PARIS - Academy Travel · Canal St Martin. The canal was constructed under Napoleon’s rule, and leads through a tunnel beneath the city, to a series of spectacular locks and the

PARIS STUDY TOUR JULY 2-14, 2018 TOUR LEADER: DR MICHAEL ADCOCK

Overview The extraordinary history, art and culture of Paris makes it one of the most iconic cities in the world. This study tour explores Paris over 13 days, from the remains of the Roman town beneath Notre Dame, to the glory of the medieval kings of France, through to the tumultuous revolutionary city and the rise of Napoleon, and the birth of modern art with Monet, Cezanne, Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec. The tour provides you with the extensive background lectures and expert guidance of Dr Michael Adcock, guided visits of museums and galleries, and a sequence of historical walking tours to bring the city and its history to life. The tour takes you well beyond the main sights of Paris, to explore some of its less well-visited but nonetheless world class galleries, museums and historical sites. In addition, the itinerary is designed to provide you with time for independent site seeing and to undertake optional activities with the tour leader. For the duration of the tour, we stay in self-contained apartments in Bercy Village, a local neighbourhood in the 12th Arrondisement rarely frequented by tourists and just minutes from the heart of Paris. The village, which was the historical centre of the Paris wine trade, has many cafes and restaurants in converted cellars and wine warehouses and all the conveniences of modern living at your doorstep.

Your tour leader Dr Michael Adcock is a social and cultural historian who specialises in modern French history. Michael 's extensive teaching experience includes several years with the History Department of the University of Melbourne, where he lectured in courses devoted to nineteenth and twentieth century France and a series of popular lectures at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, the Art Gallery of Queensland and the National Gallery of Victoria.

Michael’s doctoral research examined the visual arts of the French Second and Third Republics, with much of his research undertaken in Paris. He has subsequently published books on the French Revolution with Cambridge University Press. Michael has led Academy Travel tours to Paris since 2006. “I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and particularly the enormous contribution of our guide Michael Adcock – he was most generous with his information and his care of everyone in the group” Tour participant, Paris in the Wintertime, 2015.

PARIS STUDY TOUR

Tour dates: July 2-14, 2018

Tour leader: Dr Michael Adcock

Tour Price: $5,290 per person, twin share

Single Supplement: $1,100 for sole use of an apartment

Booking deposit: $500 per person

Recommended airline: Emirates

Maximum places: 20

Itinerary: Paris (12 nights)

Date published: March 8, 2018

Enquiries and bookings

For further information and to secure a place on this tour please contact Jamal Fairbrother at Academy Travel on 9235 0023 or 1800 639 699 (outside Sydney) or email [email protected]

Study Tours Academy Travel study tours are designed to provide in-depth intellectual stimulation. The tours feature regular background lectures, morning site visits and several free afternoons for individual exploration or optional visits with the tour leader. Compared to other Academy Travel tours, walking tours are longer and we use local public transport for short journeys within a city. Wherever possible, accommodation will be in self-contained apartments with kitchens and access to washing machines, allowing you to 'live like a local'.

Tour Themes

ROMAN AND MEDIEVAL PARIS While Paris is a cultural capital of the modern world, its medieval history is no less stunning. We trace the early development of the city from its Gallic and Roman origins, through to its rise in the High Middle Ages as the permanent residence of the kings of France, whose mark on the city is still felt today, at Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle and other churches and museums in the city.

FROM THE SUN KING TO NAPOLEON The power of the kings of France grew exponentially in the 1600s as did their territory through war and intrigue. Indeed, it is in this period, under Louis XIV, that the borders of France as we know them were largely shaped. Louis more than reshaped the kingdom – he articulated a notion of absolute power expressed through public displays of magnificence, a model that was widely adopted by later leaders.

19TH-CENTURY PARIS Paris as we see it today is the result of Hausmann’s systematic redevelopment project, with its magnificent boulevards, clear lines of sight to monuments throughout the city, and beautiful new apartments lining the streets at a regular height. The new modern city facilitated a new form of modern, bourgeois living, which artists and writers of the period immortalised.

IMPRESSIONIST PARIS AND BEYOND The Impressionists made a number of radical breaks with traditional and Academic art, most obviously in their technique, but also frequently in their choice of subject matter. The focus on modern life was taken up in new ways by post impressionists, such as Toulouse-Lautrec, who captured the spirit of the bohemians and celebrated life in all its shades and colours on Montmartre.

THE CAULDRON OF MODERNISM The lively group of artists and writers from around the world who gathered in Paris at the turn of the 20th century, created the styles and ideas that have shaped modern art, from cubism, abstraction and Fauvism to conceptual and installation art. Paris’ modern art galleries are exceptional – and you can retrace the footsteps of the masters.

Detailed itinerary Included meals are shown with the symbols B, L and D.

Monday 2 July Arrive

The tour starts in the mid afternoon, when we meet in the hotel for an orientation walk of Bercy, a quiet neighbourhood in the 12th Arrondisement and the historic centre of Paris’ wine trade. In the late afternoon, we have lectures on Paris’ history from its Celtic and Roman origins to its medieval splendour, followed by dinner in a local restaurant. (D)

Tuesday 3 July The hidden history of paris

The early history of Paris is rarely explored, partly because it is buried beneath centuries of history and the city’s major monuments. Today we make two quite different, and very unusual, ‘deep contacts’ with historical layers of the City of Paris. We begin with the Archeological Crypt below the pavement in front of Notre-Dame, where workers excavating a car park discovered the remains of the Roman city of Paris, then called Lutetia. The museum has been recently renovated with state-of-the-art reconstructions and boardwalks allowing you to walk through the streets and houses of the Roman city. After a break for lunch and time to explore the Ile St Louis, we enjoy a cruise along one of Paris’ best-kept secrets: the Canal St Martin. The canal was constructed under Napoleon’s rule, and leads through a tunnel beneath the city, to a series of spectacular locks and the leafy, arty suburbs of Paris. The late afternoon and evening are at leisure. (B)

Wednesday 4 July Medieval splendour

Paris was the heart of medieval France and the influence of its art and architecture extended across Europe. We immerse ourselves in the gems of medieval Paris today, starting with the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, and then proceeding to the astonishing 13th century Sainte-Chapelle, a royal or ‘palatine’ chapel built by Louis IX to house major relics, including the Crown of Thorns. This structure consists almost entirely of stained glass windows, having virtually no walls apart from the fine Gothic columns that support the building. After a break for lunch in the nearby St. Michel area, we visit the Cluny Museum. This extraordinary collection of medieval fine and decorative art ranges from ivories, stained glass windows, everyday objects, sculpture and tapestry (including the Lady and the Unicorn cycle) and is housed in a medieval residence built on top of the very well preserved Roman bath complex. The later afternoon is free for individual sightseeing, and you may wish to visit the Bercy markets before an evening lecture on the Louvre. (B)

Above: The Canal St Martin, which passes from the Seine beneath the streets of Paris to emerge in the quiet tree lined inner-suburbs Below: Sainte-Chapelle, the jewel box of the Gothic age

Above: Delacroix’s Liberty leading the people, symbol of the revolutionary spirit Below: Pierre-Paul Prud’hon’s portrait of Empress Josephine Bonaparte at Chateau Malmaison

Thursday 5 July The French ark

From its very beginning, the Louvre Museum was conceived to be the world’s premiere art gallery, with collections tracing the history of art from Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquity, through to the Renaissance in Europe and then modern developments in France. We begin our tour with some of the less-visited, but no less spectacular, collections including the rich collection of Delacroix, Corot and the Barbizon School of landscapists, and the beautiful rooms of 17th and 18th century French painting, where we discover the intense beauty of works by the likes of Lorrain, Poussin, Chardin and the much-neglected Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. The rest of the day is free to explore the other collections in the Louvre. Returning to Bercy, we have a lecture on Versailles. (B)

Friday 6 July At the court of the sun king

The Palace of Versailles redefined what a royal palace must be and how it must reflect royal magnificence. This morning we travel to Versailles by train and begin with a guided tour of the Private Apartments, which is reserved for groups only. Upon completion, we independently explore the part of the palace open to the general public and its extensive grounds before returning to Paris. Late afternoon and evening at leisure. (B)

Saturday 7 July Napoleonic Paris

France changed dramatically under the Napoleons, whose systematic program of modernisation largely created the Paris we see today. This morning we have lectures on Napoleon and Josephine and the extensive modernisation of the city under Napoleon III, which gave Paris its modern appearance and made it an iconic capital. After a break for an early lunch, we travel by coach to the Chateau Malmaison, the former residence of Napoleon and Josephine, now a museum dedicated to their memory. The point of our visit will be to evoke the extraordinary garden and zoo that Josephine established here – including kangaroos and emus from a distant land called Australia – and to acknowledge thereby her considerable erudition. Contrary to a thousand sentimental paintings, and a hundred gushy romantic novels, Josephine was very definitely ‘not just a pretty face.’ We then continue by coach to visit the Museum of Les Invalides, a military hospital built by Louis XIV, to see the monumental tomb of Napoleon I in the Church of Les Invalides, and then explore the recently renovated Napoleonic wing of the military history museum. The evening is at leisure. (B)

Sunday 8 July Civilising the city

In the mid-19th century, Emperor Napoleon III empowered his prefect, George Hausmann, to literally tear down the urban

tangle and accretion of centuries of Parisian life, and to create wide, straight boulevards, lines of sight, monumental foci, as well as infrastructure such as a vast underground network of sewers to cleanse Paris. Our walking tour this morning explores the new world created by Haussmann, including the Paris Opera and the Avenue de l’Opera, to the historic Galeries Lafayette. This world will be oddly familiar to us, for it was the plan of renewal, largely competed by 1875, that created the new urban conditions that inspired the generation of young Impressionists painters, who embraced and recorded the new thrill of the modern. In the early afternoon, there is the option of visiting the nearby Museum Jacquemart-André, with its astonishing personal collection of old master paintings. The afternoon is otherwise free for individual sightseeing. (B)

Monday 9 July Giverny

Monet’s gardens at Giverny, where Monet lived from 1883 until his death in 1926, allow us to make contact with his greatest masterpiece. This morning, we travel to Giverny by coach and, rather than follow a guided tour, we will immerse ourselves in the experience of the gardens. There are no paintings by Monet at the garden, and there is a Museum of Impressionism nearby in Giverny. On some occasions, this museum has exhibitions of astonishing breadth and depth, usually focusing on an aspect of the impressionist movement. On returning to Paris in the mid-afternoon, we have lectures on the art and culture of 19th and early 20th century Paris. Evening at leisure. (B)

Tuesday 10 July Two hidden gems of Paris

While Paris’ most famous museums, such as the Louvre, attract millions of visitors per year, its 200 other museums are perennially under-visited. This morning we take a coach to the Marmottan Museum, a mansion-museum created when a wealthy art collector left both his house and his collection to the City of Paris. In addition to its elegant Empire style rooms, it has an impressive collection of paintings by Berthe Morisot, a talented painter who is still somewhat neglected as ‘a woman Impressionist’, a collection of medieval manuscripts and paintings, and an underground gallery with dozens of paintings by Claude Monet, including the iconic Impression. Sun Rising and the breathtaking Train in Snow. We then take the metro a short way to the Museum of the Petit-Palais, which was constructed for the great International Exposition of 1900, with the intention that it would then become a permanent art museum for the City of Paris. It has recently been splendidly renovated to make it one of the most exhilarating museum visits in Paris, with its quiet rooms of Old Masters, Impressionists, ancient Greek bronzes, and intriguing paintings of the 19th-century Naturalist school. The museum also has a delightful café, looking out onto a colonnade and a beautiful interior garden. The afternoon and evening are free for independent sightseeing (B)

Above: The Galleries Lafayette, a pantheon of bourgeois Paris; and the famed pond in Monet’s garden at Giverny Below: Monet’s Train in snow, just one of the many gems in the Petit Palais

Wednesday 11 July The painters of modern life

In the 1860s and 1870s, painters responded to the modern world they saw emerging around them. Following Baudelaire’s injunction to study ‘the heroism of modern life’, painters such as Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas adopted novel points of view and radical techniques – sometimes inspired by the old art of Japanese woodblocks and the new art of photography – to capture the acrid flavour of what Robert Hughes would call ‘the Shock of the New.’ We start the day at the Musée d’Orsay, where we will actually use the examples of formal, academic salon art exhibited to ‘see the 19th century whole’, that is, to really see what was so radical about Impressionist art and fully appreciate the technical revolution operated by the Impressionists. After a break for a light lunch, we cross the Seine to visit the Museum of the Orangerie, whose oval-shaped galleries contain Monet’s massive ensemble of vast waterlily canvases, as well as a significant collection of modern art of the 19th and 20th centuries. The mid-afternoon is free for independent sightseeing. We have a lecture in the early evening, followed by dinner in a local restaurant. (B, D)

Thursday 12 July The Republic of Pleasure

Today, we will take the metro to Les Abbesses metro stop (one of the few that still has a completely original 1900 metal entrance) and enjoy a walking tour in the footsteps of the likes of van Gogh through the fabled streets of Old Montmartre. The walking tour ends with a visit to the Basilica of Montmartre, a break for lunch in the old square at the top of the hill, and a visit to one of the most charming of local museums in Paris, the quaint Museum of Montmartre. This museum was small in scale and intimate in nature, but a recent renovation has both extended it and transformed it, creating new rooms and vastly increasing the amount of material on display. The standard of display, too, has been massively enhanced, and is truly state-of-the-art. The rest of the afternoon is free for independent sightseeing. Early evening lecture on modernism in Paris. (B)

Friday 13 July The Cauldron of Modernism

The early 20th century saw a proliferation of new art movements, and today we explore the birth and development of modernism in Paris. We begin at the recently renovated and extensively expanded Picasso Museum, a rich collection created in one swoop when the artist, charged with failure to pay taxes, covered his arrears by donating a core collection of his work to the French state. After a break for lunch in the Marais, we visit the National Museum of Art located in the Pompidou Centre. This was one of the first of Paris’ modernist buildings, built partly in response to the youth revolution of 1968 and intended to show that France could embrace modernity. This collection will take the narrative of modern art on from that of the Orsay, that is, from 1900 to the present. It is rich in the ‘classics’ of modern

Above: The view to Sacre Couer and Montmartre through the old station clock of the Quai d’Orsay Below: Picasso’s Portrait of Dora Maar, in Paris’ Picasso Museum

art – the Fauves, the Cubists, the Surrealists, but the museum is also resolutely contemporaneous, exposing us to aspects of recent art that may be less familiar. In the evening, we enjoy a farewell meal at an excellent restaurant. (B, D)

Saturday 14 July Departure

The tour ends this morning. Please check your individual travel documents for your ongoing journey. A transfer is available to those who have booked their flights through Academy Travel. (B)

Hotel information Adagio Apartment Hotel Paris (12 nights)

Well-equipped and modern studio apartments with kitchen and wifi. Continental breakfast included. Self-service washing machines and laundry service available. 24-hour reception.

The neighbourhood

Bercy Village is a quiet neighbourhood in the 12th Arrondisement, which has grown around the historic wine warehouses, which have been transformed into small bars, cafes and restaurants. It offers you the pleasure and convenience of a local neighbourhood in Paris and is only a short journey on the Metro or RER train to Paris’ premier attractions. The Parc de Bercy, a pleasant park with tree lined avenues, walking paths and seating for picnics, is a few minutes walk from the hotel, and the local market is on in Bercy Village twice a week.

Weather on Tour Paris in July is generally very pleasant, with long hours of sunlight and average temperature of 20°C. The average maximum is 24°C and the average minimum is 15°C. It is reasonable to expect some rain, such as the occasional afternoon thunderstorm, but it is typically a dry time of year.

Study Tours While study tours are full of group activities, a reasonable degree of independence is also required. Accommodation is in self-contained apartments, giving you access to cooking and washing facilities. Local public transport is used and there is a significant amount of walking. However, your tour leader will of course show you around the neighbourhood and will provide full assistance if you encounter any difficulties.

Above: Bercy Village, formerly the centre of the wine trade, and know known for its cafes, restaurants, and relaxed atmosphere Below: Manet’s The Balcony, now in the Musée d’Orsay

Tour Price The tour price is $5,290 per person, twin share (land content only). The single supplement for use of an apartment is $1,100 per person. A non-refundable deposit of $500 per person is required to secure a place on the tour.

Tour Inclusions

Included in the tour price

12 nights’ accommodation at the Adagio Apartment Hotel in Bercy, Paris

A ticket for unlimited use of the Paris public transport network for the duration of the tour

All entrance fees to sites included in the itinerary Selected dinners as indicated by (D) in the itinerary Continental breakfast Services of an Australian Tour Leader throughout the

tour Background lectures, site notes and onsite guidance,

including local guides where required

Not included

International air fares, taxes and surcharges (see below) Travel insurance Meals not mentioned in itinerary Expenses of a personal nature

Air travel OPTIONS The tour price quoted is for land content only. For this tour we recommend Emirates which offers flights into and out of Paris from most Australian cities. Please contact us for further information on competitive Economy, Business and First Class airfares. Transfers between airport and hotel are included for all passengers booking their flights through Academy Travel. These may be group or individual transfers.

Enquiries & bookings For further information and to secure a place on this tour please contact Jamal Fairbrother at Academy Travel on 9235 0023 or 1800 639 699 (outside Sydney) or email [email protected]

Fitness Requirements of THIS tour

GRADE THREE

It is important both for you and for your fellow travellers that you are fit enough to be able to enjoy all the activities on this tour. To give you an indication of the level of physical fitness required to participate on our tours, we have given them a star grading. Academy Travel’s tours tend to feature extended walking tours and site visits, which require greater fitness than coach touring. We ask you to carefully consider your ability to meet the physical demands of the tour.

Participation criteria for this tour

This Grade Three tour is among our most physically demanding. To participate on this tour, you should be able to comfortably undertake up to seven hours of activity per day, over several days. Activities may include travelling long distances, walking on difficult terrain, climbing stairs, embarking and disembarking trains and/or boats, exposure to high altitudes and long days of touring. These tours may include one night stops and early starts. You should be able to: keep up with the group at all times walk for 5-7 kilometres at a moderate pace with only

short breaks stand for a reasonable length of time in galleries and

museums tolerate varying climatic conditions such as cold weather maintain a reasonable level of physical and respiratory

fitness tolerate a diet that can be significantly different from a

typical Australian diet, and where some dietary requirements cannot be met

walk up and down slopes negotiate steps and slopes on archaeological sites or

mountain paths, which are often uneven and unstable get on and off a large coach with steep steps, train or

boat unassisted, possibly with luggage move your luggage a short distance if required

A note for older travellers

We regret that we are not able to accept bookings on a Grade Three tour from people more than 80 years old, or with restricted mobility.