Travel Horizons: Giverny

Showing posts with label Giverny. Show all posts

2.13.2020

seeing the Mona Lisa after hours

by Werner Willmann - Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1145981

What if you could get up close and personal with the Mona Lisa? What a different experience it would be to visit the Louvre after hours, avoiding the mob scene you see in the photo above...

What if you could visit Giverny before it opens to the public? Imagine how enjoyable it would be to explore his gardens, photograph the bridge over the lily pond, and walk through Claude Monet's house without the crowds of tourists...

What if you could enjoy these exclusive experiences without paying thousands of euros for the privilege?

Here's the secret: these experiences are included if you book a cabin on Tauck River Cruises' Impressions from the Seine: Paris to Normandy. Just ask your travel advisor to find a date that features the after-hours Louvre visit (as the Louvre is closed on Monday). All-inclusive fares for this eight-day river cruise start at $4,390 per person, and they include virtually everything.

And if that were not enough, Tauck is offering great round-trip air fares from select US and Canadian gateways to Europe through the end of February... for trips through the end of August, 2020. I've put the fine print below*, but this is a great value!

business class - $2990 pp
premium economy - $1690 pp
economy - $790 pp

I'll be taking my first Tauck River Cruise in April, traveling from Amsterdam to Basel, and we are really looking forward to the experience.

*The Fine Print: Take Off With Tauck is valid on trips departing March 1 through August 31, 2020 as indicated: valid on all Tauck Europe land trips, European river cruises, Tauck Bridges Europe trips, and Europe small ship cruises (Note: Venice & the Dalmatian Coast small ship cruises departing March 1 through September 30, 2020). Above trips must be booked January 9 through February 29, 2020. Tauck’s air package is available to all guests departing from select US and Canadian gateways to Europe; available for new bookings only (subject to availability). Air must be booked with Tauck, and a deposit is required at the time you make your booking. Air is refundable up to 60 days before departure. Premium Economy cabin is offered on trans-Atlantic flights and select carriers only. Not combinable with other offers.

copyright (c) 2020 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell, a Virtuoso® Member. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

12.17.2018

four tips | avoiding overtourism

Overtourism affects all of us when visit popular tourist destinations. Europe had 671 million visitors in 2017, the eighth year of sustained growth in its tourism industry. We've all experienced the loathsome effects of too many visitors in the same places — long lines in front of the pyramid at the Louvre in Paris, huge crowds crowding the Piazza San Marco in Venice, a precious few seconds on a moving conveyer in front of the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London. Overtourism also means crowded airports, long security lines, and wasted time in immigration.

Here are my top tips for avoiding overtourism. Short version — be a contrarian.

(1) Avoid high season. Unless you have school-age children, don't travel in the summer. I can guarantee that Italy will be hot and crowded in June, July, and August.

(2) Visit when everyone else is staying away. For instance, many visitors deserted Paris during Sunday "Yellow Jacket" protests on the Champs Elysées. Hotel occupancy went way down, and some of the more popular tourist sites were closed. I would see this as the perfect opportunity to avoid the Champs Elysées, explore less-known parts of Paris, and plan a Sunday day trip to Versailles, Chartres, or Giverny. Are you a nervous traveler? Just engage a knowledgeable tour guide, and you'll be kept far from any affected areas.

(3) Arrange for special access. Sit in Churchill's chair in the War Rooms (while the crowds filing past the plexiglass window wonder what kind of VIP you are) or witness the Changing of the Guard's concert from inside the Wellington Barracks (with nobody between you and the troops). Visit the Vatican Museum before it opens to the crowds (and without waiting in line). Yes, you'll pay for the privilege — but that's what keeps it exclusive.

(4) Get off the beaten track. You might explore the English countryside as the ten (10) tourists pictured above are doing at Cliveden. Ourisman Travel has partnerships around the world with companies that know their destinations like locals ... because they are locals! Special bonus feature after the break — the outline of a 10-day, 9-night off-the-beaten-track itinerary in Portugal and Spain, suggested by our friends at Made for Spain, completely customizable. Contact us to plan this trip!

reflecting on Monet

I have loved Claude Monet for at least 50 years, first encountering him in an Art Appreciation class in high school. During my senior year, I even wrote a paper on the French Impressionists in my French class. At the forefront of modern art, the Impressionists thought of a painting not as a representation of an external reality but as a reality in itself. Monet's subject was not the scene pictured but the light falling on the scene. Thus he would paint the same scene many times under different lighting conditions — the cathedral at Rouen, the houses of Parliament, hay stacks, water lilies, etc.

Monet was fascinated by reflections on water, and his way of seeing water has informed me as I have pursued my avocation of photography. Whenever I see water, I instinctively look for the reflections! During my trip yesterday to Giverny, I visited Monet's home, gardens, and lily pond. As it was a calm day, the water was still, so there were none of Monet's wonderful ripples on its surface. The mostly cloudy sky created the beautiful soft light and muted colors captured in my photograph above.

If you've read this far, you must be a fan of Claude Monet. Here's what you should include in your itinerary when you travel to Paris:

1. Musée Marmatton Monet. Not even on the radar of the vast majority of visitors to Paris, this small museum has the world's largest collection of Monet's works. The permanent exhibit on the lower level is so stunningly displayed.

2. Musée d'Orsay. This former train station has been transformed into the world's largest museum of 19th century art. Housing many of Monet's most beloved works, it also includes many works by Renoir, Manet, and Degas. One of the most visited museums in Paris, you should purchase tickets in advance to avoid standing in the long ticket lines (or purchase a Museum Pass).

3. Musée de l'Orangerie. This small museum at the southwest corner of the Jardin des Tuilleries (right by the Place de la Concorde) was created specifically to exhibit the monumental canvasses of Monet's Water Lilies series.

4. Monet's home at Giverny. We were privileged to make the trip with a driver-guide who was also an art historian (which added so much to the experience). It also made the logistics so easy for us. Though it's possible to take public transportation to Giverny, it involves taking a train to Vernon, then waiting for a public bus.

Bonus attraction: After our visit to Monet's home, we walked with our guide through the Giverny Museum of Impressionism where we saw an outstanding collection of the works of the Spanish Impressionist, Joaquín Corolla. On display through November 6, 2016, this is a must-see it if you're in Giverny.

copyright (c) 2016 by Ourisman Travel LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

9.10.2016

Paris | I'll be there next Saturday

Though I've been to Paris more than a dozen times, this is one place I can never get enough of. I inherited my love of travel from my grandparents who were intrepid world travelers in the 50's and 60's, and I always enjoyed my grandfather's slide shows of their travels. He traveled with his Leica, and I've photographed Paris with all sorts of cameras from a Minolta SLR and a Contax rangefinder to a Canon DSLR and a tiny Ricoh GR (which gets the credit for the photo above taken during my last visit).

Places to visit and things to do — here's a summary of the things I'm looking forward to this time around (and my travel partners who have helped organize the two walking tours).

Musée Marmottan Monet
Occupation & Liberation of Paris walking tour (Paris Personalized)
day trip to Giverny
Art Street tour of the 13th Arrondissement (W Travel France)
Quai Branly Museum
Bois du Boulogne

Hotels and places to stay — no visit to Paris would be complete (for me) without the chance to visit hotels. I'll be staying at and/or doing site inspections at the following:

Le Meurice
Le Bristol
Four Seasons George V
Grand Hotel du Palais Royal
Ritz Paris
La Reserve
Plaza Athenee
Peninsula Paris
d'Aubusson
Relais Christine
Saint James Paris
OneFineStay (apartment on rue Saint André des Arts, 6th arr.)

Please reach out to us for hotel bookings in Paris (with value-added amenities such as free daily breakfast and hotel credits that will save you hundreds!) and to consult with us to Discover More during your stay.

I'll be live blogging during my three weeks (!) in France, so subscribe to Travel Horizons or friend me on Facebook so you don't miss an article.

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