Monet’s House and Garden – Giverny

Monet's Garden, Giverny

Standing in Monet’s Garden is like being in a Monet Print: Claude Monet, as many would know, is known to be the founder of Impressionism, a term which was coined from the title of his painting Impression Sunrise, “Soleil Levant”.  A visit to Monet’s home and garden will take you into the the picturesque world [...]

Food in Central France

Escargots de Bourgogne, with garlic and butter

Food in Central France: a brief gastronomical tour! Burgundy and the Rhone Valley, the Jura and the Massif Centrale. Dijon; Nuit st Georges; Beaune; Cluny; Chablis; Santenay; Auxerre; Fontenay; Vezelay; Nevers; Autun; Macon; Arbois; Besancon; Ornans; Ronchamp; Limoges; Aubusson; Moulins; Vichy; Clermont-Ferrand; Le Puy-en-Velay; Conques; Lyon; Bourg-en-Bresse; Perouges; Montelimar; Grenoble; Chambery; Aix-les-Bains; Annecy; Evian-les-Bains; Lac [...]

Armagnac | The Brandy and the Place

Armagnac, France's finest brandy

Armagnac is more than a brandy: Formerly a province of France, the county of Armagnac was the most powerful of the fiefs of Gascony. It was a historic comté of the Duchy of Gascony, was once an important countship and attained its height of prominence in the 15th century. Armagnac is a region of hills [...]

Annecy – The Little Venice of France

Annecy, Haute-Savoie

Annecy a Little Venice: Annecy, in the Haute-Savoie region, is a beautiful and popular resort town on the northern end of the Lac d’Annecy. Take a stroll around the old town and you’ll quickly see why this town has earned itself the tag of Little Venice. Little Venice A network of canals criss-crossing the town [...]

Tour Routes in France

Chateau Chambourd in the Loire

Tour Routes in France Virtually all multi-country Europe tours pass through or originate in Paris, but few see much more of France. It is possible to do a pretty extensive tour of France but even so some fairly important areas will be missing or only covered briefly. Regional tours are popular and give you more [...]

Travel to France

Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees

Travel to France for a Europe Tour with Joie de Vivre! There’s a lot more to France than Paris and Provence. Travel to France involves a journey into the whole French way of looking at the world, and life. Not for nothing do we use the french words “savoir-faire” and “joie de vivre”! France lies [...]