Bonjour !

I am so pleased to be able to write this month that we are currently planning for 2010, with some exciting new tours on the agenda! In view of the recent financial events, we are very grateful that our loyal clients (yes that's you!) are still not only travelling, but choosing to travel with us to France. Thank you for your continuing support - it is something we never take for granted!
 

The first tour I am really excited about - our first collaboration between the wonderful Si Italy and Toujours France . I am definately writing this in as one that I will escort personally as I have always wanted to go to this part of Italy - and I think you all know by now how I love the barge cruises!! The tour will consist of a week in Northern Italy - including the stunning Dolomites and Lake Garda - and a week on the "Impressioniste" in Burgundy, finishing in Paris. The tour will depart 20th September. Either Sandra or Linda from Si Italy will escort the tour with me and they are just wonderful tour managers. I would like to stress that those of you who have travelled with us previously on the Belle Epoque, could still consider this tour as the Impressioniste is offering a very different itinerary including Beaune and Dijon, some fabulous wineries and village markets.
Please comment on whether this tour would interest you.

GFC Tours
Forgive the facetious name – but yes it does stand for Global Financial Crisis!! We have decided we need to consider those of you that would love to be travelling next year, but have to take their budget into consideration more than usual. So we will be scheduling a “Provence & the Cote d’Azur” GFC tour and an “Enchanting Paris” GFC tour.

This means that we will offer these tours with some of the more expensive highlights replaced by more economical ones, eg instead of dining at our 2 star Michelin restaurant, we would choose an excellent local alternative. The accommodation will be all three star hotels instead of three and four star as we offer now. So the content and quality of these tours will not be compromised, it will just consist of more economical options! This will bring the price of these tours down and hopefully be of more interest to certain of our clients in 2010!!   PS. The name will NOT really be "GFC tour" - this is just for your interest to identify them from our regular tours, at present!! 
Please comment on whether this tour would interest you.
 

Changes to “Enchanting Paris & Barging through Burgundy”:
This tour will now be “Enchanting Paris” only – ie a 6 day tour focussing entirely on the magical highlights of the City of Lights, including wonderful historic walking tours exploring hidden corners and secrets of the stunning capital, with our qualified historian. Of course, if you wish to take a barge cruise in conjunction with this tour, that will still be possible – we will simply book each cabin on an ad hoc basis on the barge you want, instead of chartering the entire barge for a group. Please comment on whether this tour would interest you.
 

Mothers & Daughters
This tour will be an opportunity for mothers & daughters to have a trip of a lifetime together. It is specifically designed for girls doing Year 10, 11 or 12 French and who don’t feel ready to leave Mum or Dad yet for an extended French exchange. This will be run during the mid-year school holidays, and includes a stay in a French farmhouse for a week in Provence, exploring the local history, markets, restaurants etc while doing French immersion lessons each day and meeting local residents with whom they can practice their French. Meanwhile the mums can relax, sunbake, shop, walk and ride around the local countryside while the girls are working - and of course enjoy the excursions with their girls! Several days French immersion in another rural location and a few days in Paris to make up the two week tour, are also part of the plan.
Comment on whether this tour would interest you.

Finally, before I go on to other things, I am pleased to announce that the l'Occitane hamper that was the prize for our survey last month, is going to Meryl Ebenreuter. Congratulations Meryl!