DAY    1            DEPARTURE FROM NORTH AMERICA
Enjoy full meal service on your scheduled wide-bodied flight to Nice.

DAY    2            ARRIVE NICE - CANNES - AIX-EN-PROVENCE
                          (5 NIGHTS HOMESTAY)
Upon our arrival this morning, our Tour manager/guide will meet us at the airport and accompany us to Cannes, the elegant playground of the rich and famous on the French Riviera. In Cannes, we will have a bit of free time to explore, shop or simply relax on the beach. We will continue with the short journey to Aix-en-Provence, the ancient capital of Provence, former watering place for the Roman legions, and the home of Paul Cezanne, the Impressionist painter. This afternoon we will meet our Host Families.

DAY    3            LANGUAGE CLASSES & AIX-EN-PROVENCE
This morning we will begin our French Language Classes. This afternoon we will focus on Aix's most famous son, Paul Cezanne. We will begin with a brief visit to the Musee Granet, which houses many of Cézanne's works. We will also visit his studio, the Atelier de Cezanne, preserved as it was when he died in 1906. Our afternoon in Aix concludes with a stroll along the Cours Mirabeau, a particularly stately thoroughfare with lovely shops, sidewalk cafes, and richly embellished sandstone mansions from the 17th- and 18th-centuries. We return to our host families for the evening.

DAY    4            LANGUAGE CLASSES - GLANUM & ARLES
This morning we will have our French Language Classes. This afternoon we travel just outside of St-Remy-de-Provence, where we will explore the Greek (4th-century BC) and Roman remains at Glanum, a Greco-Roman town at the head of the valley in the Alpilles. We will view the dramatic memorials, known as Les Antiques, which stand on the roadside, including a Triumphal Arch from 10 BC celebrating Caesar's conquest of the Greeks and the Gauls, and a Mausoleum from about 30BC. Our afternoon continues in the nearby Roman City of Arles, where we will take a Van Gogh Walking Tour. Van Gogh lived in Arles and completed around 200 paintings during his stay, including some of his most revered paintings - Sunflowers, The Bedroom, The Yellow House. We will have a specialist guide take us around town where there are 10 sites where we can stand in the spot where Van Gogh set up his easel. We will follow the yellow arrows to each site, marked with a laminated picture panel; e.g., Place Lamartine for The Yellow House or the Jardin d'Ete on Boulevard des Lices for the Public Garden at Arles. We return to our host families for the evening.

DAY    5            LANGUAGE CLASSES & AVIGNON
This morning we will have our French Language Classes. This afternoon we will travel to Avignon, a medieval city surrounded by over 3 miles of walls and punctuated by 39 towers and 7 gates. We begin with a visit to the spectacular Palais des Papes, a series of buildings that offers a glimpse into the grand life under the seven Popes who built a miniature Vatican in Avignon during their rule (1309-1377). After free time to explore the ramparts of Avignon, the Pont d'Avignon, and the shops, we return to our host families for the evening.

DAY    6            LANGUAGE CLASSES - PONT-DU-GARD & NIMES
This morning we will have our French Language Classes. This afternoon we visit the spectacular Pont-du-Gard, a three-tiered Roman aqueduct that is almost entirely intact. At over 2,000 years old, Pont-du-Gard is a startling example of Roman engineering, which is remarkably well-preserved and was formerly the link in a 30-mile canal that supplied 44 million gallons of water to Nimes daily. We continue to Nimes, where we will visit the superb Roman Amphitheater, built during the reign of Augustus, as well as the Maison Carree, the best preserved of all Roman temples. We return to our host families for the evening.

DAY    7            LANGUAGE CLASSES - AVIGNON - TGV TO PARIS
                          (3 NIGHTS)
This morning we say "au revoir" to our host families and enjoy our final morning of Language Classes. After lunch we travel to Avignon to board a high-speed, TGV train to Paris, "the City of Lights." This evening we will take a Seine River Cruise, which will take us under many of Paris' graceful bridges and past many important landmarks and monuments along both banks - a perfect introduction to the beauty of Paris.

DAY    8            PARIS (THE REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEON)
Our morning commences with an ascent of the Arc de Triomphe, a massive triumphal arch commissioned by Napoleon, today a symbol of Paris and home to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We continue with a stroll along the Champs Elysees, Paris' most spectacular thoroughfare, which offers a beautiful look at Parisian life and architecture. We return to the Place de la Concorde, before strolling through the Jardin des Tuileries, the beautiful Neo-Classical gardens that lead to the entrance of the Louvre. We will enjoy a specialist-guided tour through the museum, which will include Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, and many of the finest paintings and sculpture from Western Civilization. This afternoon we visit the cathedral of Notre Dame, begun in 1163 on a spot that had already been a religious shrine since Roman times. Over the centuries, the cathedral has been the scene of some of France's most momentous occasions, including the coronation of Napoleon. This evening we will dine in and stroll through the Latin Quarter, a section of the city that dates back to the Roman times, and which is generally associated with artists, intellectuals and political unrest. During our walk we will view the Sorbonne, Paris' oldest university.

DAY    9            PARIS (PARIS OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS)
This morning we will ascend to the top of the Eiffel Tower, Paris' most recognizable landmark, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1889. We continue with a visit to the Musee d'Orsay, dedicated to the rich diversity of visual arts from 1846 to 1914, featuring masterpieces by Delacroix, Manet, Degas, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin and Lautrec. Paris is one of the most important centers of fashion in the world, and this afternoon we will visit the elegant stores of Au Printemps and Galeries Lafayette for a first-hand look at the latest trends in fashion. This evening we will ascend to Montmartre, an area of Paris made famous in the late 19th-century as an artists' haunt. We will spend time in the Place du Tertre, a square known for its local artwork, before visiting the Sacre-Coeur Basilica, a huge white church that dominates the Parisian skyline.

DAY    10          DEPARTURE FROM PARIS
Our enjoyable and rewarding tour will come to an end as our Tour manager/guide accompanies us to the airport for the return flight home.