Garden Tour of France

(8 Days - Departs Daily on a Private Basis)
Versailles, Loire Valley, Paris & Giverny

This private tour of France focuses on the country’s most beautiful and renowned gardens, including chateau gardens, pleasure gardens and Monet’s famous gardens in Giverny. The tour also includes private touring focused on art and culture, as well as accommodation at the finest luxury hotels in Paris, Versailles and the Loire Valley.

Begin in Versailles, where King Louis XIV built the Chateau de Versailles, one of the grandest royal palaces in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During touring with your expert private guide, see the highlights of Versailles Palace and explore the vast formal French gardens and parkland designed by Andre le Notre. Also enjoy private touring of the English-style gardens of the Petit Trianon; the Hameau de la Reine, a Norman-style farming hamlet built for Marie-Antoinette; and the Potager du Roi, the king’s vegetable gardens. There will also be time to enjoy the resort and its extensive grounds and fine restaurants. Other options include visiting the town’s covered and open-air food markets and the town’s elegant antiques district.

Continue to the Loire Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where small villages sit among vineyards and elegant chateaux are surrounded by beautiful gardens. During private touring in the Loire Valley, the birthplace of French formal gardens, visit chateaux and gardens according to your interests. Among the many highlights are Chateau Villandry and its stunning Renaissance gardens; romantic Chateau de Chenonceau, built on arches across the Cher River; and other aristocratic, pleasure, kitchen and belvedere gardens in the region.

End in Paris, one of Europe’s most beautiful and romantic cities. With your sophisticated expert guide, tour the very best of Paris and its many parks, gardens and cultural attractions according to your interests. First-time visitors may wish to tour the Luxembourg Gardens, Tuileries Gardens and Eiffel Tower, as well as major museums such as the Louvre, Musee de l'Orangerie and the Musee d'Orsay. Also enjoy tours of Place des Vosges and secret gardens in Le Marais, the Tuileries Gardens, Gardens of the Trocadero, Luxembourg Gardens and other top Parisian gardens.

One day, enjoy a private excursion to Giverny to tour the house, gardens and lily ponds where Claude Monet lived and painted in his final years.

This tour can easily be extended to include private touring of additional gardens in Normandy, the South of France, and other parts of France. This tour also combines nicely with Artisans of Leisure’s garden tours in Italy and England.