The Majesty of England & France

Two powerhouses in the tourism arena, England and France have something for everyone and it comes as little surprise that they consistently rank among the top 10 most visited countries worldwide. Both centres of world-class art, architecture, fashion, literature, gastronomy and historic sites, England and France make for a formidable tour combination.

ITINERARY IN BRIEF

Day 1: Arrive in London
Today you are picked up from Heathrow Airport and head straight to London to check in to your hotel Later, head for a half-day guided walking tour of London with a Blue Badge Guide. Overnight in London.

Day 2: London
Today you have a ful-day guided coach tour of London. Sites of interest include: Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Picadilly Circus, Oxford Street, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Day 3: London - Stonehenge - Portsmouth - Caen
Today you travel from London to Portsmouth stopping at Stonehenge en route. Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, about 13 km north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is the remains of a ring of standing stones set within earthworks. It is in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds that archaeologists believe were built anywhere from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. We take the mid afternoon ferry (Brittany Ferries) from Portsmouth to Cane (France). Overnight in a hotel near Caen.

Day 4: Caen - Normandy area beaches - Caen
Caen Memorial and then visit to the D-Day beaches of Normandy. The Battle of Normandy took place along the coast very near to Bayeux beginning on 6th June 1944. We will visit one of the portable "Mulberry Harbours" at Arromanches. These enormous floating harbours were transported across the Channel from England and were a crucial element in the Allied supply link in Normandy, allowing larges quantities of supplies to be unloaded when no proper harbour was available to the Allies. From Arromanches, we continue to the Canadian Military Cemetery at Beny-sur-Mer, along with the site of Canadian landings at Juno Beach. Overnight in the Caen area.

Day 5: Caen - St Malo
Travel the short distance to Mont-St-Michel. Who would not recognize an image of Mont-St-Michel? Along with the Eiffel Tower, it must be one of the most famous sights of France. At the very highest of tides, Mont-St-Michel is completely surrounded by the sea, joined to the mainland by a causeway. Celtic mythology tells us that this place was one of the aqueous tombs to which the souls of the dead were sent. The first structure, a simple oratory, was built here in the 8th century by the Bishop of Avranches. Mont-St-Michel became an important centre of learning in the 10th and 11th centuries under Benedictine monks. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. We climb the steps to the top of the Grande Rue in order to visit the Abbey. Then we take an atmospheric walking tour of the narrow, winding pedestrian-only streets of Mont-St-Michel. We continue the short distance to Saint Malo, "a crown of stone above the waves," wrote Gustave Flaubert. The glass-blue clarity of the water, the coastline indented with rocky inlets, the backdrop of heather and bracken covered cliffs, which demonstrate in a glaze of green why the French called this area the "Emerald Coast." Overnight in St Malo.

Day 6: St Malo - Paris
We depart for Bayeux, a small historical town, which was spared the destruction that pervaded the area during the last year of the Second World War. The town is home to the hugely famous Bayeux Tapestry, which tells a visual story of William the Conquerer's Norman invasion of England in 1066. The 70-metre-long (230 feet) tapestry was made about a decade after the invasion, in 1077. It is truly a remarkable sight. We continue to Paris. Overnight in Paris.

Day 7: Paris
This morning we visit the Louvre. This colossus on the Seine, born in 1200 as a fortress and transformed over the centuries from Gothic mass to renaissance palace, served as the royal residence in the 16th and 17th centuries. Today its 200 galleries cover some 40 acres; to view all 297,000 items in the collection it would be necessary to walk some 13 km (8 miles). In addition to the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Louvre has many delights that are easily overlooked –Vermeer's Lace Maker and Holbein's Portrait of Erasmus, for instance; not to mention Van der Weyden's Braque Triptych, Ingres' Turkish Bath, Durer's Self Portrait, Cranach's naked and red-hatted Venus, and the exquisite 4,000 year old Egyptian woodcarving known as the Handmaiden of the Dead. The afternoon is free. You may remain at the Louvre, do some shopping, visit other museums, or just stroll around and soak up this beautiful city. Overnight in Paris.

Day 8: Paris - Departure
Departure transfer to the airport for your return flight home.

INCLUSIONS

• Entrances: Stonehenge, Caen memorial, Juno Beach Centre, Mont-St-Michel, Bayeux Cathedral, Louvre & Notre-Dame Cathedral.
• Return airfare including current fuel surcharges, airport improvement fees, security charges, transfer, arrival, and departure taxes.
• Ferry transport from Portsmouth to Caen by Brittany Ferries.
• Accommodations in clean and safe tourist-class hotels with private bathrooms.
• Continental breakfast and dinner.
• Comprehensive sightseeing tours and walking tours led by your own Tour Leader and complemented by experienced licensed local guides.
• Airport transfers and transportation between destination cities.
• An experienced Global Educational assigned Tour Leader specifically for your tour.
• All required transportation in your destination city mainly using your assigned private coach. On occasion we use local metro transit systems where safe and convenient.
• All gratuities and tips to guides, drivers, hotel and restaurant staff.

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