyscrapers. “In Shanghai, unless you’re standing right next to the Huangpu River, you can’t get any sense of the city, because there are too many tall buildings.” Europeans, he added, “preserve anything old and valuable.”

At a dock beside the Pont de l’Alma, we boarded a double-decker boat, and as it chugged upriver I chatted with Zhu Zhongming, a forty-six-year-old accountant who was travelling with his wife and daughter. He had grown up in Shanghai and had ventured into real estate just as the local market was surging. “Whenever you bought something, you could make a ton of money,” he said. He was charismatic, with large dimpled cheeks framing a permanent, mischievous smile, and he’d been going abroad since 2004, so others in the group deferred to him. He was drawn to Europe, above all, because of “culture.” (In Chinese surveys, “culture” often leads the list of terms that people associate with Europe. On the negative side, top results include “arrogant” and “poor-quality Chinese food.”)

The boat reached Pont Sully, and turned slowly against the whitecaps on the Seine to head back downriver. Zhu said that Chinese interest in Europe contained a deeply personal motivation: “When Europe was ruling the world, China was strong as well. So why did we fall behind? We’ve been thinking about that ever since.” Indeed, the question of why a civilization that had printing six hundred years before Gutenberg slumped in the fifteenth century runs like a central nerve through China’s analysis of its past and its prospects for a return to greatness. Zhu offered an explanation: “Once we were invaded, we didn’t respond quickly enough.” It was a narrative of victimhood and decline that I’d often heard in China. (Historians also tend to blame the stifling effects of bureaucracy and authoritarianism, among other factors.) But Zhu did not trace all of China’s troubles to foreign invaders. “We cast aside our three core ideas—Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism—and that was a mistake. We were taught Marxist revolutionary ideas from 1949 to 1978.” He paused and watched his wife and daughter snapping photographs at the railing, an orange sun sinking into the city beyond them. “We spent thirty years on what we now know was a disaster,” he said.

The boat docked, and we headed to dinner, walking through the crowds and din of the city for the first time. Karen hugged Handy’s arm, their heads swivelling. We followed Li into a small Chinese storefront, down a flight of stairs, and into a hot, claustrophobic hallway flanked by windowless rooms jammed with Chinese diners. It was a hive of activity invisible from the street, a parallel Paris. There were no empty seats, so Li motioned for us to continue out the back door, where we turned left and entered a second restaurant, also Chinese. Down another staircase, into another windowless room, where dishes arrived: pork braised in brown sauce, bok choy, egg-drop soup, spicy chicken.

Twenty minutes later, we climbed the stairs out into the night, hustling after Li down the block to the Galeries Lafayette, the ten-story department store on the Boulevard Haussmann. The store appeared happily poised for an onslaught from the East: it was decked in red bunting and cartoon bunnies for the Year of the Rabbit. We received Chinese-language welcome cards promising happiness, longevity, and a ten-per-cent discount. On the sixth floor, a restaurant called Sichuan Panda was serving dinner.

Our group moved with purpose. Promise and his parents, followed by Zhu Zhongming and family, turned right, after the Rolex counter, and headed into a luminous Louis Vuitton boutique. A corps of Mandarin-speaking salesgirls, in matching neckerchiefs, worked the counters. On average, a Chinese tourist buys more than a thousand dollars’ worth of tax-free stuff abroad—more luxury bags, watches, and designer clothes than any other nationality, including the Japanese, according to Global Blue, the tax-free-shopping refund service. Chinese tourists abroad spend nearly twice as much on shopping as they do on hotel rooms. Several in our group told me how sorry they were that we weren’t stopping at a place called Aotelaise. The name baffled me. Someone explained that it’s a new Chinese word: “outlets.”

Promise’s mother, Li Ying, pulled out a stack of printouts bearing photographs and model numbers of purses. She tried one after another, swaying back and forth before the mirror, frowning at her reflection. Handy and Karen took one look at the prices and kept walking. Zhu Zhongming urged Li Ying to find a bag with “more nobility.” “That one looks like the same junk we have on the mainland,” he said. She tried a large bag called the Artsy, which cost about fourteen hundred dollars. It had a tan strap and miniature “LV”s tattooed across its chocolate hide. “What do you think?” she asked, and everyone nodded. “I’ll take it.”

That night, we stayed at a hotel in the suburbs called the Dream Castle. It had coats of arms in the lobby and a giant statue of a king in flowing robes.

En route to the Eiffel Tower, the next morning, we passed a group of African street venders, and Li mentioned that the city is a magnet for illegal immigrants. “They don’t have a hukou ,” he said—the document needed to live permanently in a Chinese city. “Why haven’t they been arrested? Because it’s exhausting to arrest them, feed them, and send them home, when they’ll fly right back again tomorrow.” I didn’t sense overwhelming sympathy. The Chinese have been the world’s most abundant migrants, but these days many believe that they have better job prospects at home than abroad. Li joked that Americans and Europeans should be more concerned about Chinese visitors buying up prime real estate. “The European economy is in decline,” he said bluntly. “Times have changed.”

He pointed out the grounds of the French Parliament, which he said had been the site of a recent protest against raising the retirement age, a protest that he found baffling. “Can a place where workers go on strike every day grow economically? Certainly not,” he said. “People here are strangely used to it. Their laws on public demonstrations are very mature. As long as you apply to the government, you have the right to protest on a predetermined route.” This is their “routine way of demanding their rights,” he said, though he didn’t think it was good for tourism. “You can be stuck at one spot for four hours because the streets are blocked. I hope that you all will never encounter a terrible situation like that.”

By midmorning, we were done with the Eiffel Tower and had set off for Versailles. A Chinese-speaking guide met us at the palace gate and led us upstairs. In one of Marie Antoinette’s chambers, the Salon des Nobles de la Reine, he pointed out a blue vase of “beautiful Chinese porcelain, which was stolen from us and brought here.” The Hall of Mirrors, he said, was host not only to royal galas but also to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, in June, 1919—a notorious document in Chinese history, because it allowed German territory in Shandong Province to be placed under Japanese control.

At the Louvre, we picked up another Chinese-speaking guide, a hummingbird of a woman, who shouted, “We have lots to see in ninety minutes, so we need to pick up our feet!” She darted ahead beneath a furled purple umbrella, which she used as a rallying flag, and without breaking stride she taught us some French using Chinese sounds: bonjour could be approximated by pronouncing the Chinese characters ben and zhu , which mean, fittingly, “to chase someone.” We raced after her through the turnstile, and Wang Zhenyu, the pants manufacturer, tried out his new French on the security guard: “ Ben zhu , ben zhu! ”

The guide advised us to focus most on the _san bao—_the three treasures—the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo, and the Mona Lisa. We crowded around each in turn, flanked by other Chinese tour groups as identifiable as rival armies: red pins for the U-Tour travel agency, orange windbreakers for the students from Shenzhen. We’d been going non-stop since before dawn, but the air was charged with diligent curiosity. When we discovered that the elevators were a long detour from our route, I wondered how Huang Xueqing, in her wheelchair, would get to see much of the museum. Then her relatives carried her chair while she hobbled up and down each marble stairway, and rolled her in front of the masterpieces.

By nightfall, another day of touring Europe’s finest sights had kindled a sense of appreciation, albeit with a competitive streak. While we waited for tables—at a Chinese restaurant—Zhu brought up the Zhou dynasty (1046-256 B.C.), the era that produced Confucius, Lao-tzu, and other pillars of Chinese thought. “Back then, we were damn good!” Zhu told a group of us. His wife, Wang Jianxin, rolled her eyes. “Here you go again, always talking about the same thing,” she said. Zhu was wearing a recently purchased Eiffel Tower baseball cap with blinking battery-powered lights. He turned to me in search of a fresh audience. “Really, during the Zhou dynasty we were practically the same as ancient Rome or Egypt!”

His wife peered toward the dining room. “How long are we going to have to wait?” she asked. Someone joked that we might do better at McDonald’s, which gave Promise something new to consider. “Does Beijing have the biggest McDonald’s in the world?” he asked me. I wasn’t sure, but Zhu was certain. “The one by the Grand Hyatt—it’s enormous!” he said.

The Grand Tour has been a tradition of newly rich countries ever since young British aristocrats took to the Continent in the eighteenth century, picking up languages, antiques, and venereal disease. Once the railroad arrived, in the mid-nineteenth century, large numbers of Britain’s ballooning middle class followed—“lesser men with less fortunes,” suddenly free to “tumble down the Alps in living avalanches,” in the sniffy words of Lord Normanby, the future British Ambassador to France.

The railroad made it possible for schoolteachers, engineers, and civil servants to go from London to the Alps in less than twenty-four hours, instead of spending weeks in a stagecoach, according to “The Smell of the Continent,” a history of Victorian travel by Richard Mullen and James Munson. In Switzerland, the Londoners and, later, the Americans savored the fresh air, but they found much to complain about elsewhere: Henry James saw Venice as nothing but a “battered peep-show and bazaar.” Everyone complained, above all, about the food: French dishes “stewed in grease” and breakfasts consisting of nothing more “than a thimbleful of coffee or chocolate and a morsel of bread.” Mark Twain, whose 1867 trip to Europe and the eastern Mediterranean produced “The Innocents Abroad,” described American tourists “who talked very loudly and coarsely, and laughed boisterously when all others were so quiet and well behaved.” But, through it all, the journeys changed the travellers in powerful ways. As Samuel Rogers, the English poet, put it, travel sowed in them “doubt of our own exclusive merits.”

By the fourth day on the road, we no longer thought twice about riding three hours in the morning and another three in the afternoon, separated by cultural excursions. When we stopped for snacks and bathroom visits, we spoke to nobody outside our ranks. We were as mobile and self-contained as a cruise ship. On a map, our route resembled the Big Dipper; it started in Germany and looped through Luxembourg and into Paris, before a long southerly swoop through France, over the Alps, and down into Italy as far as Rome. It might have ended there, but instead it did an about-face and doubled back to Milan, for the flight home. (“Every route is largely determined by the plane tickets,” Li explained to me. Wherever the cheapest flights are on a given day, Chinese tours see opportunity.)

The bus had a DVD player, and as we embarked on the seven-hour drive from Paris to the Alps Li put on “Sissi” (1955), an Austrian romantic drama about Princess Elisabeth of Bavaria. The movie was heavy on verdant hillsides, ballroom gowns, and surging orchestral music. Sissi had been dubbed into Chinese (“ Nihao , Franz! ”), and it was a hit with the parents, who remembered when “Sissi” was a sensation on Chinese television, in the eighties. But she didn’t attract much interest from the teen-agers on the bus, and, from his backpack, Promise pulled out a crumpled edition of the Wall Street Journal that he’d picked up at the hotel in Luxembourg. He studied each page in silence and elbowed me for help when he came across a headline related to China: “ EU FINDS HUAWEI GOT STATE SUPPORT .” The story said that European trade officials believed that the big Chinese technology company Huawei was receiving unfairly cheap loans from state banks. “Does the American Constitution prevent companies from receiving government support?” Promise asked.

Sissi had a whole trilogy to her name, unfortunately, and we soldiered on to a second DVD. I asked Promise if he used Facebook, which is officially blocked in China but reachable with some tinkering. “It’s too much of a hassle to get to it,” he said. Instead, he uses Renren, a Chinese version, which, like other domestic sites, censors any sensitive political discussion. I asked what he knew about Facebook’s being blocked. “It has something to do with politics,” he said, and paused. “But the truth is I don’t really know.” I recognized that kind of remove among other urbane Chinese students. They have unprecedented access to technology and information, but the barriers erected by the state are just large enough to keep many people from bothering to outwit them. The information that filtered through was erratic: Promise could talk to me at length about the latest Sophie Marceau film or the merits of various Swiss race-car drivers, but the news of Facebook’s role in the Arab uprisings had not reached him.

We stayed in the Swiss town of Interlaken, where Li had promised us “truly clean air,” a treat for residents of any large Chinese city. I stepped outside to look around town with Zheng Dao and her daughter Li Cheng, a nineteen-year-old art major. We strolled past luxury watch shops, a casino, and the Höhematte, a vast green that hosts yodelling and Swiss wrestling events. Midway through the trip, the daughter was politely unmoved. “Other than different buildings, the Seine didn’t look all that different from the Huangpu,” she said. “Subway? We have a subway. You name it, we’ve got it.” She laughed.

As Li Cheng walked on ahead with friends, her mother told me that she wants her daughter to see differences between China and the West that run deeper than “hardware.” Our guide had mocked Europe’s stately pace, but Zheng said her countrymen have come to believe that “if you don’t elbow your way on to everything you’ll be last.” A car paused for us at a crosswalk, and Zheng drew a contrast: Drivers at home think, “I can’t pause. Otherwise, I’ll never get anywhere,” she said.

Not far from Interlaken, we boarded a train that inched up a snowy mountain, bound for an Alpine saddle between the peaks known as the Jungfraujoch. Skiers, flushed and sweaty in fluorescent powder suits, swooshed by, shouting in German and French. We were dressed for train travel, not mountaineering: Liu Yang was in leather thigh-high boots; Li Cheng wore a white furry hat in the shape of a polar bear, paws reaching down to warm her chin. We chuckled at the Europeans.

The train let us off at a spacious lodge with restaurants and brilliant views of peaks and valleys that stretched to the Black Forest. We ate lunch at 11,388 feet—the Bernese Alps, the Aletsch Glacier, chow mein and spring rolls. The gift shop was overpriced, so Handy and Karen bought a single postcard and mailed it to themselves as a souvenir.

Milan was cold and clear when we arrived the next day. Li said the climate accounted for “why foreigners love to bask in the sun.” Pursuing a tan is anathema in China, where women vigilantly cover their skin to avoid the bronze of a laborer. “Westerners’ skin will turn red and then quickly turn white again,” he said. He went on, “After someone has turned red, he can go back and show others, and they will know that he’s been travelling on vacation.” China was so isolated for so long that stereotypes about outsiders have an especially long half-life. Li peppered his lectures with his observations: South Koreans have square jaws, Western men are covered in short, dark hair, and Italian men grow long eyelashes, which they “flutter like fans” at unsuspecting women.

We had thirty minutes to wander in downtown Milan, so Karen and Handy and I stepped into the cool interior of the Duomo. Handy peered up at soaring sheets of stained glass. “That looks exhausting,” he said. “But it’s beautiful.” A few hours earlier, Li had reminded us again to be on guard against thieves, but Handy said, “Italy is not as chaotic as they made it seem. It sounded really terrifying.” He was a sanitation specialist by training, and he couldn’t help but notice Milan’s abundant graffiti and overstuffed trash bins. As Li had explained it, “The government wants to clean, but it doesn’t have enough money.” Handy tried to be polite, but he said, “If it was like this in Shanghai, old folks would be calling us all afternoon to complain.”

The Italian papers were full of news that Prime Minister Berlusconi was about to be charged with sleeping with a teen-ager. Li was diplomatic. “What a unique man he is!” he said. The drive across Italy that day had put him in a reflective mood about life at home. “You might wonder now and then whether it would be good to promote democracy,” he said. “Of course, there are benefits: people enjoy freedom of speech and the freedom to elect politicians. But doesn’t the one-party system have its benefits, too?” He pointed out the window to the highway and said that it had taken decades for Italy to build it, because of local opposition. “If this were China, it would be done in six months! And that’s the only way to keep the economy growing.” Li was so boosterish that I might have taken him for a government spokesman, except that his comments were familiar from ordinary conversations in Beijing. “Analysts overseas can never understand why the Chinese economy has grown so fast,” he said. “Yes, it’s a one-party state, but the administrators are selected from among the élites, and élites picked from 1.3 billion people might as well be called super-élites.”

Li’s portrait of the West contained at least one feature of unalloyed admiration. He mentioned a Western friend who had quit his job to go backpacking and find his calling in life. “Would our parents accept that? Of course not! They’d point a finger and say, ‘You’re a waste!’ ” he said. But, in Europe, “young people are allowed to pursue what they want to pursue.”

He went on, “Our Chinese ancestors left us so many things, but why do we find it so difficult to discover new things? It’s because our education system has too many constraints.” Our group was even more attentive than usual. At the very moment that American parents were wondering if they had something to learn from China’s purportedly hard-nosed “tiger mothers,” Chinese parents were trying to restore creativity to the country’s desiccated education system. One mother, Zeng Liping, told me that teachers had frowned upon her bringing her sixth grader to Europe. “Before every school vacation, the teachers tell them, ‘Don’t go out. Stay at home and study, because very soon you’ll be taking the exam to get into middle school.’ ” But Zeng had made her peace with being out of step. She had quit a stable job as an art teacher and put her savings into starting her own fashion label. “My bosses all said, ‘What a shame that you’re leaving a good workplace.’ But I’ve proved to myself that I made the right choice.”

We reached Venice in the early afternoon, and people were hungry, urging Li to stop even if there wasn’t a Chinese restaurant. We had been in Europe for a week and had yet to sit down to a lunch or a dinner that was not Chinese. (Nearly half of all Chinese tourists in one market survey reported eating no more than one “European style” meal on a trip to the West.) But Li warned that Western food would take too long to serve, and he recalled a five-hour dinner in Spain. **“**If you eat Western food too fast, you’ll get an upset stomach,” he added. “Save it for your next trip.” Everyone consented, and we stopped for a twenty-minute lunch at La Pagoda Ristorante Cinese, on the outskirts of town. In Venice, we crisscrossed the lagoon by ferry, visited a glass factory, rented a fleet of black gondolas, and had time for a quick stop at Prada before heading back out of town. On the way to La Pagoda for dinner, Zhu picked up a local real-estate circular. “Look at this—a hundred and ten thousand euros for a house!” he cried. “Cheaper than America. Much cheaper than Shanghai!”

In Rome the next day, we stopped at the Trevi Fountain, where tall Senegalese men were selling counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags and venders tended carts offering cheap magnets and paperweights. Handy gazed at them and said, “Made in China.” At the Vatican, Zhu took in the full scale of St. Peter’s Square. “Pretty impressive!” he said. “Their Pope can just stick his head out anytime he wants and watch all of us down here? I bet he doesn’t get any happier than that.” The scale reminded him of Beijing. “It’s just like the old days, when Chinese people used to go to Beijing just to catch a glimpse of the Communist Party.” He laughed.

We wandered down the block and sat down to rest on a windowsill. Zhu lit a cigarette. He’d been thinking about the fluctuating fortunes of great powers. I asked if he believed American politicians who say they have no objections to China’s rise. He shook his head. “No way. They’ll let us grow, but they’ll try to limit it. Everyone I know thinks that.” Ultimately, he said, in the politest way he could think of, Americans would need to adjust to a weaker position in the world, just as China once did. “You are so used to being on top, but you will drop to second place. It won’t be immediately—it’ll take twenty or thirty years—but our G.D.P. will eventually surpass yours.” I was struck that, for all his travels, Zhu saw an enduring philosophical divide between China and the West: “two different ways of thinking,” as he put it. “We will use their tools and learn their methods. But, fundamentally, China will always maintain its own way,” he said.

His sentiment didn’t inspire much optimism about China’s future alongside the West. On some level, it was hard to argue with him; the myth that a richer China would soon become a Western, democratic China has rarely looked more frayed than it does today. But if it was naïve to imagine that China’s opening up would draw it close to the West, it is also naïve, perhaps, to dismiss the power of more subtle changes. Modern Chinese travel, like the modern Chinese state, is predicated on the fragile promise that it will impose order on a chaotic world, by shepherding its citizens and keeping them safe from threats that can include Western thieves and Western cuisine. In the flesh, the world our group encountered was, indeed, more Europe than “Europe”—unkempt and unglamorous in ways that Sissi never mentioned. And yet, behind Berlusconi’s opera buffa and the prosperity gospel about Chinese one-party efficiency, my busmates caught unredacted flickers of insight. On this first trip, there was much they would never see—a rowdy free press, a social safety net forged by political wrangling—but, mile by mile, they were quietly discovering how to see it at all. When Promise finally put down his wilted copy of the Wall Street Journal , there were no trumpets. He said simply, “When I read a foreign newspaper, I see lots of things I don’t know about.”

The three-hour drive to Florence was our last long bus trip, and Li raced through some topics, including Catholics and divorce, Pavarotti, balsamic vinegar, truffles and the pigs that find them, and leather goods that are marked as Italian but made in China. He once had a leather-factory boss on a trip to Italy, he said, who spent the time collecting samples of Italian products to replicate at home.

The Piazza della Signoria was a riot of sun-pinked Russians, American students, and cops in white thimble-shaped helmets. A local guide steered us into a leather shop called Peruzzi, where purses and shoes were displayed with the motto “If you don’t take home a Peruzzi souvenir, you can’t prove you have been to Florence.”

We were about to reboard the bus for another ninety minutes, to snatch a photo of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But then something strange happened: people said no. Handy, Karen, and a few others wondered why we couldn’t skip the tower and linger in Florence. Li gathered everyone in the shadow of the bus and said, “Whoever wants to go, raise your hand.” Two-thirds or so of the hands went up. A woman’s voice urged solidarity—“We should all go together.” After a minute of discussion, Li called for another straw poll, and it was clear that some of the mutineers had been winnowed. A consensus of a certain kind washed over the group, and we all dutifully lined up for the bus. Handy lifted his eyebrows and said, “Voting Chinese style will always end this way.”

On the highway to Pisa, I wondered how much longer Chinese tours at this pace might endure. Solo tourism was growing in popularity among the young people, and even in the course of our time together my fellow-tourists had wearied of hustling so much. When we reached Pisa and its charmingly goofy tower, each of us took turns standing at the perfect spot, grimacing, arms outstretched, for the photo of ourselves holding up the tower. There was a spectacular blue sky above. Huang Xueqing got up from her wheelchair, to feel the cobblestones beneath her feet. We worked up an appetite, and I pointed out a Chinese restaurant not far from the tower. Handy and Karen had another idea, and I followed them into a McDonald’s. ♦

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By Peter Hessler

By Jiayang Fan

The Grand Tour: Funniest Moments Of Season 1

It seems a long time ago when The Grand Tour first appeared on Amazon Prime Video. In fact, a quick Google search tells me it was almost four years since episode 1, The Holy Trinity, first aired.

This was a time of change and while it felt weird that Jeremy Clarkson , Richard Hammond, and James May weren’t in the BBC hangar, we were shocked with a whole new level of production quality and what seemed like an endless budget. And while the first season wasn’t perfect, it most definitely had its funny moments.

Watch below three videos we’ve put together showcasing the very best moments of The Grand Tour Season 1, from Clarkson getting fondled while hanging out of a window, to Richard Hammond finding out he definitely doesn’t like water. Enjoy!

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Taste 200+ Great Wines at Our Grand Tour! Coming up: Las Vegas (May 4) and Denver (May 11)—Get your tickets now!

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Srn member links, where can you find 235 amazing wines at the wine spectator grand tour.

The three-city series of tastings began in New Orleans with a packed house of outstanding wines and world-caliber food

Mitch Frank

The young couple in the shorts and festival shirts sped into the ballroom of the New Orleans Marriott on a mission. It was the opening night of Wine Spectator ’s 2024 Grand Tour , and 235 of the world’s greatest wineries were pouring wines, all rated 90 points or higher. The pair had come straight from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, having watched Jon Batiste play an amazing set, and now they were eager to cap off a perfect day with an evening of outstanding wines.

After eight hours of sun and music, what would motivate them? “The love of fine wine,” said T. Lopez of New Orleans without hesitation. “There are such amazing wines and amazing producers here.”

A packed ballroom of close to a thousand fellow wine lovers agreed with them. This was the Grand Tour’s first visit to New Orleans, and wine fans from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama,Texas and beyond all flocked to the Marriott on Canal Street to taste old favorites, talk about new discoveries and meet winemakers and fellow consumers.

A packed crowd at the Wine Spectator Grand Tour tasting in New Orleans.

For the winemakers, this was the first of three stops on the Grand Tour, which will head to Las Vegas and Denver in the coming weeks. It was an opportunity to meet serious wine consumers; some of the vintners had been to New Orleans before and loved the city, while others making their first visit were amazed at the deep appetite for great food and wine.

“I can’t believe how much people love and know about wine here,” said Alessandra Angelini, who was representing her family’s two Montalcino wineries, Altesino and Caparzo . Like several other vintners, Angelini had taken the opportunity to enjoy the city for a few extra days. Santiago Achával, of Argentina’s Matervini , made plans to spend the week in town with his wife to celebrate their anniversary.

Katie German, Roger Ross, Kevin Hyde, Jacque Louie, Nate Fuller share a toast at the Wine Spectator Grand Tour in New Orleans.

For attendees, the Grand Tour provided a chance to taste both classic names and outstanding wines they’ve never had before. You could begin with Louis Roederer Brut Champagne Collection 244 NV (93 points) and then pivot to Italian sparkler Ca’ del Bosco Extra Brut Franciacorta Cuvée Prestige NV (91). Just a few tables apart, you could try Sarah Jessica Parker’s Invivo Sauvignon Blanc X 2023 (93) from New Zealand, then sample Quarz, a very different Sauvignon Blanc from Cantina Terlano in Italy’s Alto Adige (93).

There were familiar icons, such as Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Special Selection 2018 (94) and E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Château d’Ampuis 2019 (95). But you could also find less expected gems including Feudo Montoni Nero d’Avola Sicilia Lagnusa 2021 (91) from Sicily and Bodegas Avancia Godello Valdeorras Old Vines 2021 (92) from Spain.

Maxine Anderson and Chanel Fields chatted with Kristian Jelm about Malbec at the Wine Spectator Grand Tour in New Orleans.

Some producers spotlighted older wines. Tuscany’s Valdicava brought its Brunello di Montalcino 2004 (95). “This is a great event, so we wanted to bring a great wine,” explained co-owner PierFilippo Abbruzzese.

Guests could pair these amazing wines with dishes from some of New Orleans’ most iconic restaurants. Chefs from Brennan’s , Commander’s Palace and Emeril’s , all Wine Spectator Grand Award winners, were preparing small dishes to enjoy.

Brennan’s chef Ryan Hacker, center, and his team at the Wine Spectator Grand Tour in New Orleans.

All too quickly, the evening came to a close. But for passionate fans, the Grand Tour will continue in two more cities this year. The event arrives in Las Vegas at Resorts World Las Vegas May 4 and then in Denver at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel May 11. Tickets are available at GrandTour.WineSpectator.com .

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Canadians Michael Woods, Riley Pickrell to race in Giro d’Italia for Israel-Premier Tech

Michael Woods competes in the 75th Tour de Romandie UCI ProTour cycling race, in Lausanne, Switzerland, on April 26, 2022. Jean-Christophe Bott/The Associated Press

Canadian rider Michael Woods is headed to his third Giro d’Italia and 11th Grand Tour race.

The 37-year-old from Ottawa, who won a stage at last year’s Tour de France, will be joined by fellow Canadian Riley Pickrell on the Israel-Premier Tech team for the Giro. Pickrell, a 22-year-old from Victoria, will be appearing in his first Grand Tour event.

But Canadian Derek Gee, who posted four second-place and two fourth-place finishes at last year’s Giro, “will focus on other objectives this year,” according to Israel-Premier Tech.

The 107th edition of the Giro starts Saturday in Turin and ends May 26 in Rome some 3,400 kilometres later. The Tour de France and Spanish Vuelta, the other two Grand Tour events, begin June 29 and Aug. 17, respectively.

Gee finished 22nd in the final general classification standings of last year’s Giro and was runner-up to Italy’s Jonathan Milan in the points race and France’s Thibaut Pinot in the King of the Mountains standings. The 26-year-old from Ottawa was also honoured as the Giro’s “super combative rider.”

Led by Gee, Israel-Premier Tech posted nine top-five finishes in last year’s Giro.

Sports director Rene Andrle called the 2023 Giro a “turning point” for the team.

“We may not have won a stage but the way the team rode was nothing short of inspiring and coming so close to a victory on so many occasions has made us even hungrier this year,” Andrle said in a statement. “We have a strong team of opportunists and we will be targeting stage wins once again.”

Woods and Pickrell will be joined at this year’s race by Australia’s Simon Clarke and Nick Schultz, Italy’s Marco Frigo, France’s Hugo Hostetter, Israel’s Nadav Raisberg and Britain’s Ethan Vernon on the Israel-Premier Tech team.

Andrle believes Woods, Clarke and Schultz can all contend for a stage win.

Raisberg, and Vernon join Pickrell in their first Grand Tour event. Hofstetter will be racing in his first Giro.

“Ethan, Hugo and Riley give us multiple cards to play in the sprint stages and I really think we have a team that can win on all terrain,” Andrle said.

Woods returns to the Giro after a six-year absence, looking to complete a trifecta of Grand Tour stage victories.

In addition to his success in last year’s Tour de France, he won a stage in both the 2018 and 2020 editions of the Spanish Vuelta. Woods’s best result at the Giro was runner-up in the fourth stage in 2018.

“I’ve had a tough start to the season with some illness but I feel like that is finally behind me and now it’s time for one of the coolest races on the calendar,” Woods said. “My big ambition for the race will be stage-hunting. Particularly with the illness that I’ve had in the last few months, I will aim to have a conservative start and then look for stages later on as the race progresses.

“So hopefully I can find some form in the early stages and then be aggressive and bag a stage win by the end of the race.”

Woods, who has recovered from a virus that ruled him out of the Ardennes Classics in April, has largely focused on the Tour de France and Spanish Vuelta since his last ride in the Giro in 2018.

Israel-Premier Tech is co-owned by Canadian-Israeli entrepreneur Sylvan Adams with fellow Canadian Kevin Ham also a partner in the team.

Head sports director Steve Bauer raced in nine editions of the Tour de France, finishing fourth overall in 1988 after winning a stage and spent five days in the leader’s yellow jersey. Bauer, just the second Canadian ever to lead the Tour after Alex Stieda in 1986, also wore the yellow jersey for nine straight days in 1990.

Israel-Premier Tech performance director Paulo Saldanha, coach Christopher Rozdilsky and team nutritionist Vanessa Zoras are also Canadians. And co-title sponsor Premier Tech is a Canadian company.

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Giro d’Italia 2024: Tadej Pogacar’s debut, his challengers and key stages

From tadej pogacar’s much-anticipated bow, to the return of the hairpin-fraught stelvio and this year’s nod to the late marco pantani — a guide to the first grand tour of the year.

Pogacar, centre, is the favourite – but Thomas, left, and Martínez, right, could be podium contenders

It’s unusual for a rider who has never ridden a certain race before to be such an overwhelming favourite on their debut appearance. But then Tadej Pogacar is an unusually talented rider. Already well established as a generational talent with two Tour de France titles under his belt, the Slovenian would always be fancied on his first attempt at the Corsa Rosa, but so much appears to be in his favour that it’s hard to look anywhere else for the general classification.

There’s his form: seven victories this season from just ten days of racing, including Strade Bianche, four stages and the overall title at Volta a Catalunya and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. There’s the absence of his rivals: no Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel or reigning champion Primoz

Stop being intimidated by Pogacar – lessons for the peloton

Your English teacher would hate this ‘Great Gatsby’

A new broadway musical is all about jay gatsby’s decadence.

NEW YORK — The orgiastic delights of Jay Gatsby’s parties mostly lurk between the lines of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s clipped prose. But there is nothing coy about the extravagant stage musical that opened Thursday at the Broadway Theatre, where a cascade of visual splendors showers the eye like a fire hose. When actual sparks rain down on the first soiree, toss any hankering for subtlety out the window.

Directed by Marc Bruni with the broadness of a 10-lane highway, “The Great Gatsby” is a grand, crowd-pleasing spectacle: Tourists, Jazz Age enthusiasts and fans of its vocal-powerhouse stars Eva Noblezada and Jeremy Jordan are already lining up outside the stage door. And there is something to be said for a splashy night out, even if it casts off the author’s intended message.

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To the likely dismay of your high school English teacher, any critique of material excess, social disparities or the American Dream that has made the book a classroom staple gets stripped here in deference to a swoony and ill-fated love story. This isn’t a high-society tragedy set against the dawn of modernity but a rom-com that nose-dives into overwrought melodrama.

Midwestern fish-out-of-water Nick Carraway is a clear-eyed audience surrogate: Amid an assembly of mild caricatures, Noah J. Ricketts gives an admirable and firm-footed performance. The subjects of his narration, prose mostly lifted from Fitzgerald, all seem to know they are part of a Great Big Story, even as they appear to be plucked from a hodgepodge of genres.

His cousin Daisy (Noblezada) is fluttering and giggly but vaguely unhappy when we meet her in a lofty drawing room with windows overlooking Long Island Sound (the elaborate, projection-enhanced Art Deco set is by Paul Tate dePoo III). “God, I’ve made it,” Daisy sings, draped in a cropped and diaphanous cotton-candy dress, “I’m so sophisticated.” (The lavish costumes are by Linda Cho.) The lyrics by Nathan Tysen generally relay backstory and circumstance, whether or not they’re tinged with emotion.

Daisy’s husband Tom (John Zdrojeski), her ticket to this fabulous life, is the philandering brute she knows him to be. But the couple’s durable if brittle bond, forged in old-money breeding — so integral to the narrative’s structure — is imperceptible from the start. The audience is clearly meant to ask, “Why is she with this guy?” as a precursor to, “Now look at this dreamboat!”

That would be the debonair Gatsby (Jordan), sapped of mystery and crooning in wistful high registers about the one who slipped through his fingers but is now within reach. Jason Howland’s music, serviceable Broadway pop without much distinct flavor (not even jazz, that low-hanging fruit), excels at soaring ballads, allowing both Jordan and Noblezada to demonstrate considerable vocal gymnastics.

Book writer Kait Kerrigan exalts the central romance into a reunion of true loves torn apart by wartime, like something out of “ The Notebook .” Characters and their motivations are fleshed out for the purpose of moralizing infidelities and making their tragic ends feel less random. Gatsby is so smitten he can hardly stand upright; Daisy has a song about longing to remain faithful until she’s drawn over the edge.

Tom’s mistress Myrtle (Sara Chase) and her aggrieved husband George (Paul Whitty) are figured as cartoonish avatars of the working class with thick New Yawk accents whose fates are intertwined with the wealthy set by both love and money. There is even a juiced-up romantic plot between Nick and the steely Jordan Baker, played by Samantha Pauly (like Ricketts, another grounding presence). The two skeptics, vaguely queer-coded as in the novel, also can’t help but fall for each other.

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This revisionary attempt to turn “The Great Gatsby” into a clown car of passionate entanglements skids off the road when calamity is meant to strike. The second-act twists play out with the frenzy of a nighttime soap by Aaron Spelling, without any of the campy self-awareness. There is no ghastly reckoning with the follies of hedonism, just a rapid succession of abrupt ends.

Fitzgerald’s chic but sobering cautionary tale has been bubbling up frequently onstage since entering the public domain in 2021: There was an immersive take in a Manhattan hotel last year, and a pre-Broadway tryout of “ Gatsby ,” with music by Florence Welch, begins performances in Boston next month. There’s never been a bad time for the author’s sidelong glance at capitalism and the single-minded pursuit of pleasure — provided one isn’t already blinded by them.

The Great Gatsby , ongoing at the Broadway Theatre in New York. 2 hours, 30 minutes. broadwaygatsby.com .

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The most anticipated Wow show is set to be the best this year. This Great Journeys package includes the Coastal Pacific Scenic Train and Interislander Ferry, with a VIP-style Wow welcome, including Wow goodie bags, and a special multi-course Wow-themed menu. Guests will also have the unique opportunity to see a Wow garment up close to appreciate the incredible detail and work involved.

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IMAGES

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COMMENTS

Jeremy Clarkson Reveals Why He Quit Amazon's 'The Grand Tour'
Jeremy Clarkson Says He Quit 'The Grand Tour' After Running Out Of Ideas & Becoming "Unfit, Fat & Old". Jeremy Clarkson has revealed why it's the end of the road for The Grand Tour ...
Jeremy Clarkson Confirms The Grand Tour's Final Episode on Amazon Prime
End of The Grand Tour: Jeremy Clarkson, along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May, will no longer film new series of The Grand Tour after next year, following a decision by Amazon Prime's executives.This marks the end of a popular show that started in 2016 and quickly garnered a devoted fanbase. Fan Reactions and Future Prospects: Fans expressed their disappointment and ...
Jeremy Clarkson on 'The Grand Tour' Ending: I'm ...
When the news came out in December that " The Grand Tour " — Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond's post-"Top Gear" automotive series — would be coming to an end, fans were ...
The Grand Tour... Lochdown Review: Clarkson, Hammond, And May At The
Alex Harrington reviews The Grand Tour… Lochdown before its release July 30th on Amazon Prime Video. Starring Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, they travel across Edinburgh in three classic American cars. I've been watching, enjoying, and writing about Clarkson, Hammond, and May for a long time now. But as others have made clear …
Clarkson, Hammond, and May's Grand Tour Tenure Is Coming to an End
The Grand Tour's end comes just weeks after the BBC indefinitely shut down Top Gear. Getty. The old Top Gear trio of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May will be hitting your screen ...
The Grand Tour
The Grand Tour, an Amazon Prime original series, delivers a high-octane, globe-trotting adventure featuring the charismatic trio of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May.Launched in 2016, The Grand Tour quickly became an audience favorite, carrying the torch after the presenters left BBC's Top Gear.. At the heart of The Grand Tour lies the undeniable chemistry among the three hosts ...
The Grand Tour: Lochdown review
The Grand Tour: Lochdown. Photograph: Amazon Prime. Television. This article is more than 2 years old. Review. The Grand Tour: Lochdown review - Clarkson, May and Hammond drive Scotland out of ...
The Grand Tour
The Grand Tour is a British motoring television series, created by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and Andy Wilman, made for Amazon exclusively for its online streaming service Amazon Prime Video, and premiered on 18 November 2016. The programme was conceived in the wake of the departure of Clarkson, Hammond, May and Wilman from the BBC series Top Gear and was originally contracted ...
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May film final Grand Tour
Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond have filmed their last episode of motoring show The Grand Tour, after seven years on Amazon Prime. Clarkson, 63, May, 60, and Hammond, 52, have ...
The Grand Tour
The Grand Tour. Watch The Grand Tour with a subscription on Prime Video. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May travel the globe as the hosts of this Amazon original series. At each ...
List of The Grand Tour episodes
The Grand Tour is a British motoring television series for Amazon Prime Video, presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May.The programme focuses on conducting reviews of various models of car, new models and vintage classics, as well as tackling motoring-styled challenges and races, and features the use of studio segments between pre-recorded films.
'The Grand Tour' Not Moving Forward at Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video 's automotive series " The Grand Tour " is not moving forward at the streamer — at least with its current hosts, former "Top Gear" trio Jeremy Clarkson, James May ...
Clarkson, Hammond, And May Have Filmed Their Last Grand Tour Episode
Nov 30, 2023 at 10:41am ET. By: Chris Bruce. Good news: The Grand Tour with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May returns in 2024 with a special set in Zimbabwe. Bad news: This is ...
The Real Reason Why 'The Grand Tour' Is Ending
The Real Reason Why 'The Grand Tour' Is Ending, According To Jeremy Clarkson. TV. — 1 February 2024. WORDS. Garry Lu. Since the beginning of 2023, there's been plenty of speculation regarding why Amazon Prime Video 's The Grand Tour is ending after seven eventful years with Top Gear alums Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May.
The Grand Tour [Articles]
Focus Reset ... Skip to content
The Grand Tour Could Get New Hosts Because Good Things Aren't Allowed
However, like Dr. Frankenstein reviving an unwilling corpse, it seems Amazon Prime, isn't willing to let The Grand Tour die and is instead interested in bringing it back but with a new trio of ...
What Was the Grand Tour and Where Did People Go?
The Grand Tour was a trip of Europe, typically undertaken by young men, which begun in the 17th century and went through to the mid-19th. Women over the age of 21 would occasionally partake, providing they were accompanied by a chaperone from their family. The Grand Tour was seen as an educational trip across Europe, usually starting in Dover ...
The Grand Tour Game [Articles]
The Grand Tour Game is an episodic racing game based on the hit Amazon Prime Original series, The Grand Tour. Featuring Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, The Grand Tour Game ...
Grand tour
grand tour, multiyear journey, typically running through France and Italy.It was undertaken by aristocratic or wealthy young men from northern Europe, especially England, to complete their education.The term was coined in 1670 by priest and writer Richard Lassels in his Voyage of Italy, but the practice probably began some 100 years earlier.It reached its height during the 18th century and ...
The Grand Tour
October 2003. Beginning in the late sixteenth century, it became fashionable for young aristocrats to visit Paris, Venice, Florence, and above all Rome, as the culmination of their classical education. Thus was born the idea of the Grand Tour, a practice that introduced Englishmen, Germans, Scandinavians, and also Americans to the art and ...
What You Need to Know About the Grand Tour
The Grand Tour evolved between the 17th and 18th centuries as a custom of a traditional trip. The purpose of the Grand Tour was to provide male members of upper-class families with a formative experience. The term was first used by the Catholic priest and travel writer Richard Lassels in his guidebook The Voyage of Italy.
From Shanghai to Paris, with Love and Anxiety
The Grand Tour has been a tradition of newly rich countries ever since young British aristocrats took to the Continent in the eighteenth century, picking up languages, antiques, and venereal disease.
The Grand Tour: Funniest Moments Of Season 1
The Grand Tour: Funniest Moments Of Season 1. It seems a long time ago when The Grand Tour first appeared on Amazon Prime Video. In fact, a quick Google search tells me it was almost four years since episode 1, The Holy Trinity, first aired. This was a time of change and while it felt weird that Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May ...
Wine Spectator's Grand Tour Brings 235 Amazing Wines to New Orleans
The young couple in the shorts and festival shirts sped into the ballroom of the New Orleans Marriott on a mission. It was the opening night of Wine Spectator's 2024 Grand Tour, and 235 of the world's greatest wineries were pouring wines, all rated 90 points or higher.The pair had come straight from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, having watched Jon Batiste play an amazing set ...
Canadians Mike Woods, Riley Pickrell to race in Giro d'Italia for
The 107th edition of the Giro starts Saturday in Turin and ends May 26 in Rome some 3,400 kilometres later. The Tour de France and Spanish Vuelta, the other two Grand Tour events, begin June 29 ...
Giro d'Italia 2024: Tadej Pogacar's debut, his challengers and key stages
From Tadej Pogacar's much-anticipated bow, to the return of the hairpin-fraught Stelvio and this year's nod to the late Marco Pantani — a guide to the first grand tour of the year. Pogacar ...
'Great Gatsby' musical on Broadway review: It's all about the decadence
A new Broadway musical is all about Jay Gatsby's decadence. Jeremy Jordan, Eva Noblezada and the cast of "The Great Gatsby." (Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman) NEW YORK — The orgiastic ...
Book a trip to Paris, Japan or the Grand Canyon with these hot deals
This incredible journey is available from $2689 per person and is only available until May 12. The tour departs on October 8 2024, and airfares are additional. Advertisement Advertise with NZME ...
Didn't snag tickets to the Miami Grand Prix? Here's a free event for F1
Cars take off from the starting grid during the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix at the Miami International Autodrome on Sunday, May 7, 2023, in Miami Gardens, Florida. MATIAS J. OCNER mocner ...
UCI World Tour 2024
Cet article concerne la compétition masculine. Pour la compétition féminine, ... L'UCI World Tour 2024 est la quatorzième édition de l'UCI World Tour, ... course d'1 jour - Rouge : course à étapes - Vert : Grand Tour - Rose : Monument. Calendrier et résultats. N o Date (nombre d'étapes) Nom de l'épreuve Pays ...

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Marble sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysos and the Seasons

Piazza San Marco

Autre Vue Particulière de Paris depuis Nôtre Dame, Jusques au Pont de la Tournelle

Imaginary View of Venice, houses at left with figures on terraces, a domed church at center in the background, boats and boat-sheds below, and a seated man observing from a wall at right in the foreground, from 'Views' (Vedute altre prese da i luoghi altre ideate da Antonio Canal)

The Piazza del Popolo (Veduta della Piazza del Popolo), from "Vedute di Roma"

Vue de la Grande Façade du Vieux Louvre

View of St. Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum

Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768)

Modern Rome

Ancient Rome

Portrait of a Young Man

Gardens of the Villa d'Este at Tivoli

Veduta dell'Anfiteatro Flavio detto il Colosseo, from: 'Vedute di Roma' (Views of Rome)

View of the Villa Lante on the Janiculum in Rome

The Girandola at the Castel Sant'Angelo

Dining room from Lansdowne House

The Burial of Punchinello

Portland vase

Further Reading

Additional Essays by Jean Sorabella

Related Essays

Artist or Maker

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The Grand Tour: Everything You Need to Know

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Artists’ Beloved Travel Destinations as Seen Through Their Art