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OCTOBER 24–31, 2010
INSIDER'S PARIS WITH MONET & MANET
 During our time in Paris, we'll be joined by best-selling author Ross King, who has graciously offered to share his time and expertise in both the history and art of 19th & 20th century artists Monet and Manet. King's book, The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism (2006), was met with critical acclaim and considerable commercial success, receiving Canada's 2006 Governor-General's Award for Non-Fiction. Also offering informal commentary on the trip will be Cindy Cormier, Director of Curatorial Services and Education at Hill-Stead Museum (www.hillstead.org), where Ross King was featured as the 2008 Nina Stanley Memorial speaker.
 We travel from JFK to Paris on Sunday, October 24. Dinner is served on the flight. (Transfers to and from JFK will be arranged closer to the date.) We arrive in Paris on Monday morning, October 25 and transfer by private coach to our hotel for six nights, the Hotel Lotti (www.hotel-lotti-paris.com). The hotel is within easy walking distance of many of the museums we will be visiting.
 Jean has stayed in Paris apartments for the past few years and will do so on this trip in order to give you a true "insider's view" of the city. The apartment is in the trendy area bordering the Canal St. Martin just a little north of the Marais. Some of you may remember the movie Amélie where Audrey Tautou bounced stones on the water here. Jean and Cindy Cormier of Hill-Stead Museum will host a reception and supper at the spacious apartment, and introduce you to one of the best markets in town. This will give you a true feeling for how ordinary Parisians live and eat.
 Paintings by artists preceding the Impressionists will be seen in visits to the Louvre (www.louvre.fr) and the Musée du Petit Palais, which looks glorious after being cleaned. Among works here, we'll see several fabulous paintings by Courbet.
Facing the Petit Palais is the more gracious Grand Palais (www.grandpalais.fr/en, also recently cleaned), where there will be a special exhibition devoted to Claude Monet.
 Monet painted obsessively for more than 60 years, producing a body of work representing the purest form of Impressionist painting. His work had a lasting influence on early 20th-century modern art. This Grand Palais exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of Monet's prolific career. The exhibition is the first retrospective in France devoted to him since the 1980 exhibition at the Grand Palais. Several in-depth studies of his paintings have since brought to light a number of lesser-known aspects of his work.
During our visit to the Musée de l'Orangerie (www.musee-orangerie.fr) — before public opening hours — we will see the two oval rooms created specifically for Monet's Water Lilies and donated by him as a gift to the nation.. On this same day we will visit the Musée Marmottan (www.marmottan.com), where, among other works, we will see Monet's celebrated Water Lilies created specifically to fit the rooms and donated by the artist as a gift to the nation.
As many of you know, the Musée d'Orsay will be partially closed for renovations, however we will still be able to see Manet's important works Olympia and Déjeuner su L'Herbe. Many other works remain there to enthrall.
 No trip with this theme is complete without visiting the home and garden of Monet at Giverny. In late season the principle flowers are dahlias and, of course, the water gardens depicted in the paintings that you will have seen in Paris. More paintings, on loan from the Orsay, will be on view at the nearby Musée d'art américain (giverny.org/museums/american/index.htm) along with their own works by American artists. We will precede this visit with a morning in Rouen, site of his series of paintings of the cathedral, and will have lunch in town at La Couronne (www.lacouronne.com.fr), a charming old inn, where Julia Child first discovered her love for French cuisine. As with all Adventures' tours, cuisine will feature prominently, and a full French meal with wine is included each day in a fine restaurant (lunch or dinner, depending on the day's activities).
On Sunday, 31 October, we will have a private transfer to Charles De Gaulle Airport for our return trip to the US.
Cost: $3,265 per person in twin ; $1,120 single supplement
Included in cost:
• Six nights' accommodations at the Hotel Lotti
• Breakfast daily
• Private transfers to and from hotel and airport in Paris
• All museum admissions as mentioned in itinerary
• Lunch or dinner daily at fine restaurants
• Private coach for day excursion to Rouen and Giverny
• Informal commentary by Ross King & Cindy Cormier
• $100 tax-deductible donation to Hill-Stead Museum
• Hostessing and tour guiding by Jean Glasel
Not included in cost:
• Air fare from JFK to Paris
• Personal items and extras at hotel (telephone, mini-bars, hard liquor)
• Meals not indicated on itinerary
General Information: Several airlines fly to Paris from JFK. Jean Glasel uses the Sky Team alliance, which includes Delta and Air France. However, if you prefer to use another airline and/or have frequent miles to trade in, you should plan to arrive at CDG airport as close to the time of the Delta flight as possible or to meet at the hotel.
Getting around in Paris should be much simpler on this trip since almost all of the places we will visit are within walking distance. Those a little further out (such as Marmottan) are accessible by bus, and, of course, we will have our own bus for the day in Rouen and Giverny.
Reservations: Please send a deposit of $500 per person. Please make a check payable to Adventures, Inc. and mail to Jean Glasel, 15 Colton Street, Farmington, CT 06032. Email Jean at jeanglasel@goadventuresinc.com or call 860.674.1114 if you have questions or need further information.
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